No longer a freshman, senior Lucy Ream still making memories for Fox Chapel girls soccer

By: Greg Macafee
Saturday, October 10, 2020 | 11:01 AM

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Fox Chapel’s Lucy Ream remembers the chants like they were yesterday.

She was just a freshman, getting some of her first varsity minutes in a playoff game, and she had just done something that made the Fox Chapel student section go crazy.

“I went in in the second half, and it’s a moment I’ll always remember,” Ream said. “I went to get the ball, and I think I got the assist of the game-winning goal. I just remember running down the sideline and the student section was screaming, ‘She’s a freshman. She’s a freshman.’ That just stuck with me, and I knew I wanted to be on varsity because I wanted to have those moments, and I think that really drove me.”

That moment, combined with playing for a club soccer team that summer, laid the foundation for the player that Ream has turned into over the past three years. She’s become quite the player.

Ream earned all-WPIAL first-team honors last season as a junior and led the Foxes with 12 goals while also tallying eight assists as Fox Chapel went 10-8-1 and made a run to the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals. Before the start of her senior season, Ream was named to the watch list for the High School All-American game.

“It was really unexpected, but it was extremely humbling to be a part of that group as well because I know some of those players and I’ve played with them,” Ream said. “So it was just out of my mind to be recognized with that group of girls, and I was really excited and honored to be on that list.”

Now, she’s trying to do what she can to make the final cut.

Nine games into her final high school season, Ream had four goals and two assists as Fox Chapel put together an 8-1 overall record and was undefeated before a section loss to Norwin on Oct. 5.

Although she may not be the leading scorer, Fox Chapel coach Peter Torres said Ream affects the game in so many other ways and also attracts extra attention given her abilities.

“She has been a huge player for us in the past, and this year is no different,” Torres said. “She does attract a lot of attention from the opposing teams, so she has to work extra hard to stay effective.”

After getting bounced out of the playoffs last year, Ream said she and the rest of the Fox Chapel team were motivated to make a name for themselves in 2020.

After losing to Norwin in the quarterfinals last season, they were placed into a new section with the Knights this year, so they knew they had a little more to prove.

“We wanted to set the bar high, knowing we were coming into a new section. We wanted to show our place,” Ream said. “It gave us a little fuel for wanting to show everyone who Fox Chapel is.”

So far, the Foxes have done just that with a large senior class. Some may look to Ream, as one of nine seniors, to take a primary leadership role, but she said she didn’t necessarily feel a pull to fill that void. She leads in her own way.

She said she loves to communicate with the younger players, teaching them how the team likes to play, where to look for passes and how to move the ball through the field.

“All nine of us are leaders on the field and off the field. I don’t think there is any specific one,” Ream said. “But throughout the years, I’ve taken the role of leading by example with on-field communication. I’ve just tried to teach the younger classes during practices and games because a leadership role to me isn’t always about who’s telling you what to do but who’s going to teach you how to do certain things and who’s going to stick with you through the entire season.”

With their first loss behind them, Fox Chapel is looking to improve for the rest of their season, and Ream said she is excited to see what they can do as the postseason approaches.

“We’re going to take that sting that we felt after losing against Norwin and we’re going to use it to push ourselves through the playoffs,” Ream said. “Yes, we lost, we did all of these things wrong and it wasn’t our best game. But, we’re going to take that loss and we’re going to show them what we can do better.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Fox Chapel