Palm Harbor girls soccer team picking up where it left off

What will ultimately lead to hoisting championship trophies overhead when all is said and done? Is it flashy, high-octane offense or suffocating, spirit-killing defense?

From baseball to football, basketball to soccer, that classic sports debate will persist at all levels until the end of time.

So perhaps for the sake of avoiding any notion of that argument, this year's Palm Harbor University girls soccer team seems to have an amicable solution.

Just have both.

With 10 returning seniors from last year's state title team, PHU presents nightmarish scenarios for opposing teams at every spot on the pitch.

The stats bear it out as well.

At 13-0-1 as of Wednesday - the only blemish to perfection being a 1-1 draw with Seminole on Dec. 9 - the Hurricanes have outscored opponents by a comically staggering amount: 61-3.

No team has scored more than one goal in any single contest and the PHU defense has turned in 10 shutouts.

So much for a championship hangover.

Head coach John Planamenta had plenty of ground to cover himself when asked to pinpoint catalysts to PHU's success.

"In the back you have Cina Salemi who has been really organizing and controlling the defense for us. Then you have Catherine Brinkman and Zoe Lombard up front, and those three girls happen to be our team captains, too."

"They've been keeping the team focused and making everyone understand that each game is important."

Even with so many returning players from the 2009-10 season, Planamenta said, he has been stressing the weight each district game plays, no matter where the team's record stands at to avoid complacency.

"We kind of knew we had to come back and own up to what we did last year," Salemi, a senior sweeper, said in regards to the team's focus from start to finish. "Everybody was trying to make sure we weren't slacking off."

If there has been some lackadaisical slacking, it sure isn't noticeable.

Brinkman (29 goals and 6 assists) and Lombard (14 and 12) represent Pinellas County's most lethal one-two threat on the attack, and three other Hurricanes (Paige Lombard, Kelly Phipps and Queli Ornelas) all are in double-digits in scoring.

Defensively, while the measly three goals against speaks for itself, Planamenta recognized the play of goalkeeper Nikki Brewer.

"The big thing with Nikki is that our defensive unit has been doing well by not letting opponents get many shots off, but she has really stepped up when the opportunity has come up."

"She's made some good saves and it's not an easy thing to do to be called upon real quick to make a key save in case there is a breakdown."

With such wealth of talent performing at its current level, early season questions about how PHU would react to its bump from Class 5A to 6A are mere faded memories.

The Hurricanes have handled each of its new District 6A-7 foes by a combined score of 22-1. PHU traveled to Sarasota Riverview Friday night for the regular season finale.

The path does plan to get bumpier in the near future, though, Planamenta said. Hillsborough teams like Plant, Bloomingdale and Newsome are all in the Hurricanes' region come playoff time, assuming Palm Harbor gets through districts.

"Of course they've got the goal of wanting to go back to states and win it," he said. "But it's a matter of them not looking ahead. We know the region is going to be real tough."

With a team as talented, well-prepared and well-coached as PHU, it can be presumed that players are well aware of what type of teams lay ahead. But as far as the supposed, marked uptick in competitiveness at the 6A level, Salemi seems to be taking things in stride.

"No matter what, we have to take it just as seriously because we don't know what it's going to be like," she said. "I don't really notice the difference between classes, other than we might have to drive a little farther."

True, the road map may have a few different stops along the way this year, but the only path these Hurricanes are interested in is the familiar one that once again leads to their ultimate destination.