News Photo by Owen Kinzey Members of the Alpena High girls soccer team are pictured after a game at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium last month.

ALPENA — The Alpena High varsity girls soccer team has competed all season long against very tough opponents in a talented Big North Conference.

Alpena currently has a record of 8-6-2 and is quickly declining in the BNC standings. This has been due to a tough stretch of losses over the past couple of games.

After losing to Traverse City West on Tuesday by a score of 1-0 and following that with a 3-0 loss to Traverse City Central on Thursday, the team hopes to pick up some momentum before playoffs begin.

“There’s no other way to say it other than we’re falling short. Practices have been quality and then when we try to bring that into the game we revert to our old ways. We’ve struggled to play under pressure, pass with a purpose, and play with a purpose,” Alpena coach Gregg Supiran said.

Although the team has struggled this season, the future appears very bright and Alpena has lots of room to grow.

Alpena has just three seniors — Eve Dragiewicz, Anna Woods, and Megan Dubie — who were all honored Thursday during Senior Night.

The Wildcats’ junior class is a strong point of the team with Reese Wisniewski, Laurel Alberts, Alison Borowski, Fiona Halleck, Annabelle LaCross, Ezrah Williams, Olivia Goodrich, and Faith Henski.

“Reese Wisniewski and Laurel Alberts are two girls that have played on this team before and are very skilled players. We need to be able to get it to those girls in space so we have better chances to score, which we’re missing right now,” Supiran said. “Another player to mention is Alison Borowski who plays great on the backline and really tries to play the ball the right way at all times,”

Alpena’s sophomore class has also outperformed expectations so far this year with Isabelle Kocan and Faith Dragiewicz taking huge steps up and really coming into their own.

“Isabelle Kocan for sure has been one of the better players this season and has really helped hold down the back line. Overall, I’ve been very happy with how Isabelle has grown this year and I expect her to be a big piece of the team over the next two years,”

The roster also has five freshmen this season due to the loss of Alpena’s JV team.

Sophie Kindt, Sidney LaCross, Kelsie Mousseau, Ezra Peterson, and Taylor Parker are all first-year varsity players and have earned a solid amount of playing time as freshmen.

“Sophie Kindt has been a great addition to the backline as a freshman. She plays very hard and is a very coachable player,” Supiran said. “Sidney LaCross also stepped in as a freshman and was thrown into our outside back and she’s been outstanding back there too,”

Even though the team has shown lots of potential, the team only has one game left before district play starts.

According to Michigan High School Athletic Association brackets, Alpena opens postseason play at Bay City John Glenn on Wednesday.

Alpena is scheduled to wrap up the regular season on Tuesday against Petoskey at home.