The girls’ varsity soccer team aims to fill the gap left by recently graduated seniors by becoming more comfortable with newer and younger players, according to assistant coach Brad Brubaker.

Brubaker said the team felt accomplished with its defensive performance after its first game against Chaska , but recognized that they will need to improve its offensive strategy in order to have a successful season.

“I just think we’re a little bit too predictable. About 80 percent of the time we are doing kind of that same thing in that last little sliver of the field. We gotta figure out how to mix it up and be a little more creative,” Brubaker said.

Rather than feeling frustrated, senior Rachel Young, who is a captain, said she felt the team could work on many aspects of its approach, despite feeling good about the match.

“I personally think as a team we played a strong game. We all know we have room for improvement. It’s still the beginning of the season. This is our first conference game and we played well considering the possession we had and the opportunities we had,” Young said. “We know that we need to finish and just get the goal to win, we’re still working.”

Many new players on the team got a chance to play, though the players still need to bond in order to get the chemistry that they need, according to Young.

“We have a lot of players in new positions so we are just working on getting situated. We have a back line that hasn’t played together before this year, new people in the middle, new people up top, so we’re just all trying to get situated with each other and keep building cohesion,” Young said.

Varsity girls’ soccer will have its next game 7 p.m. Oct. 2 at St. Louis Park High School Stadium against Forest Lake, according to GoPark.org.