At its first preseason home game, girls soccer lost to Aragon 3-1 on Dec. 3. The match was tied 1-1 at halftime, but Aragon pulled ahead in the second half.

Freshman and left back Kiana Siress said, going forward, the team needs to improve its communication.

“I, for sure, could have done better,” Siress said. “But I think, as a team, we all didn’t perform as well as we could.We lacked (communication) a lot in this game, and I think that’s what happened and why we lost.”

Head coach Jeremy Romero said the team is still finding cohesion for the new season, which affected their teamwork.

“There’s a lot of new players that are coming together, so there’s a lot of learning points that we took away from today’s game,” Romero said. “They’re starting a new formation — everyone’s kind of new in different positions, so I think this was a first realization that we have a lot to work on, but we have the talent to get it.”

Siress said the team environment offers younger players a good opportunity to practice and learn from older players.

“After a couple of practices, everyone realized we’re all going to be on the same team, so we might as well get to know each other,” Siress said. “Being a freshman — it’s not easy, so having support and having all the juniors and seniors be really kind is very helpful.”

Senior and captain Polina van Hulsen said the team is making progress in refining their skills.

“This is our first game of the season,” van Hulsen said. “There’s always room for improvement, and I think that we could bring that out in the rest of our games in the season. We had some good ideas like good game awareness, playing into space and running onto the ball.”

To continue improving, Romero said the team will experiment with different strategies and push themselves further during practice.

“Our focus will be on finding out what players play better in certain positions, even if it makes them uncomfortable,” Romero said. “We have to train at a higher intensity because when it comes to certain occasions, you always fall back to the level you train at. You don’t rise to the occasion.”

Siress said the team’s strong bond will enable them to grow as a team.

“We’re all cooperative — we allow ourselves to learn from others and not take anything personally,” Siress said. “We have a lot of skill, and I think we just have to start incorporating that into games, and then we’ll be very good.”

And Romero said he has high expectations for the team for the upcoming season.

“Our biggest strength is our grit and determination to fight from the first whistle to the end,” Romero said. “We are going to go back to the practice field, and we’re going to continue to grind it out in practice … My expectations are to get to CCS and win it all.”