Lane's Murray gets
her groove back vs. Jones
All-stater has 4 goals in dominant road win
By Patrick Z. McGavin
CHICAGO -- Jones coach Derek Bylsma is an ambassador for city soccer.
He is a realist with a romantic sensibility and an instinctive recognition of the structural difficulties even the best city players deal with.
He also knows celebrating great city players serves a greater good, elevating the game and providing a necessary platform for teams and players who have been historically undervalued.
He loves Lane star Scout Murray -- except for having to play against her.
“I’m ready for her to graduate,” Bylsma said.
Murray authored a dazzling and electrifying example of her talent, tenacity and drive.
“I think this was the best I played the whole season,” she said. “I felt free, and ready to go.”
Murray scored a personal-best four goals in powering no. 14 Lane to a dominant 6-1 victory in Chicago Public League Premier Division play Monday in Chinatown.
Lane (6-1-0, 3-0-0) made a resounding statement after experiencing its first adversity of the season during a 2-0 home loss against then no. 11 and currently fifth-ranked Glenbrook North on Saturday night.
Murray took that defeat to heart.
“I think I have been in my head a little bit the last couple of games,” Murray said.
“The game Saturday was very tough, and I spent the day getting mentally prepared for this game.”
After scoring 28 goals last season, the Ohio recruit is the kind of elite, elastic talent opposing teams work out elaborate game plans to neutralize.
In Lane’s most competitive games, against Glenbrook North and No. 15 Loyola, those teams sent multiple defenders at her, bodying her, or doing whatever necessary to throw her off her rhythm.
She endured several hard collisions Saturday night.
The mental toll started to undermine Murray, and she had to go deeper into herself.
“I’m very competitive, but I haven’t always taken losses that hard,” she said.
“I took that loss Saturday really hard. I was upset about it, and I think I came back today just hungry.”
She scored goals in the 12th, 15th and 34th minute to help give Lane a 4-0 halftime lead.
The midfielder, a returning Chicagoland Soccer all-state player, surpassed her remarkable three-goal performance against the Eagles in the city tournament semifinal last spring.
Murray has now scored eight goals against Jones in the last three meetings between the schools.
Not surprisingly, Scout Murray earned the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honor for her brilliant play.
Jones (2-4-1, 1-2-0) was flummoxed.
“With our girls, I always ask them, on a scale of 1 to 10, what’s our effort,” Bylsma said. “With a team like we have, if we are at a nine or 10, we can be dangerous.
“Today we were like five, especially in the first half. If you want to play with Lane, you have to be at nine or 10. They’re one of the best teams in the state. We have to outwork them if we are going to beat them, and they outworked us badly.”
Murray was the headliner, though she was hardly a solo performer.
She nearly scored in the opening seconds, getting deep down the left edge before blasting a ball that deflected off the foot of Jones’ keeper Nicole Leon.
The tone was set.
“We always talk about let’s get one in the first minutes, and I said let’s get two in the first 10 minutes,” Murray said.
She almost caught herself once the words came tumbling out. Even her teammates questioned her.
“I never said that before, and everybody said, ‘What?’ The first play was that shot I had, and I think I could have made that shot. I knew from that play we were going to get a lot more opportunities.”
Midfielder Dale Sink was the connecting thread for much of Lane’s combinations and forward actions.
Her ball skills and fluid moves beautifully utilized the gaps that Murray created with her forward bursts.
The Lane middle attack—composed of Sink, Maya Martinez-Bates and Kristiyana Sevova provided Murray the outlet to run free.
Their creativity and control of the ball in the middle enabled Murray to make her patented runs down the left edge.
In the 12th minute, forward Mary Rau combined with Martinez-Bates, who slotted a ball that Murray finished from about 12 yards.
Moments later, Sevova made a great run on the ball and placed it over the top, finding Murray in space and perfectly in stride as she finished again from about 14 yards.
“Scout’s movement is so dynamic that it is easy to mix it up on top,” Sink said. “Everybody was pushing forward the whole game.”
