Waterloo’s Sydney Luedeman finished with 95 goals and 30 assists in her four-year varsity soccer career to be the school’s all-time leading scorer. (John Spytek photo)

The Waterloo High School girls soccer team ran into a tough Normal Community West squad in the Class 2A Rochester Super-Sectional last Tuesday night, falling 2-0 to end a memorable season.

The Wildcats grabbed the momentum early, scoring just four minutes into the match. Normal West then stacked its defense near the goal to prevent offensive penetration by the Bulldogs. 

The Wildcats put the game away with a goal late in the second half.

Sydney Luedeman and Karleigh Daniels had a couple of decent scoring chances that missed just wide of the goal for the Bulldogs, who finished with a record of 18-3-3.

“I thought we had a great second half to the game as we were in our side of the field almost the entire time,” Waterloo head coach Chad Holden assessed. “We just got off to a bad start for some reason in the first half. But the girls fought hard ’til the end and it’s that kind of hard work that helped us win 18 games this season.”

Waterloo defeated longtime nemesis Triad twice this season en route to co-conference championship honors, a regional title, and its first sectional championship.

“Overall, we are very pleased with our season,” Holden said. “We got further into the playoffs then we ever had before and having an overall record of 18-3-3 was just awesome.”

The supersectional loss marked the final game for senior Luedeman, who has the most goals and points in program history. She finished with 31 goals and five assists this season and totaled 95 goals and 30 assists over four years.

Sydney Stephens, a sophomore, finished with 18 goals and 14 assists for the Bulldogs. Another sophomore, Paige Kinzinger, scored 10 goals with five assists this season.

Senior goalkeeper Bailey Bosler was solid in net, going 14-2-3 with 12 shutouts.