By Catherine Garrett | [email protected]

All-State senior soccer players — and twins — Daviana Vaka and Laveni Vaka, along with senior Bella Moyer, return for the Juan Diego Catholic High School team that finished with just five wins last season and a first-round exit in the 4A state tournament after a loss to Snow Canyon. 

“We’re looking forward to a good season from them,” said second-year coach Goran Golemba. “They’ll definitely be our leaders.” 

Golemba said his players have been working hard through summer training and the team is focused on building skills and chemistry. “So far, so good,” Golemba said. “We need to get them to play as a team as soon as possible while we blend our newcomers into the system.” 

“Our team this year is definitely different from what we’ve had the previous years,” said Daviana, who will play for Brigham Young University with her sister next season. “We are a very young team, and have a lot of fresh new talent.” 

“I am so excited for this season,” Laveni said. “The girls have been training so hard throughout the summer and I think we can do so much better than last year.” 

Also on the 2018 squad are seniors Emma Holbrook, Kate Keil, Isabella Moyer and Claire Wegner; juniors Kiersten Baca, Olivia Culley, Jeannette Dimpel, Aspen Hodlmair, Virginia Kelly, Cassie Nelson, Kendall Neuman and Elizabeth Raven; sophomores Isabelle Alamilla, Brietta Greenwald, Savannah Greer, Sami Herrera, Madeline Orges, Ariadne Sanchez and Ellie Simkins; and freshmen Madison Burnham, Teryn Easterbrook, Olivia Harbison,  Mwende Kavila, Natalie Lamb, Cami Mates, Olivia Meredith, Hannah Munding, Chaya Roberts, Ashlynn Sandberg, Ashley Urena and Janessa Young-Flores. 

“Our chances for success will always be as great as want it to be, as long as we practice hard and work together on and off the field,” Daviana said. 

Juan Diego began the year against Judge Aug. 16 and Lehi Aug. 18.

The Soaring Eagle squad will also play Stansbury, Tooele, Olympus, Bonneville, West Jordan, Ogden, Park City and Ben Lomond this season. 

“Because of our coach, I think our team is as prepared as we can be to go out and have a great season,” Daviana said.

“We want to make the playoffs and go as far as possible,” Golemba said. “It’s definitely going to be interesting, but I think it’s gonna be a fun one.” 

“Before we leave to play college soccer, we hope to lead our team to a successful season,” Laveni said.