Sink said the lessons learned from the Glenbrook North loss was about effort, concentration and focus.
Losses are painful and also far more illuminating about what a team has to do in making the necessary corrections.
“That was a tough loss,” Sink said. “We were strong mentally, but it wasn’t there physically.
“We learned from that game to just keep pushing. We lost a couple of big goals, and we lost a couple of balls in the GBN game, but we got them back today.”
Rau smashed home a header from forward Gabriela Pop in the 18th minute for Lane’s other first half goal.
“We tried to find the holes and really keep moving the ball consistently,” Rau said. “We were able to create more space in the middle, and we were able to get those balls to Scout.”
Rau said the aftertaste of the Glenbrook North loss lingered. In this high-profile Premier Division game, the Eagles took the brunt of Lane’s collective disappointment.
“The game Saturday was in my head,” Rau said. “Personally, I hate losing. So I came out today with a lot of grit, because I don’t want to lose like that again.
“I was not surprised by the score. It was exactly what we came here to do and what we needed to do, because frankly, we just hate losing.”
Despite the Lane assault, Jones keeper Leon played quite well for the Eagles. She made a difficult situation more palatable.
Leon finished with nine saves, including a spectacular stop of Murray early in the second half.
Jones was more organized and connected at the start of the second half.
Working off a corner, Carolina Rondelli made a great corkscrew turn and blasted home the ball from Mia McRoberts for the Eagles’ goal in the 46th minute.
It proved far too little, far too late.
Rondelli played well, and the Eagles flashed athleticism and creativity off the counter. Jones put Lane keeper Siena Belko in harm’s way on several occasions.
Jones’ own middle attackers, Morgan Scott, Maia Lane, Marisol Hamida and Sanai Wright, had isolated actions against Lane.
Connecting it all together proved too difficult.
Lane standout Jocelyn Ramirez, its most athletic defender, beautifully closed off spaces and tightened the ground around them.
Jones never had sufficient room to operate.
Murray scored her fourth goal in the 54th minute. Martinez-Bates, who was superb all day with a goal and assist, concluded the scoring with a vicious left-footed blast that hit underneath the crossbar and was ruled to have crossed the line.
She finished with a goal and assist, as did Rau. Pop was credited with two assists.
“Nicole was great, and I thought Patricia Felder was great in the back, and Rondelli did what she could in the midfield,” Bylsma said.
“They physically dominated us and knocked us off the ball over and over.”
Lane coach Michelle Vale was gratified by the response after the Glenbrook North loss.
“I told the team we had to use Saturday as our classroom and think about how we could make adjustments, so that we were ready,” Vale said.
“I was hoping the intensity of playing a team like Jones would cause them all to rise to the occasion, and I think that’s what happened.”
Starting lineups
Lane
GK: Siena Belko
D: Jocelyn Ramirez
D: Maya Warkentin
D: Olivia Schmit
D: Sawyer Mills
MF: Dale Sink
MF: Kristiyana Sevova
MF: Maya Martinez-Bates
MF: Scout Murray
F: Mary Rau
F: Gabriela Pop
Jones
GK: Nicole Leon
D: Arianna Lopez
D: Patricia Felder
D: Karina Teliz
MF: Marisol Hamida
MF: Morgan Scott
MF: Maia Lane
MF: Sanai Wright
MF: Olivia Bahrmasel
F: Carolina Rondelli
F: Mia McRoberts
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Scout Murray, sr., MF, Lane
Scoring summary
First half
Lane—Scout Murray (Maya Martinez-Bates), 12th minute
Lane—Murray (Kristiyana Sevova), 15th minute
Lane—Mary Rau (Gabriela Pop), 18th minute
Lane—Murray (Rau), 34th minute
Second half
Jones—Carolina Rondelli (Mia McRoberts), 46th minute
Lane—Murray (Pop), 54th minute
Lane—Maya Martinez-Bates (Dale Sink), 59th minute
her groove back vs. Jones
All-stater has 4 goals in dominant road win
By Patrick Z. McGavin
CHICAGO -- Jones coach Derek Bylsma is an ambassador for city soccer.
