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Editor’s note: Each week during the fall sports season, Varsity Maine will highlight a boys and girls team of the week. The teams, picked by staff members, will take into account several factors, including success stories, bounce-back efforts and notable accomplishments, among others. Athletes, coaches and athletic directors can nominate teams by emailing sports editor Bill Stewart at [email protected] or Varsity Maine editor Lee Horton at [email protected].

Winning hasn’t come easy for the Spruce Mountain girls soccer team over the past handful of years.

The Phoenix won only eight games from 2023-25. It looked like the 2026 season would be more of the same when they started with three straight losses, but then the victories started to pile up.

Since Sept. 11, Spruce Mountain is 6-0-2, including 6-0 and 3-2 wins last week against Wiscasset/Boothbay and Wells, respectively. The Phoenix were ranked sixth in Class C South Heal points going into Wednesday’s games.

“So I think our team is clicking more … in a sense of just distributing the ball and finding that open player and looking for crosses,” Spruce Mountain coach Jacob Turner said.  “I think that’s really helped, and I saw that the most in Wells.”

Both Turner and senior captain Ashley Nelson said three freshmen — midfielder Lexus Hebert, forward Evangeline “Gigi” DiPasquale and defender Harlee Foss — have played a big part in the turnaround.

“I think we have the most talent that we have had in a very long time,” Nelson said. “We’ve had three amazing freshmen (who) have stepped up and (taken) on some very important roles on our team.”

Turner said the Phoenix are well balanced throughout the lineup.

“We have a great back system,” Turner said. “Our midfield is strong, and we’re aggressive in the midfield. We have Lexus Hebert and Natasha (McDonald) that can score on some of these really good teams.”

Nelson said she’s been waiting for a postseason push since entering high school.

“We’ve gone hard at practices; everyone wants to be here,” Nelson said. “We’ve wanted this since I was a freshman. We’ve really wanted to pull through and make playoffs.”