All season, the Foxes displayed offensive and defensive power. Pitt recruit Emily McKee, who has shined since she was a freshman starter, recently added to her medal collection when she was selected as the Moe Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player Award winner and was named to the all-WPIAL and all-state teams.
Defensively, all-WPIAL Cassie Classen and all-WPIAL junior Caylie Wilkinson anchored the back line, and senior Seton Hill commit Summer Hill and juniors Antonia Linzoian and Taylor Wilkinson contributed to both the midfield attack and defense.
“ I think having such a strong defense is one of the most important aspects of a team,” Cassie says.“ While we do have chemistry, we had so much talent in so many areas across our back line. We communicate so well together, we attack as one, we are all aggressive and never give up, and we have so much skill in every one of our players that we are almost guaranteed to win one on one every time, offensively or defensively.”
For a team that began the year searching for answers, the journey ended with trust, growth, and confidence. There will be big shoes to fill again next year, but with such a young, deep bench, combined with players who have gained playoff experience, the Foxes are ready to carry forward their tradition of excellence.
They will be tested, though. The new WPIAL realignment places the Foxes back in Class 4A, but two years ago the girls proved themselves in that conference, too, when they defeated North Allegheny to seize the WPIAL title.
JUNIOR EMILY MCKEE ADDS TO HER RÉSUMÉ
Emily McKee recently added another impressive honor to her growing list of accolades. In addition to earning three all-section and three all-WPIAL awards, and back-to-back all-state nods, she was just recognized as the prestigious Moe Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player Award winner, which designates her as the top girls soccer player in the WPIAL. She was also selected to the United Soccer Coaches All-American and All-East Region teams, and was named girls soccer player of the year by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and TribLive High School Sports Network( HSSN). This season alone, Emily scored 49 goals, 14 of them in the playoffs. In three seasons, she has earned 108 career goals and 30 assists, placing her second among the Foxes’ all-time top scorers. The record is held by 1986 graduate Patty Thompson, who finished her high school career with 166 goals. ox Chapel Area
FOX X CHAPEL AREA SCHOOL NEWS
Field Hockey: 2-0 Win Delivers Long-Awaited WPIAL Title
It was far from a perfect night for a championship game; in fact, it poured sideways the entire time, but the rain didn’ t dampen the Foxes field hockey players’ efforts to accomplish something they and those before them had dreamed about since 2016 – winning a WPIAL title. This year, they achieved that, and in thrilling fashion, by dethroning top-ranked Peters Township, 2-0. Last year, the Foxes finished as the WPIAL runner-up to Peters Township.
For the past three years, the Foxes had settled for the runnerup position, a nice finish, but it was unsatisfying. This season, a combination of experience, abundant talent across all grade
20 FOX CHAPEL AREA
levels, and a new field strategy aligned perfectly to help the Foxes capture gold in the WPIAL Class 2A championship game.
Senior Brooke Thiele pinpoints what made the difference in this year’ s finale, saying,“ We truly outfought them. We knew we were very even teams, skills-wise, and the winner was going to be who wanted it more.”
“ I really give a ton of credit to the seniors and the captains,” says coach Kellee Cribby.“ The girls have been on a mission all season to win; it’ s been their goal since day one, and the seniors have really set the tone for that consistency. They’ ve done a great job of holding their teammates accountable to practice at the level they want to play, so when we got to the championship game,