GVS Beats Pioneer To Advance

February 13, 2026

Thursday, 12-Feb-26

Cate GVS 4 – 0 Pioneer High School (Whittier)

Saves: Mimi Power (4)

Assists: Claire Chan, Violet Guilbert-Neal, Alaia Muller, Analise Gomez (DK)

Goals: Precious Adjei (3), Alaia Muller

Good news: It sure feels nice to get this playoff win.

Great news: We get to host on Saturday (and not travel to Palm Desert), which means… winter formal is a GO.

We knew this game was going to be dominated by Pioneer’s direct kickball style, and our nervous energy played into that in the opening minutes, but the team settled down and demonstrated elegance in the midst of chaos. That’s surprisingly hard to do.  The first, and most obvious moment to celebrate, was Alaia Muller’s debut GVS goal.  She’s been putting them away in practice and we coaches knew she was ready, even if she wasn’t so sure herself.  As John Wooden reminds us, “poise and confidence are the natural result of proper preparation.”  She was perfectly prepared today, neatly directing the energy from Violet’s impressive cross into the goal.  We were all pretty excited.  Speaking of confidence, Precious could not have looked more comfortable in front of the net, earning a hat trick without pretense.  The first goal was a low, hard strike off a lofted pass from Claire Chan (who had a heck of a game today at left midfield). She scored the second goal by floating the ball over the keeper after a popout from the combined effort of Analise and Alaia.  And then she dropped the third shot in behind the goalkeeper on a technically beautiful direct kick; the foul was earned by Analise after her attack from the left back position.  What stands out about Precious these days are two things: her tenacity in the attacking third and her composure, which is wonderfully evident in her attitude, her resilience, and her effort off the ball. But enough flattery for the forwards for now, because I started this write up wanting to highlight our defense! The combined efforts of Lauren, Sierra, Amelia, Tania, Analise, and Mimi were incredible today.  Pioneer had a talented forward, and they shut her down.  At one point late in the game, Lauren, Sierra were doubling, and Analise somehow swooped across the back line to shut things down before they ever got scary.  The defense works so hard and rarely gets credit, because doing a good job means… nothing exciting happens.  Today they had a bit of an opportunity to shine and actually press up, and see some of the limelight. Sierra made wonderful decisions in her position in front of and alongside Lauren. And because of their reassuring presence, Analise was able to take off up the left side, which she did, somehow coming up smiling after being flipped over around the 20 yard line, setting up that final goal.  I’ll go light on the midfield accolades today, but suffice to say that they were responsible for our possession game, tallying at least 50 completed passes between Fiona, Nika, Claire Chan, Valentina, and Maya.  We’ve been managing injuries and to have such a dynamic team, hardworking team, is a gift, especially in these moments.  Thank goodness we get to keep playing together.  Stay tuned for Saturday’s home game details and thank you for reading along.