2012 Girls' Soccer team one of program's finest

The season didn’t conclude the way the Wilbraham & Monson Academy Girls’ Soccer team had hoped.

However, even though the Titans fell short of their goal of a New England title, they certainly will be regarded as one of the best teams in the history of the girls’ soccer program.

“Although the first round tournament loss was tough to swallow, this was a team that achieved a great deal, with nine seniors who have had a great run in their careers, with three straight (regular season) Class B championships,” Coach Don Nicholson said.

WMA won its third regular season title, taking the WWNEPSSA Class B championship with an 11-1-2 overall record. The team’s only loss came to Loomis Chaffee, the top-ranked team in Class A.

“They have had a great run and tremendous careers,” Coach Nicholson said. “This year’s team, being 11-1-2, with the only loss being to the number one team in Class A, was a tremendous effort by them.

“All in all the bar gets raised every year, and this year’s team raised the bar very high. The expectations are now going after league titles and New England championships every single year. There’s no such thing as rebuilding: it’s reload. When you put that much out there and when things don’t go well, the fall is tough, which is what they experience with the quarterfinal loss. But what they accomplished in the regular season, with the championship, overwhelms that because it means we had great victories in our league.”

Despite WMA’s loss to the Berkshire School in a NEPSAC Class B quarterfinal, Coach Nicholson believes, “This will go down as one of the great teams in our program’s history and some of the greatest players we’ve had. They did a tremendous amount and I could not be more proud of them.”

East Longmeadow’s Christina Wakefield and Monson’s Brielle Robinson were named team co-MVPs. Carly Cronin of Feeding Hills earned the Coaches Award.

The team will graduate nine seniors: Cronin, Robinson, Longmeadow’s Brianna Kenney, Monson’s Molly Moran, Ludlow’s Alyssa Natario, Westfield’s Molley Shea, East Longmeadow’s Kelsey Gomes, Belchertown’s Julia Beech and Hampden’s Riley-Jane Marini.