“I am more confident than I have been in the past,” said midfielder Lis.

“I think last year I might have gone in to draw the defense and pulled and look for someone else to take the final shot. This year I feel like I can do that on my own and go the goal hard, which is something I have been working on throughout the summer and over the year. I think as an upperclassman and a leader on the team, I need to be the one to go in to take the shot.”

Lis has gained additional confidence from starring on the soccer field for PHS in the fall.

“Soccer keeps me in great shape up until lacrosse season,” said Lis. “In lacrosse, we work different kinds of muscles. But for overall body fitness, I love playing two sports. I love how they do totally different things. In lacrosse, you are all with your hands. In soccer, you are all with your feet.”

Last Saturday, Lis demonstrated her fitness early in the game, racing past the Clearview defense to score PHS’s first tally of the contest and knot the game at 1-1.

“I saw my opportunity and I thought I will test out this goalie early,” said Lis.

“I saw my lane and I took it. I wanted to test out how their defense was in terms of crashing and sliding. Whenever you have an opportunity like that, you have to go for it, especially in a tight game like this.”

The contest, a rematch of a 2014 sectional semifinal matchup won by PHS, remained tight throughout. The Little Tigers led 4-3 at halftime and the teams were tied at 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 in the second half
before Clearview edged ahead 9-7. The Little Tigers got a goal with 1:12 remaining in regulation but neither team scored after that as the Pioneers hung on for a 9-8 win.

“I think we had periods where we were up and we were in control of the ball and then we had periods where they were in control and we were frantically going after it,” said Lis, who ended up with two goals and five ground balls on the afternoon.

“The ending play was so close, it was so disappointing that we came up with the loss there.”

While the setback was disappointing, Lis believes that PHS will be a better team for the experience.

“We were definitely happy with the effort, we identified things that we have to work on but overall a lot of people stepped up today that we don’t usually have,” said Lis.

“Two of our sophomores who are usually starters, Georgia McLean and Jordyn Cane were out, that was a tough adjustment with only realizing this morning that we wouldn’t have either of them. So the first half was a test for all of those new girls coming in, they definitely did well and lived up to our expectations for them today.”

PHS head coach David Schlesinger was happy with how his team battled to the final whistle.

“I thought we showed the most heart that we have shown all season,” asserted Schlesinger.

“I am very proud of my girls. We are missing three starters today so we had girls step up and play different positions as well. It was a disappointing result but a great effort.”

As usual, PHS got a great effort from Michigan-bound senior goalie Mira Shane, who made 12 saves on the day.

“Mira has been great all season, I thought our defense did a good job, they forced shots from the
outside and Mira is very, very strong on those shots,” said Schlesinger. “We only gave up nine goals to Clearview, which I think is pretty good.”

In Schlesinger’s view, Lis was very good for PHS. “Taylor has been playing great, she is doing more and more for us,” said  Schlesinger of Lis, who had three goals and three assists as PHS defeated Robbinsville 18-78 last Monday in improving to 5-4.

“She has always been great defensively, running the midfield but now she has become our top draw control specialist. She is becoming critical to our offense.”

“Playing teams like this and playing against Agnes Irwin, that defeat hurt (a 17-2 loss last Thursday), really makes us better,” added Schlesinger.

“It makes us realize how much further we have to go. I find when you schedule easy games, the girls start to rest on their laurels and that intensity in practice drops a little bit. We schedule these games intentionally, these are really good games and they are going to battle-test us for our league games and our county tournament.”

In assessing his team’s play, Schlesinger believes it has to battle more when it has the ball.

“The biggest thing we have to work on is how to deal with pressure and how to take advantage when the other team is pressuring us,” said Schlesinger, whose squad plays at Hunterdon Central on April 18 before hosting Notre Dame on April 20. “That is where we are falling short.”

Lis, for her part, is confident that the hard work the Little Tigers put in against Clearview will pay dividends.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game coming out, we came out strong and played 100 percent all the way through, which is definitely one of our goals,” said Lis.

“One of the biggest things we took away from that is that we have a unit of girls who can really step up when they need to.”