Lake Mary girls soccer coach Christian Eissele lost a lot of firepower after the Rams won the Class 7A state championship a year ago.
His top three scorers graduated. His goalkeeper graduated. But did Lake Mary’s level of success slip?
Nope.
The 2026 Rams are 18-2-2 and aiming for a repeat state title this week. Lake Mary, No. 1 in the FHSAA 7A power rankings, takes on fourth-seed Jupiter (14-6) in a Tuesday 1 p.m. state semifinal at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand.
“They’ve surprised me a little bit over the course of time. I didn’t know how this season would go and how they would respond,” said Eissele, a former boys soccer standout for the Rams who is in his sixth season as a head coach.
“We’re definitely excited and I’m proud of the girls for their hard work. I think part of it is the culture that we’ve created and the seniors last year helped create. It trickles down to the younger ones and they know now what it takes what’s required of them.”
Lake Mary’s game kicks off the week for six Orlando-area teams shooting for FHSAA championships.
Bishop Moore’s boys and girls return to the 4A state final four, making it six straight years that both teams have qualified. Innovation girls are in a 5A semifinal in the second year of the school’s existence. And Sanford Seminole and Windermere High play against each other in a 7A boys semifinal showdown.
Montverde Academy’s girls captured the 3A championship in Week 1 of the state finals, defeating Cardinal Gibbons 2-0.
Lake Mary soccer girls shut out Cypress Bay to win 7A state crown
If overachieving Lake Mary can match last year’s state title it will eclipse last season’s total of 19 victories and record the program’s fifth state championship. The first three title teams (1989, 1998, 2002) were coached by Bill Eissele, who retired and handed the reins to his son after 37 years at the helm.
“I think my question in the summer was how would they lead and how would they go about there business every day and I put that challenge on them,” Christian said of his team. “I’m just impressed with how they carry themselves and how they focus.
“They work really hard every day and they are super talented kids. I’m certainly happy to be in this position.”
Junior Teagan Jahns leads the Lake Mary girls with 23 goals this season. (Chris Hays/Orlando Sentinel)
Teagan Jahns, a junior, leads the team in scoring with 23 goals. Siena Sigurdsson, a sophomore, has 18 goals and senior Ava McKay has 14.
Jahns has stepped up after scoring six goals a year ago.
“It’s, honestly, no surprise if you watch her train. She trains at 120% every single day,” Eissele said. “She’s deserved all of the things that she has done and she certainly inspires others to train and compete as hard as she does.”
He rotates a talented trio of goalkeepers and he lets opponents’ tendencies dictate who will be in goal each game. He has yet to determine whether he will go with senior Lara Walker, junior Lara Greenstein or sophomore Krista Hansen as the starting keeper on Tuesday.
“We’re lucky to have three incredible goalkeepers, in different ways. They have their strengths and weaknesses and depending on the game plan, we decide as a coaching staff what our plan is,” Eissele said. “Either of those three can step in at any given time and we’re confident in their abilities.”
Seminole’s boys are making their first state tourney appearance since 2018. Windermere reached the state championship match two years ago, losing a thriller on penalty kicks against Boca Raton.
Bishop Moore’s boys take another shot winning it all in their seventh consecutive state tourney appearance. This time the Hornets are the No. 1 seed. They were state runners-up in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and lost semifinals in 2020, 2021 and last year.
The Bishop Moore girls are back in the final four for the fifth consecutive year, this time as an underdog. The Hornets won state titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and were runners-up last season.
State tourney matchups
At Spec Martin Stadium, DeLand
Tuesday
7A girls semifinal:
No. 1 see Lake Mary (18-2-1) vs. No. 4 Jupiter (12-2-3), 1 p.m.
7A boys semifinals:
No. 2 Columbus (16-4-5) vs. No. 3 Windermere (19-1-5), 4 p.m.
No. 4 Seminole (12-4-4) vs. No. 1 Palm Harbor University (21-1), 7 p.m.
Wednesday
7A girls championship, 4 p.m.
7A boys championship, 7 p.m.
Thursday
4A girls semifinal:
No. 1 Plantation American Heritage (16-0-1) vs. No. 4 Bishop Moore (8-6-5), 1 p.m.
4A boys semifinal:
No. 4 Naples (14-6) vs. No. 1 Bishop Moore (21-2-6), 7 p.m.
Friday
5A girls semifinal: No. 4 Innovation (11-7) vs. No. 1 Lourdes Academy (15-3), 1 p.m.
Saturday
4A girls championship, 10 a.m.
4A boys championship, 1 p.m.
5A girls championship, 4 p.m.
Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.
