The goal of every high school student athlete is to showcase their talents on the biggest and brightest of stages.
In Wisconsin, that’s the state tournament in their respective sports. Some never get to participate on that stage.
To get there once is a blessing, but five consecutive times?
That’s what the Kiel girls’ soccer program has done.
Every year since 2022, the Raiders have played at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee, and tonight they’ll face New Berlin Eisenhower in a WIAA Division Three State Semifinal match.
This senior class, led by captains Taavi Saeger and Jasmine Bink, has played at state all four years of their careers.
Head Coach Mike Pritchard tells SeehaferNews.com that he’s blessed to be their coach.
“They’ve been great leaders all four years and contributed so much to this program,” he explained. “We’ve been blessed to have so much success in the last five, really six years. I firmly believe we had a team good enough to make a deep run during the COVID year (2021). A lot of people have poured their heart and soul into making the Kiel soccer program what it is today.”
Kiel is the number two seed and is unbeaten (23-0-1) as they prepare for the state tournament.
The one blemish on their resume was a tie at Notre Dame Academy (Green Bay) on May 11th.
They atoned for that by totally shutting down the Tritons 2-0 in last Saturday’s Division Three sectional final in Green Bay, earning that fifth straight trip to Milwaukee.
Getting there hasn’t been the issue; winning has.
The Raiders captured a Division Four state title in 2023, but the other three trips (2022,2024 and 2025) ended up losses in the semifinals.
Saeger says this fuels her and her teammates to go win it all this time around.
“Getting there and coming up short obviously has been tough,” she admitted, “But it doesn’t take away from the fact that we’ve been able to get there. It’s fueled our collective fire as seniors to go down there and win another one. I’m excited to see what we do.”
How the Raiders have done it in 2026 is with defense. They’ve allowed just 8 goals all season, and in fact, they’ve recorded nine consecutive shutouts, and 19 of their 24 opponents failed to score.
Taking it a step further, Notre Dame didn’t take a single shot against sophomore goaltender Mya Langenfeld and that potent Raider “D” last Saturday.
Bink is one of four of the last line of defense protecting Mya Langenfeld in net.
Bink says their success is due to good old-fashioned work.
“Our defense is so proud of what we’ve accomplished so far,” she said. “We celebrate every great thing and rally around each other when things are not so great. We support each other through thick and thin, and all the hard work has paid off. We’re here every day from 3:30 to 5:30 to put in the time to succeed and achieve the ultimate goal.”
The Raiders will have to earn everything they get tonight against what Coach Pritchard calls the best team they’ve played all year in New Berlin Eisenhower.
The Lions (14-2-3) finished third in the competitive Woodland-West Conference and have won four straight matches, including a 3-2 decision over rival New Berlin West to earn their trip to state.
Coach Pritchard says their enrollment is more than twice the size of Kiel’s and presents a myriad of problems with their athleticism and versatility on both sides of the ball.
He feels they have a game plan ready to shut down the Lions, but executing it is the key to winning.
“I told them just as I did the first class (in 2021), you can be legends at this school,” he revealed. “We’ve won one gold ball, and I firmly believe we can win a second and many more. I told them, let’s fill up that trophy case with as many gold balls as we can and become the soccer capital of the Midwest.”
Tonight’s match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
