The Lady Knights are in a transition year. Which, according to head coach Tim Hauenstein, can be a good thing.

David Bell/News-Herald Photo. Anjelica Ulrich, left, dribbles past defender Sissy Temple while Rita Bybee, far right, looks on during a scrimmage between the Lady Knights Varsity and JV Thursday.

“We lost 11 or 12 seniors (to graduation last year) so we really won’t know what we’ll have until our first few games,” he said. “We start with Kingman and (Bullhead City) Mohave so we get a chance to find out before regional play.”

Already known is the play of a quartet of returners, including co-captains Lynsey Ryan, Kaitlyn Brunet and Anjelica Ulrich. And Stella Partida – last year’s leading scorer – should be back to full strength by the time regional play begins.

“They give us more offensive firepower. Anjelica and Kaitlyn will be in the middle to get the ball to the forwards,” Hauenstein said. “We have Chloe (Kwon), a freshman with great sped and Brittany (Sahl) who is a really good thinker on the field to go with Lynsey at forward.”

On the other side of the field, Hauenstein said he’ll use the platoon system.

“I want to platoon Hailey (Flenner) and Alex Morris at keeper,” he said. “Both play good defense and both have show excellence in goal in practice.”

The Lady Knights have moved up to the 5A-II Conference this year and joined the Gila Valley Region with the Yuma-area schools. A region where soccer is the dominant sport and two schools – Yuma Cibola and Yuma Kofa – made it to the state playoffs last year.

“And we played San Luis last year. We know they’re a top notch team,” Hauenstein said. “We always play it one game at a time so we’ll see how we do against those schools. The nice thing is we play them all twice this year. So that let’s us make adjustments.”

The Lady Knights open the season with back-to-back games. On Monday they travel to Kingman then on Tuesday they host Mohave. Both games start at 6 p.m.

You may contact the reporter at debll@havasunews.com.

Lake Havasu High School

2009-10 Lady Knights Varsity Soccer Schedule

Home games are in bold

Nov. 23 at Kingman, 6 p.m.

Nov. 24 vs. Bullhead City Mohave, 6 p.m.

Dec. 4-5 at Kingman Tournament, TBA

Dec. 8 at Yuma Cibola, 6 p.m.

Dec. 14 at Yuma, 6 p.m.

Dec. 17 vs. Kingman, 6 p.m.

Jan. 5 vs. San Luis, 6 p.m.

Jan. 8 vs. Yuma Kofa, 6 p.m.

Jan. 12 at Yuma Gila Ridge, 6 p.m.

Jan. 15 vs. Yuma Cibola, 6 p.m.

Jan. 19 at San Luis, 6 p.m.

Jan. 22 vs. Yuma, 6 p.m.

Jan. 26 at Yuma Kofa, 6 p.m.

Jan. 29 vs. Yuma Gila Ridge, 6 p.m.

Feb. 1 State Playoffs, TBA