Ajanae Respass knows what she wants. Before a game, it’s a Jersey Mike’s sub: turkey with cheese and dijon mustard. During a game, she wants to score.

“My dad and I always talk, one goal per game,” Respass said.

On Tuesday night, the Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) forward recorded a hat trick, propelling the team to an 8-0 playoff win against Rangeview (Aurora) and earning her JWS Player of the Week honors.

The senior averages 1.2 goals per game and leads the league with 18 goals. With Respass leading the attack, the No. 8 Eagles enter Friday’s matchup against Regis Jesuit (Aurora, Colo.) with a 14-0 record.

This is only Respass’ second season with the team. Her club team, Real Colorado, was part of the now-defunct U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy, which prohibited its players from playing on high school teams. In April 2020, when the Academy folded, Real Colorado rejoined the Elite Clubs National League, allowing Respass to play for the Eagles.

Under the stadium lights, in front of a familiar crowd of classmates, teachers and family, Respass relishes the quintessential high school experience.

An authoritative force on the pitch, Respass leads by example.

“She’s always quick to encourage other players,” coach Brian Shultz said. “She’s also willing to hold us accountable when we’re not playing at the standard we want to play at.”

Off the field, the senior uses her voice to inspire her peers. As the vice president of diversity on Valor’s student leadership team, she advocates for minoritized communities. During the last week of Black History Month, she shared her perspective during a school-wide chapel service: “We’re all one in God,” Respass said.

Repass, who said she has always gone to predominantly white schools, explained what it’s like to feel different while underscoring the beauty in diversity.

That sentiment will be top of mind for her in the fall. After graduating high school, she’ll play for Oregon, having committed to the Ducks during her freshman year. Black women make up just 10 percent of NCAA Division I women’s soccer players. That figure has more than doubled in the last 20 years, and Respass hopes to inspire even more young girls like herself.

“Nothing should be stopping them. It could be biased as (a) predominantly white sport, but that’s where they need more of us,” Respass said.

Nika Anschuetz is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @nlanschuetz.

Jocelyn Leigh is most comfortable in the stillness of her mind. Whether she’s reading a book or breaking through defenders, Evanston Township’s (Ill.) forward exudes calm.

On Tuesday night, against an undefeated Glenbrook North team, Leigh’s patience was key.

“It will come,” coach Stacy Salgado said. “Your time will come.”

And it did. With two minutes left in the first half, Leigh scored a pair of near-identical goals into the back post. After 38 minutes of coming up short, the burst surprised the sophomore.

Leigh’s momentum carried into the second half, and she completed the hat trick with a shot from further out. Leigh’s dazzling performance helped the Wildkits clinch the 5-0 victory and the Central Suburban League South division title, earning her JWS Player of the Week honors.

“It’s always an incredible feeling to get one goal,” Leigh said. “Three is just amazing.”

Leigh recorded her first varsity hat trick on March 31. Since then, she’s been hard to stop, recording three more in just over a month. A young standout in a sea of seniors, Leigh’s mark on the team is indelible. She leads the Wildkits with 20 goals. Despite her success, she’s not one to gloat, and she is not burdened by expectations.

“You never know what you’re going to get with games,” Leigh said.

Salgado first met Leigh at a summer camp before her freshman year. In the two years since, Salgado has watched Leigh’s confidence flourish.

“She’s earned her starting position. She’s not as worried about making mistakes. When she’s on the field, you can feel her presence more, which to me shows confidence,” Salgado said.

She’ll need that next year. With half of Evanston Township’s roster graduating, the team dynamic will shift, and Leigh will be thrust into a greater leadership role.

Leigh, whom Salgado called “silent but deadly,” has already started to open up more to her teammates, her coach has observed. Even though she is not a naturally vocal leader, she’s earned her teammates’ respect with her versatility.

Just as Leigh channels her creatively off the field, reading books about historical fiction, social justice and sports, she is imaginative on the field: Salgado switches Leigh’s position, sometimes mid-game, between left, right and center in the attacking third, making it hard for other teams to scout Evanston.

“We know she’s going to produce,” Salgado said. “Every chance she gets, she’s so quiet when she does it, she looks so peaceful when she’s doing it.”

Nika Anschuetz is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @nlanschuetz.

