Aliso Niguel Moving Into Top Ranks

When the Aliso Niguel girls’ soccer team grows up, it wants to be like Capistrano Valley--a program that has the reputation of being a winner, even if the Cougars haven’t won a Southern Section championship since 1989.

Aliso Niguel’s team also wants to be like Mission Viejo’s--a program that has won five section championships since 1986 and commands respect when it takes the field.

“We want to make a statement,” Aliso Niguel Coach Randy Dodge said. “Mission Viejo, Capistrano Valley, Marina . . . they all have a legacy. We want that.”

In only his third year as coach of the Wolverines, Dodge and his team are starting to make others take notice. They are ranked sixth in The Times Orange County preseason poll.

Capistrano Valley Coach Jack Peterson is eager to have his team test Aliso Niguel in the Mater Dei Classic, which begins Dec. 9.

“They are a good, up and coming program,” Peterson said. “But I want to see them play someone. I want to see how good they really are.”

Dodge admits his team’s nonleague schedule isn’t particularly challenging. Except for the Mater Dei tournament, the Wolverines don’t play any of the county’s top-ranked teams.

“I knew I was going to have a lot of young players, so I didn’t schedule anything tough,” Dodge said. “I don’t want to overload them.”

When Dodge took over in 1998, the Wolverines had regularly finished third in the Pacific Coast League behind Laguna Hills and University. In his first season, Aliso Niguel took second. Last season, it shared the league championship with Laguna Hills and advanced to the second round of the Division I playoffs.

No small feat, considering 10 of Aliso Niguel’s 11 starters were underclassmen in 1998-99.

“We were so young,” Dodge said. “We are still really young, but these kids have been there. There is a lot of excitement here for what the team has accomplished. Winning our first league title was a huge thing. We are going to build off that.”

Aliso Niguel’s relatively quick rise in the soccer ranks is largely because of the strong club soccer scene in South Orange County. The Southern California Blues, Irvine Strikers and Mission Viejo Mirage produce a steady supply of talented players.

Dodge says he has two of the best forwards in the county in junior Kim Devine and sophomore Tessa Baker.

Devine, the Pacific Coast League most valuable player last season, was a first-team Times all-county selection with 23 goals and 12 assists. Baker had 11 goals and 13 assists.

Amanda Vanderlawn, a junior sweeper and three-year starter, controls the backfield for Aliso Niguel, and sophomore Sheena Jarvis and freshman Stacy Lidstrom are stalwarts in the middle.

“Lidstrom is probably one of the best freshmen I’ve seen,” Dodge said. “She’s been recognized at the national level. But she has to adapt to a more physical game now.”

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Other top teams: Take any of five teams listed in The Times Orange County preseason rankings and it would be easy to argue why it should be No. 1.

Capistrano Valley is again expected to win the Division I title, but the Cougars have been favored the last two seasons and haven’t been able to get it done despite having what many consider to be the county’s best talent. Peterson says this is the year. . . . John Szczuka, Woodbridge’s boys’ coach, is also coaching the girls’ team for the first time this season. Solid throughout the lineup, the Warriors return 10 starters from last season’s Division II co-championship team. . . . Santa Margarita has restocked its Division II co-championship team and will make a run for its fourth consecutive title. . . . Mission Viejo returns eight starters from its Division I finals team, including All-Southern Section and all-county midfielder Kendall Billingsley. . . . Esperanza boasts one of the better goalkeepers in the county in senior Kristen Skinner, and sophomore forward Erin Clewett (10 goals, five assists) is back.