With a challenging preseason and a tough league schedule ahead of them, the members of the Diamond Bar High School varsity girls soccer team are prepared to work hard. After last year’s disappointing season during which the team finished with a record of 3-5-2, the girls are looking for a chance to redeem themselves.

Despite a win against the eventual league champion Ayala 1-0 in DB’s final game of the season, the Lady Brahmas were left one game and one rank short of the coveted third-place CIF playoff spot. Over the preseason, head coach Matt Brummett was replaced by Matt Franco, who has been busy making sure the team is ready for the rigorous competition it will face in the Palomares League.

“We have a tougher preseason that I set up. We play some good Division II schools, we’ve already played St. Lucy’s and had a tight game against them, they’re Division I,” Franco said. “We [also] play higher end Division III schools; that way it’s getting them ready for league.”

Franco emphasized a large pool of defensive talent, citing players such as junior Kayla Pak and senior Sabrina May as key components of the backline. However, he said the team needs to work on creating offensive opportunities.

“We’re having trouble scoring right now. We have a lot of talented individual players, but it’s gonna take us putting it together, us working together, and finding that chemistry,” Franco said. “We had a tournament this past weekend, and we scored one goal in four games.”

By rotating players on offense, Franco hopes to find the best combination of players. By testing different partnerships, Franco wants to find players who are compatible and have similar styles.

Along, with offense, one of the major components of the game is communication, a previous team struggle. Franco said he believes that communication will come once the players feel more comfortable with each other, on and off the field.

“On the field, in the moment, sometimes it’s hard to be like ‘Oh, ball’s here,’ and sometimes people just forget. I think we’re going to change that just by talking to people more and have a lot more team bonding,” sophomore Sam Blaze said.

“[Communication] comes down to me and them. There’s different things we can work on. When they start getting to know each other and actually liking each other off the field, it shows on the field,” Franco said.