Mairin Halama’s father, a college baseball player, always wanted to buy his daughter a pair of softball cleats. Instead, Halama followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a standout soccer player, and the Mill Creek (Hoschton, Ga.) senior has thrived this season as the team’s goalkeeper.

On Thursday evening, in the Georgia 7A state semifinal, Halama found herself in an unusual place — the sideline. She had suffered an injury in the first half and then watched as the Hawks played Walton (Marietta) to a draw through two overtimes, prompting a shootout.

That’s when the crowd heard the announcement over the loudspeaker: Substitution, Mill Creek: Mairin Halama.

Hawks fans roared with excitement.

Each team converted their first three penalty kicks, and on Walton’s fourth attempt, the Raiders player looked left. She couldn’t trick Halama. Halama lunged to her right to make the save, setting the stage for teammate Karina Pashkovets to convert the game-winning goal and send Mill Creek to its first state championship.

In addition to the clutch save, Halama three days earlier secured her seventh straight shutout, earning her JWS Player of the Week honors.

With Halama as the backstop, the No. 11 Hawks finished the regular season with a 15-4 record and allowed just six goals. Her success is even more impressive considering this is only her second season in net.

In 2021, the Hawks needed a goalkeeper. Coach Vince Hayes turned to the then-forward in part because he knew of Halama’s prowess on the basketball court.

“You are good with your hands. Why don’t you give it a try?” Hayes said.

Halama chuckled, but took it as a compliment. She spent hours mimicking her coaches and, halfway through that season, she became the Hawks’ starting goalkeeper. A year later, she still gets nervous before games, but it doesn’t last long.

“Once the ball is in my hands, all of the nerves go away. Everything else goes out the window and I just focus on that moment,” she said.

Hayes is hardly surprised by Halama’s success.

“It just clicked. She has good foot skills, and her punts and range are terrific in passing,” Hayes said. “Combine that with her basketball skill and agility, it was almost as if she was made for it.”

The state championship is May 6, meaning Halama’s soccer career will soon come to a close. In the fall, she’ll attend Georgia Southern and study exercise science.

In college, she plans to try on a new kind of cleats — a version her father has waited 14 years to buy. Halama plans to play softball.

Nika Anschuetz is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @nlanschuetz.

For much of Sophia Martelli’s freshman season at Buford High School (Ga.), the forward took inspiration from the message she had written in sharpie on her wrist tape: “Just shoot.”

Martelli doesn’t need that reminder anymore. In the Wolves’ final game of the regular season, Martelli scored three goals, leading Buford to a 6-0 win over reigning 6A state champions Johns Creek.

It was a season-high performance for Martelli and earned her JWS Player of the Week honors.

“They were beautiful goals. They were competitive goals,” Buford coach Megan Hill said.

The freshman recorded nine goals and eight assists over 18 regular season games, and she figures to play a big role for Buford in the postseason, which began Thursday with a 4-0 win over Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.).

Her success is even more impressive considering she switched school districts ahead of the year. Still, she’s found bonds on and off the field with her teammates.

“We’re playing for each other. We all want to win,” she said. “It’s much more fun winning.”

After a perfect regular season, the Wolves are vying for a state championship. While they are regulars in the postseason, they’ve never won it all. The team only has four seniors, but Hill views the group’s youth as an asset.

“To continue to build on those younger players and mature, we’ll really have a fantastic chance,” Hill said.

In addition to playing at Buford, Martelli plays for Atlanta Fire United. In February, she was selected to play in the Elite Clubs National League’s (ECNL) U15 National Selection game.

Off the field, Martelli has a fondness for math. Whether she’s solving for X, or graphing a function, she’s building on the basics, as in soccer.

“You still have to know the basics to do what you do now,” she said. “The older your body and mind is, you learn how to use those skills in different ways.”

She’s been refining her skills on the field since age 3. A passion for soccer runs deep in Martelli’s family. It started with her grandfather Tony Martelli, who imparted his love for the game to his sons, Sal and Dom, the latter of whom coached Hill as a child.

That family connection has helped Martelli make her own name in a family in which men have had most of the success on the pitch. Inspired by the USWNT’s 2019 World Cup victory, and the attention that’s followed the team in the years since, Martelli is now carving her own path. And it helps to have Hill by her side.

Nika Anschuetz is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @nlanschuetz.