He is a realist with a romantic sensibility and an instinctive recognition of the structural difficulties even the best city players deal with.
He also knows celebrating great city players serves a greater good, elevating the game and providing a necessary platform for teams and players who have been historically undervalued.
He loves Lane star Scout Murray -- except for having to play against her.
“I’m ready for her to graduate,” Bylsma said.
Murray authored a dazzling and electrifying example of her talent, tenacity and drive.
“I think this was the best I played the whole season,” she said. “I felt free, and ready to go.”
Murray scored a personal-best four goals in powering no. 14 Lane to a dominant 6-1 victory in Chicago Public League Premier Division play Monday in Chinatown.
Lane (6-1-0, 3-0-0) made a resounding statement after experiencing its first adversity of the season during a 2-0 home loss against then no. 11 and currently fifth-ranked Glenbrook North on Saturday night.
Murray took that defeat to heart.
“I think I have been in my head a little bit the last couple of games,” Murray said.
“The game Saturday was very tough, and I spent the day getting mentally prepared for this game.”
After scoring 28 goals last season, the Ohio recruit is the kind of elite, elastic talent opposing teams work out elaborate game plans to neutralize.
In Lane’s most competitive games, against Glenbrook North and No. 15 Loyola, those teams sent multiple defenders at her, bodying her, or doing whatever necessary to throw her off her rhythm.
She endured several hard collisions Saturday night.
The mental toll started to undermine Murray, and she had to go deeper into herself.
“I’m very competitive, but I haven’t always taken losses that hard,” she said.
“I took that loss Saturday really hard. I was upset about it, and I think I came back today just hungry.”
She scored goals in the 12th, 15th and 34th minute to help give Lane a 4-0 halftime lead.
The midfielder, a returning Chicagoland Soccer all-state player, surpassed her remarkable three-goal performance against the Eagles in the city tournament semifinal last spring.
Murray has now scored eight goals against Jones in the last three meetings between the schools.
Not surprisingly, Scout Murray earned the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honor for her brilliant play.
Jones (2-4-1, 1-2-0) was flummoxed.
“With our girls, I always ask them, on a scale of 1 to 10, what’s our effort,” Bylsma said. “With a team like we have, if we are at a nine or 10, we can be dangerous.
“Today we were like five, especially in the first half. If you want to play with Lane, you have to be at nine or 10. They’re one of the best teams in the state. We have to outwork them if we are going to beat them, and they outworked us badly.”
Murray was the headliner, though she was hardly a solo performer.
She nearly scored in the opening seconds, getting deep down the left edge before blasting a ball that deflected off the foot of Jones’ keeper Nicole Leon.
The tone was set.
“We always talk about let’s get one in the first minutes, and I said let’s get two in the first 10 minutes,” Murray said.
She almost caught herself once the words came tumbling out. Even her teammates questioned her.
“I never said that before, and everybody said, ‘What?’ The first play was that shot I had, and I think I could have made that shot. I knew from that play we were going to get a lot more opportunities.”
Midfielder Dale Sink was the connecting thread for much of Lane’s combinations and forward actions.
Her ball skills and fluid moves beautifully utilized the gaps that Murray created with her forward bursts.
The Lane middle attack—composed of Sink, Maya Martinez-Bates and Kristiyana Sevova provided Murray the outlet to run free.
Their creativity and control of the ball in the middle enabled Murray to make her patented runs down the left edge.
In the 12th minute, forward Mary Rau combined with Martinez-Bates, who slotted a ball that Murray finished from about 12 yards.
Moments later, Sevova made a great run on the ball and placed it over the top, finding Murray in space and perfectly in stride as she finished again from about 14 yards.
“Scout’s movement is so dynamic that it is easy to mix it up on top,” Sink said. “Everybody was pushing forward the whole game.”
