Gray aids historic Hun girls soccer win
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Abby Gray had only played one year with the Hun School girls soccer team, but it was enough to understand the Raiders’ historic frustrations with playing the Pennington School.
Gray was a freshman last year when the injury riddled Raiders lost three times to Pennington — once in the regular season, once in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament and once in the Prep A state tournament. Those losses only drove the Raiders to want to come back stronger.
”It was a lot about learning last year,” said Hun head coach Joanna Hallac. “We obviously had a lot of injuries early on. Her and a lot of freshmen were thrown in the deep end pretty quickly. That was a good experience for them.
”She’s done so much work outside the season to improve herself as a player. She’s such a smart player and knows the game.”
Gray returned more prepared for her second year, and there was a renewed sense of optimism for the Raiders, even when they went to take on Pennington for the first time this season.
”The expectations have definitely grown higher,” Gray said. “It just goes along with our confidence. Our expectations are higher, our goals are bigger. Our confidence matches that. We’re ready for it. We set the goals because we know it’s going to be tough, but we know we have the power to achieve those goals.”
Last Tuesday, the Raiders achieved a big goal — one that had eluded them for 16 years. Gray was terrific in the midfield, Nicole Apuzzi scored the only goal that Hun would need, and the Raiders beat Pennington, 2-0, with goalie Courtney Arch recording the shutout in front of solid defense.
”It was incredible,” Gray said. “It’s the only word I can use to describe it. Our team played so well together. It’s the first game we really played as a team. It was a really good win all-around.”
It’s one that Hun had been chasing for an absurdly long time. Hun had tied Pennington in 2011, 0-0, and also in 1999, 1-1, but they had not beaten them since they swept Pennington in 1997 by 2-1 and 3-2 scores. Since those two wins, Hun was 0-20-2, including losing thrice in a season twice – in 2005 and last year. In that stretch, Pennington had outscored Hun, 61-8, and shut them out 15 times in the 22 meetings.
”To ourselves, we knew it before we beat Pennington that we were good enough,” Gray said. “We tried to put that in action. Beating Pennington showed the outside and everyone watching that we are good enough. We had that belief in ourselves before we even stepped on the field. I think that’s what brought out the win for us.”
Abby Gray is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”She’s had a really nice season so far,” Hallac said. “She’s improved a lot. She did a lot of great stuff for us last year as a freshman. She’s been playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of pressure. She had a phenomenal finish against PDS to win that game. She had her best game of the season against Pennington. She was working hard on both sides of the ball. She was creating opportunities. She was helping us on defense, and we worked on defending as a team. While most of the team came out flat (Thursday in a 3-2 loss to Chatham), she had a solid performance.
”She’s quiet, but doing a good job of leading on the field, off the field for the new freshmen this year. She’s a player that never gets a lot of recognition, but does a lot of things to help us win games. We wouldn’t be as successful without her.”
Gray was forced into a bigger role than she would have anticipated last year, but she isn’t one to shy away from responsibility.
”I feel like it was put on me last year, it was put on all the freshmen,” Gray said. “We still had the seniors. As a sophomore, and with junior and senior years coming up, I feel like I need to step in that role. I want to take after the seniors next year and the year after as much as I can. The seniors are great role models and I look up to them a lot.”
Gray can influence play at both ends in the center midfield. It’s a spot that she is accustomed to playing with her PDA Impact club team.
”I actually really like playing center mid, or everywhere in the midfield,” Gray said. “It is the center of the field and you have a big responsibility to the people around you. I think I can contribute a lot. I try my hardest to help my teammates. I have a senior, Jess Sacco, with me and a freshman, it’s great. Having Kara (Borden) as a target this year is awesome.”
The Raiders have found chemistry together, and they are still growing. They had a letdown two days after the Pennington win as they dropped their second game of the season to Chatham, a strong public school team.
”It was disappointing,” Gray said. “We were disappointed at ourselves. We’ll come back.”
It’s a learning experience for Hun. For the first time in almost two decades, they had to deal with the success that comes with beating a Pennington-level team.
”You set these expectations for yourself and the bar for yourself, and when you don’t meet it, it’s hard,” Hallac said. “Also, other teams are paying attention now and you can’t fly under the radar like you can otherwise.”
Hun would rather be a team that opponents are looking out for this year. It means that they have made strides to move toward being an elite side.
”I think we built a lot of confidence,” Gray said. “Last year, we didn’t do so well, but we knew overall even with the losses and bad games, we knew we had a good team and we could build upon it. This year, we brought it out so much. We showed it against Pennington and in other games to come.”
With wins like the Raiders’ over Pennington, they are moving in the right direction. The win gave them that reassurance.
”Definitely one of the more significant parts that we’ve improved upon a lot this year is confidence,” Gray said. “It’s obviously shown. You can just feel it every single game. And it’s growing every single practice and game. It’s just been a lot better.”
There was a difference in the way that the Raiders approached this year’s game with Pennington, and it paid off with one of their biggest wins in recent history.
”I think for once they believed they were good enough,” Hallac said. “Last year, we wanted to believe it and we certainly I think were capable of it, but they weren’t playing with that sort of confidence. I’m not sure they believed they were a good enough team to believe they can be on the field with Pennington. They’re a team this year that can hang with anyone and beat anyone.
”I think (the win over Pennington) just shows these girls that they’re good enough and people shouldn’t write them off,” she said. “It gives them a confidence going forward that I’m hoping will propel us through the various tournaments coming up. They have some goals they set and I hope they achieve them.”
The Raiders open play in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League against Blair on Saturday. It’s their first step toward what they hope will be a conference crown in a season that is shaping up to have a lot of potential.
”With everyone back this year, it’s wonderful,” Gray said. “It’s a whole team, and it’s great.”