Relentless Rebels finish undefeated season, repeat as state champs

HUNTSVILLE — The elephant in the room was finally shown the door on Saturday afternoon.

The Vestavia Hills High School girls soccer team never talked about the zero that remained constant in its loss column. The Lady Rebels didn’t want to be distracted from the process of getting better each day and focusing on the task at hand.

But the process is over and the task completed, so now they can acknowledge the magnitude of an undefeated season. Vestavia Hills shut out McGill-Toolen 2-0 on Saturday afternoon in the Class 7A state championship game, notching the team’s 23rd win in 23 games in the 2019 season.

“I had no doubt whether we were going to win or lose that game,” Vestavia Hills head coach Brigid Meadow said. “I knew we were going to win. I had to breathe after the game because not only did we win, we were undefeated.”

Meadow’s confidence on Saturday was not misguided. The Lady Rebels jumped on McGill-Toolen early, with Lizzie Hill notching the opening goal 6:30 into the contest. Riley Vicinanzo scored eight minutes later to put Vestavia Hills up 2-0, and the Lady Rebels controlled play the rest of the game.

“We never talked about it, because we didn’t want to focus on that,” Meadow said of the unblemished record. “We were focused on one game at a time.”

Vestavia Hills had to replace over half of its starting lineup from last season, when the Lady Rebels won the state championship. They reloaded and put together a historic season and notched the repeat.

“A lot of people didn’t think we were going to be good because we lost six starters last year, and we were kind of counted out early on,” Meadow said. “We started rolling, and people were shocked that these girls could do this. We have a bunch of superstars on this team, regardless of what anyone thinks.”

Caroline Causey is one of the team’s six seniors and played a starring role throughout. She scored the game’s only goal in the second overtime period of Vestavia Hills’ quarterfinal win over Oak Mountain last weekend. She said this year’s group began gunning for the undefeated season but remained focus on the day-to-day objective of getting better.

“It’s really hard to not think about it, but at the same time, you just take it one game at a time,” Causey said.

Meadow attributed the team’s success to a stellar attitude and work ethic that remained constant throughout the season. Vestavia Hills knocked off James Clemens 5-1 in the semifinals on Friday to advance to the title game.

With the 2019 team having completed the season without a defeat, it’s going to be difficult for another team to stake a claim as the program’s best. For the outgoing senior class of Anna Woodson, tournament MVP Hill, Anna Grace Darty, Causey, Catherine Yeilding and Georgia Kamburis, that's three titles in four years.

“That and the fact that it was back-to-back (championships) probably makes this the best team to ever come through Vestavia,” Meadow said.