San Mateo Girls Soccer Team Takes State Cup by 'Storm'

On Saturday, March 15 a Girls Under 12 AYSO soccer team from San Mateo placed 3rd in the AYSO Soccer State Cup Championships in Bakersfield, California. 

This culminated a tremendous season of soccer success that saw this team win the San Mateo City AYSO GU12 division, then the Area Tournament consisting of 8 local city championship teams (Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo) and finally the Sectional Tournament consisting of 8 “area”championship teams (South Bay, North Bay, East Bay, etc.). This allowed them to represent all of Northern California known as “Section 2” in the State Cup Championships in Bakersfield against equivalent championship teams from Central and Southern California.

“This soccer season was such a wonderful experience for the girls, the coaches and the families. The journey and challenges these 10 and 11 year old girls faced and overcame to make it to the State Cup was an amazing feat.” stated coach Paul Chun. “When we sign up our kids for the fall AYSO season, the expectation is we get to play 10 games, well, this team due to their hard work and good play ended up playing 23 games, and we won all but one of them!"

The team was led by leading goal scorers Lydia Manu and Natalya Chun and a strong defense centered around Kenia Vega, Madison Campbell and goal keepers Karly Paganucci and Emily Andrews. 

“Everyone on this team contributed to our success. There were games we were losing or tied in the last quarter and minutes of the game and someone would step up and make a play that saved our season!” notes coach Paul.

The Mystic Storm team consisted of players Emily Andrews, Erika Bagtas, Madison Campbell, Natalya Chun, Katherine De La Cruz, Abigail Geiger, Jessica King, Karly Paganucci, Olivia Ratti, Allie Rees, Bianca Rivera, Kenia Vega and coaches Paul Chun and Shar Manu.

AYSO's Vision is to provide world class youth soccer programs that enrich children's lives. AYSO's Mission is to develop and deliver quality youth soccer programs which promote a fun, family environment based on AYSO's Six Philosophies: Everyone Plays, Balanced Teams, Open Registration, Positive Coaching, Good Sportsmanship and Player Development.