Coming off of the most successful season in school history the Wildcat soccer team is returning to the playoffs.

Central will play as the No. 4 seed in the GNAC Tournament beginning Thursday, Nov. 6, against Western Washington University.

In his 15th season at Central, head coach Michael Farrand says this year’s team has come a long way since last spring.

“If you look at who we were in the beginning of the year compared to who we are now, we have made a lot of progress,” Farrand said.

The Wildcats are starting to reach the goals that they set before the season.

“We have come a long way. Our expectations in the beginning of the season are finally being met, but it took a while to get where we needed to be,” Kayla Lipston, senior goalkeeper, said. “Making the playoffs again was the goal the entire season.”

Last year’s team set the bar high after making the playoffs, but this season’s young team proved that they could match that level of success.

“To go to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history, with the youngest class in school history, is a big success,” Farrand said.

After losing six starters from last year’s record-setting team, Farrand knew this season was going to be a challenge. However, the underclassmen have risen to the level of play needed for continued success.

“We are pretty demanding in terms of what we think performance should be, whether you are a freshman or senior” Farrand said. “The freshmen have stepped up very well and the seniors have done a great job of leading and being examples for them to establish their legacy after these seniors are gone.”

From the end of last season, to the fifth week of this season, the team played in the same formation that last year’s team had so much success with.

After the team’s road trip in California, Farrand said he felt like something wasn’t working and completely changed the team’s formation. The Wildcats played the remainder of the season in a formation that was foreign to most players.

Farrand believes Central is the only team in the country to play the formation the way he has his players set up.

The 14 freshmen on the roster equal the number of sophomores, juniors and seniors combined.

“We regularly start six freshmen. We are really about results, regardless of the year in school you are,” Farrand said. “If you can play, you are going to play.”

The young team handled the difficulties earlier in the season professionally, Farrand said.

“Having such a young team, we had a huge learning curve for the first three-fourths of our season,” Hadli Farrand, senior forward, said. “Getting everyone on the same page took longer than we intended, but everyone has worked so hard and we have tried to play together and be there for each other to get ourselves around the corner.”

For Lipston, having faith in newcomers isn’t always a common occurrence.

“We play all freshmen in the back and they have made tremendous improvement and I can be trusting and confident in them, which is something you can’t say every year,” Lipston said.

The Wildcats found their footing midway through the season, and began to play like the team they have been over the last few years.

In October, the team won five, lost two and tied three games, which was the best stretch of their season. Central finished the season with a record of 8-7-3 (W-L-T).

“My favorite memory of the season was beating Seattle Pacific University at their field,” Allie Bohnett, sophomore defender, said. “It was the happiest, proudest moment because we worked so hard that game. That was my first time playing SPU and I had been looking forward to that game so much. There was so much emotion and such a fun game. I almost started crying when it was finished.”

Every season Coach Farrand has been at Central ends with the same high and low.

“The worst day of a coaches life is the senior game and I hate that day. If I could skip the day, I would skip the day all together,” Coach Farrand said. “But senior day is great because we get a chance to do something more for girls who have been committed to our program for years.”

Heading into the last week of practice before playoffs, Coach Farrand and the team will be covering aspects of the game they feel they need to work on.

Coach Farrand is going to focus on individual defending and playing ‘Central’ soccer. He wants to leave the first part of the season behind and look at the upcoming tournament as the second season this year.

Hadli Farrand believes the team needs to focus on taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them.

“We have put in the work from the defense all the way through and will create opportunities, but we have not capitalized on our opportunities as much as we need to,” Hadli Farrand said.

Lipston added that the team still has room for improvements.

“We also need to work on set pieces defensively. We have done better, but it is still our weakest point on defense,” Lipston said. The team is looking to grab first place in the GNAC Tournament, granting them a berth to the regional tournament in the