A-K valley girls high school soccer preview: Deer Lakes ‘shooting for higher ground’

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 | 4:12 PM

Purchase Photo Options

The Deer Lakes girls soccer team made a number of long trips for section matches last season and faced a few unfamiliar foes.

But the Lancers powered through their schedule and fashioned a runner-up finish to Mt. Pleasant in Section 4-2A at 8-2.

They also made it to the WPIAL quarterfinals and finished their season 14-4-2 overall.

With All-WPIAL performers in seniors Claire (forward) and Brooke (defender) Cacurak back and junior forward Tessa Hollibaugh and junior goalkeeper Mikayla Potter helping lead the way, Deer Lakes coach Frank Accetta hopes his mix of returning and new talent can make some noise in the section and make a run in the WPIAL playoffs.

“Last year was hard because we really didn’t know what to expect,” Accetta said. “As the year progressed and we got to the quarterfinals of the WPIALs, they realized what they had. They got nipped by (No. 2) Quaker Valley (1-0), but it showed them they could play with anybody. I expect big things with the group of seniors and the talent that I have. We can contend for the section and make a deep (WPIAL) run. We are shooting for higher ground.”

This weekend marks the opening of games for teams in the WPIAL, including a group of 12 in the Alle-Kiski Valley hoping to make an impact. The Lancers open Saturday with a Seton LaSalle team that made the Class A semifinals and earned a spot in the PIAA tournament a year ago.

Section play in all four classifications begins for some teams as early as Monday. The journey to and through the WPIAL playoffs concludes with championship games from Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at Highmark Stadium.

Accetta said he saw some good things from a home scrimmage Tuesday against defending Class A champion Springdale.

Dynamos coach Marc Bentley also said Tuesday’s scrimmage was a good test for his girls, a revamped group that came together following the graduation of Valley News Dispatch Player of the Year Briana Ross and fellow All-WPIAL players Molly Hurly and Carissa Walsh. Also lost was veteran goalkeeper Baileigh Haas.

Springdale finished 20-2 overall last year, topped Winchester Thurston, 5-3, in the WPIAL Class A title game at Highmark Stadium and made it all the way to the PIAA finals in Mechanicsburg where it fell to Dock Mennonite, 4-3.

Bentley said his team, which is fronted by all-star returnees in senior midfielder Hailey Marchlewski and senior defender Lacey Shondeck, has refocused on this season and another run in Class A.

“Deer Lakes is a really good team with strong players, and they should be a force in 2A this year, so it was a really good test for us,” Bentley said of Tuesday’s scrimmage. “It helped us figure out where we’re at right now, where we’re lacking, and where we can improve.

“We clapped it up for the achievements of last season on Day 1 of preseason practices, but then we stressed to the girls about getting back to work. They’ve been good about wiping the slate clean and focusing on a whole new ballgame. They are hungry and ready to go again. They understand they are going to have a target on their backs after winning WPIALs last year.”

Springdale was one of four Alle-Kiski Valley teams to win section championships in 2024, joining Plum, Fox Chapel and Freeport.

Fox Chapel, 19-4-1 last year and the Section 1-3A champs at 10-0, return All-WPIAL junior forward Emily McKee and all-section defenders Cassie Classen, a senior, and Caylie Wilkinson, a junior, from a team that fell to South Fayette, 4-0, in the WPIAL title game at Highmark Stadium before advancing to the PIAA quarterfinals.

All-WPIAL junior forward Emily Grubich fronts a Plum team (17-3, 12-0 in Section 4-3A) that made it to the WPIAL semifinals last season.

The Mustangs, who also return section all-stars Gianna Revetta (senior, forward) and Meghan Stammer (senior, defender), hope to hold off the likes of Franklin Regional, Latrobe and Kiski Area if they want to claim a seventh straight section championship.

Plum enters the season riding a 27-game section win streak.

Freeport (12-2-1, 8-1-1 in Section 2-2A) welcomes back All-WPIAL stars Cam Woods (junior, forward) and Peyton Los (senior, midfielder). The WPIAL quarterfinalist Yellowjackets held off North Catholic (8-2) by one point in the race for the Section 2 crown.

Senior goalkeeper and all-star Alyssa Alcorn also returns to help lead the Freeport defense.

Los, Woods, McKee and Classen are four of 32 top players who have been selected as preseason nominees for the annual Moe Rosensteel Award.

The award, named after the late Kaitlyn “Moe” Rosensteel, a Ringgold standout who died in 2019, has been presented the past six years to the WPIAL’s best girls soccer player.

Nine teams from the A-K Valley punched their tickets to the WPIAL playoffs last year, including Burrell, Riverview and Kiski Area.

Junior forwards Makiah Buchak and McKenna Miller earned all-section recognition last year in helping Burrell (14-7-1) finish third in Section 2 before making a strong run to the WPIAL championship game at Highmark.

Burrell battled Quaker Valley down to the wire in the title matchup before falling 2-1. Buchak scored the lone goal for the Bucs in the title clash.

Section 4-3A all-stars Ellie Arnold, a sophomore midfielder, and Addison Bell, a senior midfielder, front a Kiski Area charge to what it hopes is trip to WPIALs for the 11th year in a row.

The Cavaliers (6-5-1) finished third behind Plum and Franklin Regional in a talent-filled section. Their stay in the WPIAL playoffs didn’t last as long as they had hoped as they fell to eventual WPIAL champion South Fayette in the first round.

An offseason coaching change at Riverview brought in Franklin Regional graduate Jessica Garland, most recently an assistant with her father, Rich, at Mt. Pleasant.

The Raiders feature a core of returning talent including Section 4-A all-stars in senior Alix Delsaut (midfielder/forward) and juniors Juliette Brun (defender/goalkeeper), Hannah Hudack (midfielder) and Mary Quinlan (midfielder/forward) as well as junior Cate Hoolahan.

They defeated Waynesburg in the WPIAL Class A first round before losing to Seton LaSalle in the quarterfinals.

Knoch, led by sophomore all-section defender Claire Tully, as well as Valley and Apollo-Ridge, is hoping to find the right formula to make it back to the WPIAL playoffs.

Maia Ferra, a 2020 Burrell graduate who was part of some highly successful Bucs teams during her high school tenure, went on to play at IUP. This fall at Apollo-Ridge marks her high school head coaching debut.

“As a brand-new coach with almost an entirely new team, I expect my girls to show up to every practice, game, team activity, etc., with a positive attitude and the drive to compete,” she said.

Apollo-Ridge, again forming a co-op with Leechburg, finished 2-10 (sixth) in Section 4-A last year.

Highlands enters its second year of WPIAL probation and again will play an independent schedule.

The Golden Rams, who will take on the likes of Freeport, Deer Lakes, Valley and Springdale, went 2-7-1 last year with two wins over McKeesport and a tie against Obama.

Highlands, with five seniors, including captains Jocelyn Bloch (defender) and Payton Bundy (midfielder), on a 21-player roster, opens at home Monday against Knoch.

Junior midfielder Natalie Dickerson also is a captain.

“I am glad to have the numbers we have this year,” Golden Rams coach Seth Dickerson said. “We started with 14 players last year, but due to a couple of injuries, we played several games with 11 or 12, and it was a struggle.”

Dickerson said his team, which will feature several freshman starters, has put in a lot of good work.

“The girls are excited to get out there on the field and compete with other teams,” he said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Plum, Riverview, Springdale