South girls soccer team pulls off first regular-season sweep of Dimond in over a decade
May 16—Before the South Anchorage High girls soccer team stepped onto the field for its second match of the season against longtime rival and perennial powerhouse program Dimond on Tuesday night, Wolverines head coach Lauren Lux wrote a mantra on the whiteboard in the locker room that her players took to heart.
It read, "Diamonds need polishing but this Dimond needs demolishing." and those words resonated with the Wolverines throughout the contest as they powered their way to a commanding 4-1 victory over the Lynx.
"Just get out there, focus and demolish," senior defender Morgan Galko said. "That's what our mindsets were."
Before last season, no team had beaten Dimond twice in the same season since South in spring of 2015, but that all changed with the Wolverines prevented the Lynx from winning their fourth straight state championship in last year's finals.
MaxPreps.com has tracked records going back to 2010-11, and since that time an Alaska team hadn't swept Dimond in the regular season until South accomplished the rare feat in its home finale to secure the Cook Inlet Conference crown.
"It feels like a lot of hard work paid off," Galko said. "I feel like we've waited so long to get to this point. From freshman year losing to Dimond in the championship to beating them to win the conference title."
The last time the Wolverines scored four goals against Dimond, they still came up short because the Lynx managed to score one more than they did in a 5-4 loss during the 2021 season.
"It's a big deal, and I don't think Dimond has ever really been swept before," junior goalkeeper Skylar Lind said. "It's a big confidence booster for us, and it feels good for me to only have three goals against them all season."
While South's streak of consecutive games without allowing a goal came to an end at nine when Dimond junior Ayla Ertekin managed to get the ball past Lind and into the back of the net on a free kick, she isn't too disappointed given the end result and her team improving to 12-0.
"I wanted to keep a clean sheet. Obviously, that didn't happen, but I'd say it's a close enough result," Lind said. "One (penalty kick) is a goal, but I think with the rest of the game, I'd consider it pretty much a clean sheet."
Penalty kick aside, Lind saw the most action she has had in over a month and was outstanding in front of the net for the Wolverines. She made several impressive saves throughout the game, including one early in the second half where she extended her entire body to give herself enough length to prevent a shot from sneaking over her head and into the back of the net.
"I don't really think much during games," she said. "I go into games cool, calm and don't try to think of any outside stressors."
The Wolverines' confidence is soaring after this latest result, and they feel primed to mount a successful title defense in a few weeks.
"I don't want to get too cocky, but we feel pretty good heading into playoffs," Lind said. "We're ready to play and ready to repeat."
