Soccer: Shiloh Duo Lead Lady Saints

 STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Hannah McGee, left, and Caroline Bandy, have set the tone on offense and defense for the Shiloh Christian soccer team this season.
STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Hannah McGee, left, and Caroline Bandy, have set the tone on offense and defense for the Shiloh Christian soccer team this season.

SPRINGDALE -- Tommy Roy needed to find a replacement goal keeper for his Shiloh Christian soccer team.

Paulina Doubleday was the team's keeper last spring, helping the Lady Saints to the first state title in program history. But her graduation last May left a huge void at arguably the most important position on the team.

Profile

Caroline Bandy

School: Shiloh Christian

Class: Sophomore

Notable: Earned all-state honors last spring in helping the Lady Saints win the Class 5A state championship. … Leads the team in scoring with 16 goals and has 11 assists. … Scored 4 goals in a game earlier this season.

Hannah McGee

School: Shiloh Christian

Class: Junior

Notable: First year to play soccer after playing basketball and volleyball. … Has more than 25 saves this season, including 10 against Harrison. … Her father, David McGee, is an assistant coach for the soccer team.

Roy found his new keeper during a summer backyard game of Whiffle ball.

"Her dad (David McGee) has been my assistant coach for four years," Roy said. "We spend a lot of time at their house, just hanging out. So in the summer time we're usually out in the yard playing a game of Whiffle ball or something like that with the kids, and I noticed she was pretty athletic.

"So I'd been kind of pestering her to get her to come out and play the last few years. This year she surprised me and came out."

Hannah was a volleyball setter for a number of years, and her work on the court has made for an easy transition to the soccer field, Roy said.

She got her first real test against Harrison on Monday in a 2-0 loss. Harrison is widely considered the standard for girls soccer, and McGee more than held her own in recording 10 saves in the match.

"She is so quick and so fast laterally," Roy said. "And she can get off the ground pretty good, too. In her first year, if she can hang with Harrison, she can hang with anybody."

McGee, a junior, said the toughest part of learning to play keeper was knowing when to come out of the net and when to stay back.

"Just having knowledge of the game is important and I didn't have that at all," she said. "I'm still working on it, but every game helps."

While McGee is focusing on preventing goals, teammate Caroline Bandy is busy filling up the net at the other end of the field. The sophomore all-state player has been an offensive force for the Lady Saints (8-1, 5-1 5A-West), scoring 16 goals with 11 assists.

Roy said the leadership and game experience Bandy brings to the team has been a key to the team's success.

"She is our most skilled player," Roy said. "She's a scoring threat for us, but she's also a great distributor. She just brings stability to our team with her understanding of the game. She has the ability to be a game-changer."

Bandy said she enjoys taking on more responsibility this season, helping direct teammates and teaching the younger players about the game.

"It's something that I enjoy, being able to help my teammates learn the tactics of the game, the movement and knowing the game better," she said.

Bandy said she hopes to play collegiately, but right now her focus is on helping the Lady Saints defend their state title.

The loss to Harrison was tough, she admitted, but an early season loss can also prove beneficial down the road.

"We just have to keep our heads up," Bandy said. "It matters, but it's just one game. We need to use that game to help us know what we did right and what we did wrong and learn from that for the next time."

Sports on 04/19/2014

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