Last season, the Malden Girls’ Soccer team reached their high as they had an impressive winning record and progressed into the first round of States—for their first time in years.
With the start of the 2026 season, the team had undergone significant changes, with many of their key players graduating, such as their center midfielders and primary goal scorer, Mercedes Costa. Under the leadership of Senior Captains Amelia Berliner and Sofia Vargas this season, the team has had to make up for the absence of last year’s key players through the addition of a new center midfielder and new varsity players.
“We added a lot of new girls to the varsity team, so we aren’t fully used to each other’s playing styles yet.” explained Vargas. For Berliner in particular, the loss and addition of girls on their team has resulted in her position being moved from center-back to now center midfield—a position that she is still trying her best to adapt to.
In their first home game of the season, the team was met with an unfortunate 5-2 loss against O’Bryant. Berliner described the match against O’Bryant as disappointing. Despite this, the team is determined to demonstrate their improvement throughout the rest of the season.
As soon as the match started, the Tornados recognized that this would be a difficult match as O’Bryant kept possession of the ball for the majority of the first half. Malden’s defense was also challenged tremendously as they tried their best to block O’Bryant’s attempts at goals.
Though Malden’s goalie, sophomore Sofia Leno, was able to save a few of O’Bryant’s swift attempts to score, Malden’s “communication was a little off this game,” noted Vargas, which resulted in the first half ending 2-0 in favor of O’Bryant.
Despite the discouraging first half, the Tornados didn’t lose their motivation. With the start of the second half, O’Bryant continued to showcase their strong offense through another goal, bringing the score to 3-0.
Yet, Malden demonstrated their determination as they began to play more offensively rather than defensively; with players such as Berliner and sophomore Khadijah Diagne making offensive plays and scoring attempts, Malden began to find their rhythm.
Soon, with their newfound momentum, Diagne was able to dribble the ball past O’Bryant defenders and put Malden on the scoreboard, 3-1. This Malden momentum sparked intensity throughout the rest of the match as players from both teams began playing more physically.
This intensity saw O’Bryant score another goal, which was soon followed by Berliner’s long goal after the Tornados managed to steal the ball—resulting in a 4-2 score with Malden following.
As the match neared its end, Leno managed to continue to block many of O’Bryant’s attempts to score, allowing Malden to continue their offensive plays. Yet, in the last minutes of the match, O’Bryant scored the final goal, ending the match with 5-2 in favor of O’Bryant.
With a current season record of 1-0-5, the team plans on working on their chemistry with hopes of seeing progress. As most of their earlier matches of the season were against tougher teams, the Tornados are determined to get some wins against other teams. “We are a little slow to find our footing this year, but I’m sure once the team gets used to playing with each other, we will be much stronger,” Berliner concluded.
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