Verona girls soccer started off the season very slowly, and many thought they were not going to make it far. But they proved everyone wrong.

While a 7-10 record was just good enough to qualify for states it seemed pretty unlikely they would win any games there. They had the 11th seed in a 16-team tournament but the team entered states with a very positive attitude.

But then things took a surprising turn, starting with the Lady Hillbillies knocking off sixth-seeded Roselle Park 3-2.  After that, they faced third-seeded McNair,  Surely that would be the end of their year, right?  But no, they beat McNair convincingly 5-1 to put them themselves in the sectional semifinal.  But their improbable run was not over yet.  In the semifinal they knocked off tenth seeded Dayton to advance the the state sectional final against Glen Ridge.  A 4-0 loss to the top overall seed in the section ended their season, but did not kill the joy from their surprising playoff run to the finals.

“We played a lot of hard teams throughout the season that were all challenging and made us all frustrated but in the end when we got to states we were more than ready to take on these teams. We had learned from our mistakes from the tough teams in the season and we all believed in ourselves that we could do it and we held our own and were so happy to make it to the finals,” said junior Lara Tole.