The injury bug has struck the Homestead girls soccer team in the first few weeks of the season. Before the season started, the team lost two key players, Olivia Speich, senior, and Kelli Ausman, junior, to season ending knee injuries. In now the fourth week of the season, the team has four players suffering from acute injuries.

Lauren Padgett, junior, is one of the team’s walking wounded. “Not being able to be on the field with my teammates kills me. I wanna be out there helping the team win,” Padgett said.

Allie Haddad, junior, was out for the whole season last year with a knee injury, so she understands the nature of the situation. “Overcoming the injury last year was a huge accomplishment for me. I think once everyone is healthy we have potential to make a playoff run,” Haddad said.

The girls have not let the injuries stop them from starting off the young season 4-1-1, getting their fourth win Tuesday at Nicolet. Courtney Wiencek and Alex Lutz, juniors, have put in a lot of minutes and are two of the team’s top scorers early on. “It’s been a big confidence boost to score a lot and contribute to wins early on in the season,” Wiencek said.

“Courtney has always been a good offensive threat and scored a lot of goals last year for us,” Christine Kerkman, senior, said.

The new freshmen have had big spots to fill with the injuries and the seniors leaving from last year. “The freshmen have really made an impact on our team and have improved a lot since the beginning of the season,” Kerkman said.

The girls travel to Brookfield East on Thursday to take on a solid Spartan squad. “Brookfield East always has a good team so we are looking forward to a highly competitive game,” Sophie Bradshaw, senior, said.

“If we can come out of this week with three wins, including one on Saturday against Grafton, that would be a huge confidence booster because we are suppose to get a few of our injured girls back soon,” Bradshaw said. With this mindset, hopefully the team can achieve its goals as we look forward to the end of this week.