Best player in the state. Undefeated heading into the girls soccer state tournament. No. 1 seed.
Edina had been here before. In 2021, all those admirable factors added up to an underwhelming third-place state tournament finish.
When all those stars aligned again, however, the Hornets met the opportunity. Senior Izzy Engle, the Ms. Soccer and Star Tribune's Metro Player of the Year recipient, scored seven goals in three state tournament games as top seed Edina finished a perfect season, 22-0.
The Hornets are the 2024 All-Metro Sports Awards Girls Team of the Year.
A three-season run as championship contenders featured Edina stumbling to third place in 2021, then surging to second in the 2022 state tournament, surpassing its meager fifth seed.
With only one mountain left to climb, the Hornets went to work all season long. They beat 2021 state tournament nemesis Stillwater 4-3 on Aug. 29. They rolled through their Lake Conference games, highlighted by regular-season victories against Minnetonka and Wayzata.
Engle shined against her team's toughest opponents. She tallied three goals in a comeback victory against Stillwater and posted another hat trick in the regular-season finale against previously undefeated Wayzata.
More than "The Engle Show," Edina won the section semifinal and final while she was in Chile for the 2023 Pan American Games with the U.S. U-19 team.
Edina rallied against a stubborn St. Michael-Albertville team in the state tournament quarterfinals. The Knights scored first and later tied the game 2-2. Then Engle, who scored the first two Edina goals, completed the hat trick.
And Engle twice gave her team a one-goal lead in a defensive battle with Wayzata on the way to a 2-1 victory for the Class 3A girls state title at U.S. Bank Stadium.
A perfect ending to a hard-earned perfect season.
