After a nail-biter of a 2-1 win over Broome on Wednesday night, Blue Ridge girls soccer moved to 3-1 on the season.
Those three wins represent more total victories than the Lady Tigers collected in both of their previous two seasons.
The team is taking steps in the right direction, explained head coach Kayla Cruse.
“We’ve been building as a program,” said Cruse. “We started at ground zero a few years ago, and some of the girls from the past two years have laid the foundation for what we’re trying to do now. They helped set the tone.
“We’re a very young team with just two seniors and three juniors. We’re mainly made up of ninth- and tenth-graders, but they’re gaining experience and understanding our coaching. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
In Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Broome, junior Lillian Carter and sophomore Edie Andry were the two goal scorers for Blue Ridge. Both Carter and Andry agreed — the team’s camaraderie this year has contributed to the early-season success.
“The players that are older, they’re helping the younger ones and building relationships,” said Carter. “There aren’t cliques or sections. It’s about being all together this year.”
“We’ve tried to grow close as a team,” said Andry. “Our relationships extend way off the field. We all go to the JV games together and cheer them on. When we do that, we all get to talk, hang out, and even goof off by making TikToks together. We just have such a good bond.”
The players also gave credit to Cruse for her coaching this year, saying the process Cruse has emphasized since her first year in 2024 has started to bear fruit.
“Coach [Cruse] is doing an amazing job,” said Carter. “She makes sure we get everything done… practices are non-stop hard work. I think that’s what separates us from other teams. Even though we are younger and we don’t have as much experience, we don’t stop working.”
That hard work has helped the Lady Tigers show tremendous improvement. In 2024, Blue Ridge was outscored 56-8 over the course of its season. In 2025, the Lady Tigers were outscored 61-23.
For a program without as much experience as other teams in the Upstate — arguably the most talented area for soccer in SC — the Lady Tigers are starting to catch up.
Sitting at 3-1 for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Blue Ridge is seeing that progress come to fruition.
“We’re starting to close the gap just a little,” said Cruse. “It may not always reflect on the scoreboard against some of the higher-level teams, but you’ll see from a couple of years ago the difference, hopefully, that those goal margins get smaller and smaller.
“We want to lower the distance between us and some of the top teams, and make it known that it’s not going to be easy to just walk all over us.”
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