A difficult stretch to start the 2015 season continued for Lakeland High School’s girls’ soccer team on Tuesday as it fell 8-0 to visiting King’s Fork High School.

The Lady Cavaliers (0-6) are facing many schools that are significantly larger than Lakeland during the first half of the season, so the results have not all been surprising.

But Lady Cavs coach Matt Crowder expects his team to claim momentum later in the season when it takes on more teams from schools of similar size like Deep Creek, Churchland, Heritage, Phoebus and Denbigh high schools.

“I think all of those schools will give us an opportunity to compete,” Crowder said. “I expect some good results.”

And he has reason to. Lakeland lost very few players from last year’s team, which featured four freshman starters and picked up wins late in the season to grab a No. 3 seed in the Ironclad Conference tournament.

The Lady Cavaliers advanced as far as the conference semifinals before falling to the No. 2 Lady Bulldogs, finishing the season with an overall record of 4-12-1.

Crowder hopes his team will be right back in the position of playing the No. 2 seed.

“In that position, I hope that we’re able to make that a good game,” he said.

Gone this year, due to graduation, are starters Carol Holland and Kendra Harris. Nevertheless, Crowder’s returning players have another year of experience benefiting them.

“We’re much improved from last year, as a team, but we still have a long ways to go,” Crowder said. “For a group of girls that play soccer for about three months a year, I think we have a nice team.”

This season, Lakeland features seven seniors, five sophomores, one junior and one freshman on the roster.

The team’s seniors are experienced as far as high school soccer is concerned, but Crowder noted only junior Jennifer Rockwell and sophomore Kaylee Conner play year around.

He listed a variety of standouts on the team this year, including senior goalkeeper Erin Bradshaw.

“She’s made a lot of really impressive saves,” Crowder said.

Haley Beale is leading the Lady Cavaliers defense at center fullback.

“As a sophomore, I think she’s also doing really well,” Crowder said.

Senior Julianna Durand, a mainstay for Lakeland soccer, is back, currently playing as a midfielder. But she should see more time at striker once the season moves into the conference schedule, Crowder said.

Rockwell joins Durand in helping the Lady Cavs in the midfield.

Sophomore Kendall Lewis, a standout on the Lakeland field hockey team in 2014, just started playing soccer last season.

“For somebody with not a lot of experience playing the game, I’m very impressed with how strong she’s been playing,” Crowder said.

She serves as a holding center midfielder and is key on defense. Crowder said she has been under significant pressure this season in that position since the Lady Cavaliers have been playing on their heels a lot.

The coach also highlighted freshman Maddy Carr for doing a good job at left fullback.

With such a busy playing schedule to start the season, “we haven’t had a lot of time as a team to kind of iron out the kinks and practice on some of the things we need to clean up,” Crowder said.

He hopes to see his team work on and correct its biggest problem right now of transitioning from defending to attacking.

Lakeland hosts Hickory High School this evening.