The Westminster girls soccer team, which has won five consecutive Class 3A titles, is the No. 1-ranked team nationally among spring teams in the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll, which was released last week.
Westminster is one of three Georgia schools in the national top 25, joined by Class 7A’s Mill Creek (10-0) at No. 7 and Class 6A’s Johns Creek (13-0) at No. 13.
Westminster, Mill Creek and Johns Creek also hold the top three spots in the Region II poll, which includes teams from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Other Georgia teams in the Region II top 10 include No. 6 Lambert, No. 9 West Forsyth and No. 10 Blessed Trinity.
Westminster, ranked No. 1 in 3A, is 11-0 after a 10-0 victory over Douglass in a Region 5-3A game last week. The Wildcats got two goals each from Ally Polhemus and Lauren Fernando and one each from Emma Riley McGahan, Megan Propp, Harper Pemberton, Henley Tippins, Kiera Staude and Sam Cohn.
Westminster will face several out-of-classification tests as the regular season winds to a close. Perhaps none is bigger than its game Wednesday night against Marist, the top-ranked team in Class 4A. The Wildcats also have games scheduled at Class 7A schools Parkview (Friday) and Campbell (April 13) and at home against Class 2A No. 1 Lovett (April 15).
Two weeks until tournament time
The beginning of the state tournaments is two weeks away, and the brackets are beginning to get filled in on the GHSA’s website. So far, four teams have been penciled in as No. 1 seeds, although there are also other teams that have wrapped up region titles that haven’t been reported to the GHSA. Those four teams are Dalton (5-6A), Johns Creek (7-6A), Grady (6-5A) and North Oconee (8-4A).
Here is the schedule for the five rounds of the girls soccer tournaments:
April 20 – First round (Classes 7A, 5A, 3A and A)
April 22 – First round (Classes 6A, 4A and 2A)
April 26 – Second round (Classes 7A, 5A, 3A and A)
April 28 – Second Round (Classes 6A, 4A and 2A)
May 4-5 – Quarterfinals
May 10-11 – Semifinals
May 13-15 – Championships
The first four rounds will be played at the higher-seeded school (coin flips will determine the site if schools have the same seed). The championships will be played at McEachern High School, Duluth High School, Mercer University and Savannah Memorial Stadium.
New Brookwood coach selected
Former Parkview boys head coach Michael Tolmich has been selected as the Brookwood girls coach for the 2021-2022 school year, according to a recent report in the Gwinnett Daily Post, filling a vacancy that has been covered by Brookwood boys coach Adel Mohsen this spring. Tolmich coached Parkview for nine year until stepping down after the 2015 season to take a job with USA Test Prep. “I saw [Brookwood’s girls program] for years when I was at Parkview and I always kept up with high school soccer since I’ve been gone,” Tolmich told the Daily Post’s Will Hammock. “It’s just always had a very strong tradition, the boys and the girls side. They’ve had success, they’ve done very well and it’s a great community. It’s one of those places I feel lucky and blessed to say, ‘Hey, there are few places I would choose to want to be if I came back to teaching’ and Brookwood would definitely be one of those.”
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