The Ursuline High School girls soccer team feels comfortable in its return to the Division III postseason.

The Irish, who competed in Division II the past two seasons after being in Division III in 2016, defeated Waterloo 11-0 in a sectional final Wednesday night at Youngstown State.

Ursuline, which is seeded second and improved to 10-7, will play host to third-seeded John F. Kennedy in a district semifinal on Monday.

“We play at a good level most of the time, but then to step up and compete against some strong area programs in the Division II (postseason) was difficult,” coach Roy Schmidt said. “It was a good time for us to drop down because we’ve only got 15 girls on the team this year. That doesn’t leave for much subbing.

“These girls have persevered everything that has come their way this year and we’ve had a pretty good showing. We only have two seniors on the roster, too, so that’s exciting.”

Leading the way have been senior midfielder Taylor Tomlinson, senior back-row defender Lucia Rohrbaugh and junior Cara McNally, a midfielder/forward.

Tomlinson, who was all-state as a freshman and all-district the past two seasons, has led the team in scoring and leadership.

“I think this is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Tomlinson, who scored five goals and had an assist against Waterloo. “Everybody is putting forth their best effort at practice and in games. I like that (Schmidt) gives us a lot of input. Lucia and I typically talk about things with our teammates before getting to practices and we vote on what we think we should work on that day in practice.

“Then we go to (Schmidt) and tell him what we’re thinking and he makes us work on that and anything else he had determined for that day. So it allows us to have a say.”

McNally had five assists in the tournament win.

Tomlinson said moving forward the Irish will need to tidy up on communication and passing.

Other key members for Ursuline have included sophomore goalkeeper Tanner Shade and a trio of freshmen in midfielders Marisa Fiorini and Olivia Puhalla and defender Maria Fusillo.

Fusillo scored two goals against Waterloo, Fiorini had a goal and an assist and Puhalla also had one goal. Also scoring were Colleen Rowland and Sering Limbu. Aiden Tomhave, Alyana Smith and Allissa Kosovan also had assists.

“We start with Taylor as an all-state player and then we have our ultimate utility player in Cara, who is always in the central field, whether it’s at forward, midfield or on defense,” Schmidt said. “Then you also have Lucia in the back and a strong keeper in Tanner and the freshmen have done a whale of a job for us.

“Our girls have a lot of heart and desire and are doing what we need them to do in order for us to be successful. While we’re small in numbers, we have some very strong athletes and that helps because we have very few subs. I’m very proud of what we’ve done this year and the future looks bright with our youth and plus we’ll have four or five very good players coming in as freshmen next season.”

“We played a little short-handed (against Waterloo), but we’ll need to be on top of our game against Kennedy,” Schmidt said. “It’ll be all hands, and feet, on deck.”