A new preseason tournament celebrating the region’s league champions and contenders commenced Friday and ended with Pitman High’s girls soccer team earning the title of “Queens of the Pitch.”
The Queens of the Pitch Tournament, hosted by Golden Valley High School in Merced, brought three reigning league champions together — Hilmar of the Trans-Valley League, Golden Valley of the Central California Conference and Fresno’s Washington Union of the Tri-County Sequoia League, as well as league runners-up Pitman of the Central California Athletic League, Gustine of the Southern Athletic League and Lathrop of the Western Athletic Conference.
“I was very happy with the girls' effort,” said first-year varsity coach Denise Romo. “They worked hard offensively and defensively, but especially defensively… I believe the tournament was a good marker of the potential the team has.”
The Pride’s tournament began with a 5-0 win over Gustine on Friday afternoon, a match in which senior Adelyn Persons led the way with a pair of goals. Also finding the back of the net was Jennifer Soleyman, Tatiana Rios and Emily Martinez, while goalie Samantha Stapler had three saves. Later that night, they won their pool with another shutout, a 2-0 victory against the host team. Persons had another goal, and was joined by Mia Bravo in the scoring column. Stapler, again, had three saves.
The largest feather they collected for their caps was Hilmar, who are coming off their best season in program history after winning the TVL and Sac-Joaquin Section Division 5 and being a finalist in the Northern California D-5 regional tournament. They are fielding almost the exact same team from a year ago, as most were underclassmen or juniors.
The Yellowjackets punched their ticket to Saturday’s final after a 1-1 draw to Washington Union to open the tournament and a 2-0 win over Lathrop later in the day. Junior Alexis Aguiar had their lone score in both the opener and in the championship game. Fellow junior and last year’s leading scorer Brisa Gonzales and freshman Milly Lorios scored in the Lathrop game.
The two goals for Pitman Saturday evening came from Martinez and Karen Perez. The goal surrendered to Aguiar was just their second allowed in six games. Stapler now has 28 saves on the year.
“It’s been a reflection for the season so far,” Romo said.
The Pride improved to 5-1 following the tournament, while the Yellowjackets fell to 4-2-1 in the young 2024-25 season.
Perez is one of 12 upperclassmen and nine seniors on the Pride’s roster, and Romo knows most of them. She has been coaching for Pitman’s lower levels for 10 years and feels as if the rapport and familiarity of her coaching style is well established.
Martinez, meanwhile, is one of six freshmen, though she has already become familiar with the intensity of physicality of varsity sports after being a star player on the Pride’s inaugural flag football team.
“I also saw the areas for growth,” Romo said. “We have six freshmen that have been doing a great job contributing to the team wins, but I also noticed areas where we can continue to work on.”
