Moon girls soccer ranked 2nd in United Soccer Coaches’ preseason poll

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Wednesday, August 2, 2023 | 4:00 PM

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Moon dropped to Class 3A last season as part of the latest two-year high school sports enrollment cycle.

The Tigers’ girls soccer team, though, just keeps rising.

After running the table last season and winning WPIAL and PIAA championships with a perfect 24-0 record, the Tigers will start the 2023 season ranked nationally.

Moon checks in at No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches’ preseason poll.

Bearden, Tenn. is No. 1. The rest of the top five are No. 3 Scarborough (Maine), No. 4 Skyline (Wash.) and No. 5 Reitz Memorial (Ind.).

United Soccer Coaches has released preseason high school boys’ and girls’ soccer rankings for the fall season.

Read more: https://t.co/ddS2E71GBw pic.twitter.com/tCZ5KZPwIO

— United Soccer Coaches (@UnitedCoaches) August 1, 2023

The only Pennsylvania team in the national rankings, Moon lost only five seniors to graduation, so this year’s team could be strong again as it looks to add to a 37-game unbeaten streak (34 wins in a row).

Senior All-WPIAL goalkeeper Serayah Leech will one of the top returnees. She helped the Tigers post 17 straight shutouts heading into the PIAA playoffs.

“We were very happy and grateful that we came in No. 2,” Leech said. “But we also used that as motivation. Since we are in this position, people are expecting us to be great. Every team is different every year, and every team has a different motivation. So this year, we’re building that connection so we can have the same results as last year, or even better.”

The team, led by returning National Federation of State High School Associations National Coach of the Year Bill Pfeifer, will be chasing three straight state titles — six overall.

In 2021, it won the PIAA 4A title in coach Pfeifer’s return to the program after four years away.

The Tigers finished 20-1-1 and collected 17 shutouts. They came back even stronger, winning a strongly competitive 3A while giving up just three goals all season.

Moon’s premier highlight was knocking off three-time defending WPIAL and PIAA 3A champion Mars, which saw its 80-game winning streak fall in a 1-0 loss to the Tigers at Highmark Stadium in the WPIAL final.

Moon was the No. 2 seed behind the Fightin’ Planets. In the WPIAL playoffs, the Tigers thumped Indiana, 9-0, and shut out Oakland Catholic, 2-0, before a 3-0 clean sheet against Plum.

The Tigers took care of Latrobe (2-0), Plum (4-1), Mars (2-0) and Upper Perkiomen (2-1) to win the state title.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

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