The girls varsity soccer team’s success continues as they beat Ursuline Academy by a score of 1-0 to advance to the final round of the Champion’s League. But what is the Champions League?
The Champions League is a new high school girls and boys soccer tournament. Sixteen of the best high school soccer teams in the St. Louis area battle it out to see who comes up on top. The tournament consists of four pools of four teams. The scoring goes by a point system. You can get points if you win, tie, and if you win against a team with a maximum of four goals. Whichever team has the most points out of their pool moves on to a semifinal match, where they play a winner from another pool.
Earlier in the school year, the boys soccer team competed in this tournament, but they didn’t make it out of their pool play. Our girls team won in their pool play, and advanced to the semifinal game.
“We have a super young team, but we have a lot of talent,” head coach Heidi Kleekamp said. “To me, age doesn’t matter. If you can play, you can play, and we’ve been competing at a very high level all season.”
Liberty is also the only public school to make it out of pool play and into the semifinals.
“It’s pretty cool to be the only public school to compete with the private ones,” Kleekamp said.
Earlier in the year, the boys team was also the only public school to make it out of pool play.
The final match is against Cor Jesu Academy on April 26, at 5 p.m. at Maryville University.
“All I can ask as a coach is that they show up, they compete, and that they bring everything out onto the field. At any given day, any team can win, so if we show up and do our best then we definitely have a chance at winning,” Kleekamp said.
