Girls Game of the Week Preview: April 18 - Chanhassen @ Lakeville South
This week’s DTA girls game of the week features #5 Chanhassen (0-1) @ #1 Lakeville South (1-0). Metro West vs South Suburban. Section 2 vs Section 1.
Lucky enough for the DTA squad, this game will be finishing up around the time they record this week’s pod!
#5 Chanhassen (0-1)
You can read ALL of our feedback on the team from this offseason here.
We took in their game against PL on their YouTube live stream and the ones you thought would be there are there #1 Gabby Bjugan (A, 2024, D1 Towson) and #22 Katie Colleran (GK, 2024, D2 CSP). The ones looking to boost their stars paints more of a picture.
#14 Hannah Grimm (M, 2025, D2 Northern Michigan) really supplemented things well, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Chan needs some other scoring options, while Bjugan gets the top defensive match ups and sucks up a lot of the oxygen. Grimm might be one of those to help out from the middie position.
#17 Zoe Zielinski (A, 2026) is coming off a knee injury last season, so she might not be at 100% this season. In addition to some of the off season/club accolades, she still owns a hard shot with a quick release, so on the attack side, she seems like the logical counterpart to Bjugan on the offensive side of the field.
#6 Jaydyn Hahn (D, 2024, D2 Grand Valley State) was the clear leader of the defense against PL. She should be solid - she learned under All-State defender Tatum Nyen, and is following her to GVSU next fall.
#11 Kenzie Chown (M, 2026) handled a lot of the draw work. Bodes well for the future of the storm to get that dialed in with a sophomore.
There’s no shame in losing to PL - they just had a few too many options for the Storm. What are the lessons learned on the quick turnaround against a similarily deep team in South?
#1 Lakeville South (1-0)
You can also read about our South recap from last year here, and also our game recap for their tilt against East Ridge here.
By our count, Lakeville South has 9 NCAA commits - thats kinda good.
Not unlike last year, in their game against East Ridge, #19 Tori Tschida (M, 2024, D1 Temple) is the straw that stir the drink, with her dominating performance on draw. When she’s dictating pace and possession, its tough to stop the South offense.
Goal-wise, #15 Sivanna O’Brien (M, 2024, D2 Dominican) led the team with 5 goals against ER. There is a ton of production to claim with Emily Moes and Gabby Bouman leaving, O’Brien led the way in game 1, but the team did a great job of spreading the wealth.
#13 Katie Grubbs (M, 2024, D2 Northern Michigan) helps lead the pace after Tschida gets possession on the draw.
#11 Ella Mills (A, 2025, D2 UCCS) is the transfer from Rosemount. She scored a goal, but seemed like she was still getting her feet wet in the new offense. She plays club with a lot of these girls, so we think she’ll be able to figure it out!
There is improvement that can be made by South, following their game against East Ridge - the are coached well enough and are expereined enough to take the opportunity to build on that win.
Game Preview
The only way Chanhassen could have dialed up a tougher start to the season is if they wove BSM into their opening schedule (don’t worry - they have BSM on May 14). South looked dominant to start their game against East Ridge, but then stalled out as ER made it a game. This is going to be a great test for both squads…no shame in either losing to the other, but how the game is played is going to say a lot for where each is to start the season. Luckily, you can find it on free stream with GameTime Media and Lakeville South Cougar’s Live, here.
With Tschida on the draw and controlling possession, we see South winning by 5-8 and setting up an early, but fantastic SSC match up against Prior Lake on April 23 (if you are wondering what next week’s game of the week will be, lets just say that is high on our list). If they don’t take care of business against Bjugan and Colleran is on her game, the Storm can pull this out. Remember, we’re as clueless as they come (pretty sure we picked Chan to upset South last year and that ended…poorly for us).