Lady Hurricane soccer eyeing first region championship

By Neill Kirkpatrick

Special to the HSSR

Varnville – This is the first year of Hampton County Lady Hurricanes soccer, but it is not the first year that these ladies have played together as a team as most of this team is made up of former Wade Hampton Lady Red Devils.

The former Lady Red Devils came into this year off a dominant three-year stretch in region play as they posted a 21-1 record with a 21-match winning streak. Last season they sailed through region play 8-0 outscoring region competition 77-0. During this stretch they have fashioned an overall record of 29-11 and have earned three consecutive class AA playoff berths.

This season they have continued their recent success as they gotten off to a 7-4/ 5-1 start to the season. Like the other football team, the Lady Hurricanes began their first season with a win over Colleton County 2-1 in OT. However, they saw their twenty-one region match win streak end when they dropped their first region contest to Woodland in a shoot out 2-1.

Head Coach Brett Terry squad responded quickly and decisively beating Woodland 2-1 before sweeping the season series from Edisto and Ridgeland-Hardeeville to begin a new region streak of five in a row. The region title will be decided when the Lady Hurricanes meet the Lady Warhorses of Barnwell in back-to-back matches in mid-April.

Coach Terry’s Lady Hurricanes are led by four seniors in captains Trinity Ginn and Jada Gittings and defensive Ashley Bennett and Marina Capone.

Ginn leads the team in scoring with eighteen goals and seven assists for a team high of forty-three points. The scoring prowess is nothing new as she had scored fifty-six goals to go with twenty-three assists for a total of 135 points in the last two seasons. She is a two-time all-region selection.

The most versatile player on the team is Gittings. She is second on the team with fourteen goals and seven assists for thirty-five points. She also has sixty-seven saves in goal for the Lady Hurricanes.

Bennett and Capone have been solid in front of the net on defense. Bennett has a goal and two assists on the year.

Two freshmen have also been putting the ball in the back of the net, Brianna Sauls and Leslie Hutto. Hutto is third in scoring with twenty-three points on ten goals and three assists while Sauls has scored nineteen points on nine goals and an assist.

Sophomore Taryn Hanna has also scored double digit points this season. She has scored four goals, dished out four assists for a total of twelve points.

Syrianna Smith and Brooke Latham are juniors who are standouts on the defensive side of the pitch. Latham has three assists to go with one goal.

Sophomores Autumn Williams and Solana Manor are also seeing a lot of playing time and getting valuable experience. Williams has scored a goal this season.

The freshmen of Cherish Orr, Olivia Corbin, Hannah Cobb, Ny'layjah Poacher, and Jeanne-Marie Colyn have seen a lot of playing and will help with the depth on the roster as the year goes on.

The Lady Hurricanes will be off for spring break but will be back in action on April 9^th when they head to Brookland-Cayce and then host Beaufort Academy before back-to-back matches with Barnwell.