Sink said the lessons learned from the Glenbrook North loss was about effort, concentration and focus.
Losses are painful and also far more illuminating about what a team has to do in making the necessary corrections.
“That was a tough loss,” Sink said. “We were strong mentally, but it wasn’t there physically.
“We learned from that game to just keep pushing. We lost a couple of big goals, and we lost a couple of balls in the GBN game, but we got them back today.”
Rau smashed home a header from forward Gabriela Pop in the 18th minute for Lane’s other first half goal.
“We tried to find the holes and really keep moving the ball consistently,” Rau said. “We were able to create more space in the middle, and we were able to get those balls to Scout.”
Rau said the aftertaste of the Glenbrook North loss lingered. In this high-profile Premier Division game, the Eagles took the brunt of Lane’s collective disappointment.
“The game Saturday was in my head,” Rau said. “Personally, I hate losing. So I came out today with a lot of grit, because I don’t want to lose like that again.
“I was not surprised by the score. It was exactly what we came here to do and what we needed to do, because frankly, we just hate losing.”
Despite the Lane assault, Jones keeper Leon played quite well for the Eagles. She made a difficult situation more palatable.
Leon finished with nine saves, including a spectacular stop of Murray early in the second half.
Jones was more organized and connected at the start of the second half.
Working off a corner, Carolina Rondelli made a great corkscrew turn and blasted home the ball from Mia McRoberts for the Eagles’ goal in the 46th minute.
It proved far too little, far too late.
Rondelli played well, and the Eagles flashed athleticism and creativity off the counter. Jones put Lane keeper Siena Belko in harm’s way on several occasions.
Jones’ own middle attackers, Morgan Scott, Maia Lane, Marisol Hamida and Sanai Wright, had isolated actions against Lane.
Connecting it all together proved too difficult.
Lane standout Jocelyn Ramirez, its most athletic defender, beautifully closed off spaces and tightened the ground around them.
Jones never had sufficient room to operate.
Murray scored her fourth goal in the 54th minute. Martinez-Bates, who was superb all day with a goal and assist, concluded the scoring with a vicious left-footed blast that hit underneath the crossbar and was ruled to have crossed the line.
She finished with a goal and assist, as did Rau. Pop was credited with two assists.
“Nicole was great, and I thought Patricia Felder was great in the back, and Rondelli did what she could in the midfield,” Bylsma said.
“They physically dominated us and knocked us off the ball over and over.”
Lane coach Michelle Vale was gratified by the response after the Glenbrook North loss.
“I told the team we had to use Saturday as our classroom and think about how we could make adjustments, so that we were ready,” Vale said.
“I was hoping the intensity of playing a team like Jones would cause them all to rise to the occasion, and I think that’s what happened.”
Starting lineups
Lane
GK: Siena Belko
D: Jocelyn Ramirez
D: Maya Warkentin
D: Olivia Schmit
D: Sawyer Mills
MF: Dale Sink
MF: Kristiyana Sevova
MF: Maya Martinez-Bates
MF: Scout Murray
F: Mary Rau
F: Gabriela Pop
Jones
GK: Nicole Leon
D: Arianna Lopez
D: Patricia Felder
D: Karina Teliz
MF: Marisol Hamida
MF: Morgan Scott
MF: Maia Lane
MF: Sanai Wright
MF: Olivia Bahrmasel
F: Carolina Rondelli
F: Mia McRoberts
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Scout Murray, sr., MF, Lane
Scoring summary
First half
Lane—Scout Murray (Maya Martinez-Bates), 12th minute
Lane—Murray (Kristiyana Sevova), 15th minute
Lane—Mary Rau (Gabriela Pop), 18th minute
Lane—Murray (Rau), 34th minute
Second half
Jones—Carolina Rondelli (Mia McRoberts), 46th minute
Lane—Murray (Pop), 54th minute
Lane—Maya Martinez-Bates (Dale Sink), 59th minute