NR girls receive honors
Published 10:10 pm Wednesday, June 8, 2016
The Nansemond River High School soccer team had 10 girls make all-PenSouth conference honors.
Daijah Norris, a forward for the King’s Fork High School girls’ soccer team, competes against Lakeland High School during a prior game. She was one of 10 team members honored with all-PenSouth conference honors.
Forwards Indiah Hunter and Daijah Norris and defenders Sarah Rhiel, Kamarie Jewette, Star Robinson and Kendall Webster all made first team.
Coach Kurt Straub said he is proud of his girls for their achievements.
“I feel pretty good about it,” he said. “Being the new team in the conference, I was kind of unsure about how it was going to go, being that we were the only outsider, but it ended up pretty well,” said Straub.
Jewette, Robinson and Webster are all captains for the Lady Warriors and play in the midfield. Hunter and Norris are both forwards, and Straub sees them as being a duo that can make things happen.
“They feed off of each other,” Straub said of Hunter and Norris. “They work well together, and I think combined they have a total of 34 or 35 goals.”
The second team consisted of forward Claire Janek, midfielder Salenna Lynch and defenders Sage Sullivan and Kayleigh McQueen.
“Sage had a concussion the first half of the season,” Straub said. “She didn’t actually start playing until conference, so for her to make second team and just start playing at conference is a big accomplishment.”
Lynch and Rhiel are both freshmen along with Sullivan.
“I have three freshmen, one made first team and two made second, so our future sounds promising.”
Straub held onto the news when he first heard it because he wanted his team to be focused on the game and not on the players who got recognized. He said the first-team players found out right after the game, and the second-team players found out through a text.
Janek and Webster are the only two seniors to receive honors on the team.
“It’s going to be a big spot to fill, towards the end of the season they were playing the same spot, sharing time, so now I have to fill that spot,” said Straub.
“I had some people who I thought should have been put on first team that were put on second team, but that goes back to the voting of the coaches and being that we are the new team in the conference, makes it more difficult,” Straub said.
