Girls' Soccer: Bullis Pulls Off Major Upset

When Celeste Melanson first stepped onto the field as coach of the Bullis girls’ soccer program last fall, she saw a team that bore little resemblance to the one she played for back when she graduated from the Potomac private school in 1999.

“Maybe we would lose one game, but we always got press and we were always top 10 in the area,” said Melanson. But the team she inherited had a mediocre 5-10-2 record in 2007. “I think these girls had the thought that they were always that team that everybody knew they were gonna beat.”

Melanson, though, seems to have Bullis back on track now. Wednesday, the Bulldogs pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in the girls’ soccer scene this fall when they defeated No. 7 Holy Cross, 2-1, in double overtime.

Sophomore Katie Silverstein scored the initial goal in the first half, and after Holy Cross tied things up with 15 minutes remaining in the second half, sophomore Cami Uechi made sure the Bulldogs didn’t let the upset bid slip away with a goal in double overtime. Melanson said she was impressed that her team was able to find its second options with Holy Cross blanketing the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, Samira Jackson, with two and three defenders.

Following a season-opening loss to public school neighbor Churchill, Bullis has gone 7-0-1 in its past eight games. But its success had gone largely overlooked since the Bulldogs are in the less competitive ISL A division, meaning they don’t have to compete in the standings with traditional ISL AA juggernauts Georgetown Visitation, National Cathedral, and the Potomac School.

That could all change following this season, though. If Bullis finishes first in the A division, it will get the bump up to AA. Last season, the Bulldogs finished 10-2-2, but lost in the ISL A championship to Flint Hill, who currently sits in first place in the AA division.

“We want to be on the map, we’re just as good as any other team out there,” said Melanson. “I think we’re getting back to that point where it’ll be a full circle thing from when I graduated.”