Unlike the previous two seasons, Whitehall's girls' soccer team recently ended its regular season with little fanfare. However, there are a handful of players who remember when the end of the regular season two years ago was just the igniter for a run to the state championship game.

Last season, the Zephyrs didn't make the Lehigh Valley Conference playoffs and were eventually eliminated in the district playoffs.

This season, Whitehall split their final four regular season games and finished with an overall 10-8 mark, earning them a district berth next week.

With a budding class of underclassmen and a maturing unit of upperclassmen, head coach George Romano is keeping all of his teams options open.

"We finished the season and we're doing fine," said Romano. "We are actually right where we want to be at this point. We'll take a week off and get ready for districts. We're confident about our chances because we have been in every game except two this season.

"We have a young club, but we really came together at the end of the season."

Kourtney Cunningham, who is the team's leading goal scorer as well as the area's leader in goals with 36, sees her team jelling in the last few weeks as well.

"We are a young team and we went through a lot of learning experiences this year," said Cunningham, who is a junior and played with recently graduated sister and all-time leading area goal scorer Kayla for two seasons. "We have worked very hard, but not too many teams think much of us because we lost some girls from last year's team.

"We're going into districts as an underdog and that might help us. We went through a number of transitions this year."

For her personally, Cunningham made the adjustment into more of a leadership role on the club.

"It was different for me not to have my older sister around to help and teach me," said the younger Cunningham, who now is a mentor to young sister and freshman Kylee. "That was a big change for me. But I have to do what I can to help this team succeed and help my younger sister move forward."

Cunningham is also relieved to be recovered from a torn ACL injury she suffered seven games into last season. She endured a nine-month rehabilitation process and appears to be back at full steam this season.

"My parents and my physical therapist pushed me through it," said Cunningham. "I thought I could start working out after six months, but I found out that I had three more months to go.

"It was long. But I don't think about it now and just go out and play. We are all looking forward to see what we can do in districts."