LIVING IT UP: Hun School girls’ soccer player Olivia Braender-Carr boots the ball up the field last Wednesday in the state Prep A championship game. Senior defender Braender-Carr and the sixth-seeded Raiders fought hard in falling 2-0 to top-seeded and 11-time champion Pennington. Last Saturday, NYU-bound Braender-Carr ended her Hun career by picking up an assist as the Raiders topped Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) 3-0 in their regular season finale to post a 7-12-1 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Olivia Braender-Carr’s senior season with the Hun School girls’ soccer team got off to a rocky start.

Hampered by injuries and with young players taking their lumps as they were thrust into key roles, Hun lost its first seven games this fall.

As the lone senior captain on the squad, Braender-Carr did her best to pump up the team’s younger players during the early losing streak.

“I just tried to keep them positive after those first couple of losses,” said Braender-Carr, a defender who helped trigger Hun’s offense with her deft corner kicks and penetrating runs up the field.

“I was trying to keep them working, trying to figure out what I could do to motivate them.”

Braender-Carr’s influence paid dividends as Hun caught fire in mid-October, propelled by a pair of wins over Lawrenceville in a week.

“The wins over Lawrenceville really got us going,” said Braender-Carr. “I think it just kept building and building. We really started to want to win, the drive got bigger. We got some players back that were injured, Ashley Maziarz and Jess Sacco.”

That drive to win spurred Hun on a stirring run in the state Prep A tournament as the sixth-seeded Raiders topped No. 3 Lawrenceville and No. 2 Peddie on the way to the title game last Wednesday against top-seeded Pennington School.

While Hun fell 2-0 to 11-time champion Pennington in the championship game, Braender-Carr had no qualms with the effort produced by the Raiders.

“I think we played really tough; we hung in there,” said Braender-Carr in assessing the contest that was knotted 0-0 at halftime.

“I think we had more shots in the first half on goal, some good chances. We had a few breakdowns in the back obviously. We didn’t stay on our marks enough on the 18 when they scored their first goal and on the other one they showed a great counterattack off the corner kick.”

Despite trailing 2-0 in the waning moments of the contest, Hun kept attacking to the final whistle. “Ashley had a chance off my corner; I had a shot at the end,” said Braender-Carr.

“We really worked well as a team defensively, stopping them at the box. I just thought we played our hearts out.”

Hun head coach Joanna Hallac thought that her team showed plenty of heart in defeat.

“We knew it was going to be a really tough matchup,” said Hallac. “We hung with them. I thought the first half was a really good battle. They had more looks but I didn’t think they had great looks, it was nothing too dangerous so I felt good heading into the second half.”

Pennington, though, took charge in the second half, going up 1-0 with 32:30 remaining in regulation and then tacking another tally with 5:25 left.

“Giving up that goal changed the momentum,” said Hallac. “We were down for a few minutes there and we were able to claw back a little but the second one kind of sealed it. The girls should really be proud of the way they played.”

Hallac is proud of how her squad rebounded from its 0-7 start. “It makes you wonder what could have happened if everyone was healthy all year,” said Hallac, whose team topped Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) 3-0 last Saturday in its regular season finale to end the fall at 7-12-1.

“But you know what, you have all of these freshmen who wouldn’t get the experience that they did and that not only helped us at the end of this season, but it is going to be a huge help going forward.”

Hun’s late surge has Hallac looking forward to 2014. “I think the way that we finished the season, they should see what is there for us in the future and keep looking towards that,” said Hallac.

“We need to keep building towards that because we basically bring almost everyone back. There is no reason that we can’t be back here next year.”

It will be difficult not having Brander-Carr back on the team. “It is hard to even put it in words; Olivia has done such a great job as a leader on the field, off the field in so many ways,” said Hallac, whose other senior on the team this year was Tanya Clark.

“She does a lot of those intangible things that coaches just love to have in their players, but especially in their captains. We are going to feel her loss tremendously. She has really done so much for this program; we are going to miss her.”

Braender-Carr, for her part, loved the way things came together in her final days with the program.

“The last three or four weeks have really been good; that’s how I wanted my whole senior season to go,” said Braender-Carr, who will be playing for the NYU women’s soccer team next fall.

“I am glad I got to spend time with this group of girls; this is the closest bond we have had in all the grades in the four years I have been here.”