A dream season ends sour after NSU University’s girls’ soccer team falls at state

Enjoying their best season in program history, the NSU University School girls soccer team made the four-hour trip north to DeLand hoping to close things out in style with a state championship.

But the Sharks, taking on the No. 2 team in the state regardless of classification in Montverde Academy, had absolutely no answer for Estefenia Gonzalez or the rest of her Eagles teammates as they coasted to a dominating 6-0 victory in the Class 3A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium.

“Obviously we knew what we were up against today as they’re a really good team and actually even better than I thought,” University coach Diego Estremedoyro said. “They made some plays that we just normally don’t see at this level.”

Montverde (15-2-2) dominated from the opening whistle, denying the Sharks a single legitimate shot on goal until just before the second half water break. But as lopsided as the score was, it could’ve been much worse had NSU goalkeeper Avril Ramirez not played brilliantly in the first half.

Four different times, she frustrated Gonzalez by recording terrific saves, including a diving save of a penalty kick at the 23:42 mark of the first half.

But she could only do so much. The Eagles kept peppering the goal and Gonzalez finally broke the scoreless tie by popping one past a diving Ramirez into the bottom right corner of the net with 11:20 left in the first half.

Gonzalez, who would finish the game with a hat trick, scored her second of three goals just 1:25 before halftime when University’s Jada Graham could not clear a deep pass down underneath and she beat Ramirez to the ball to make it 2-0 at the break.

Gonzalez scored her third goal four minutes into the second half to make it 3-0 and that was pretty much that.

“When I talked to the girls just now, I reminded them that we were a 5-9 team last year and how far we’ve come in such a short period of time,” said Estremedoyro whose team finished 15-4-3. “I tried to explain to the girls that we’re young as our entire starting lineup is composed of eighth, ninth and 10th graders. In order to win, you’ve got to learn to lose. That said, it’s still a tough moment right now because it stings to come this far and come up short.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 6:43 PM.