Great Bend super soph Arias named Player of the Year
The battle for the Western Athletic Conference girls’ soccer championship has always been a tough road for any of the five member schools.
The eight-game, double round-robin schedule provides teams with opportunities and challenges if they want to bring home the title. After all, teams such as Garden City, Liberal, Dodge City and Hays have made runs into the postseason in the past.
The 2026 season was no different as the Lady Buffaloes of Garden City managed a number of close wins en route to a 7-1-0 conference record to win their second straight title and third in four seasons.
That regular season success proved to be one of the catalysts behind the postseason run of the Lady Buffs that finished with a fourth-place standing in Class 6A. They advanced to the state semifinals where they lost 3-0 to Olathe Northwest before falling to long-time nemesis Topeka-Washburn Rural, 8-0, in the consolation match.
For GCHS head Coach Jose Vital, the WAC race is a good proving ground to help prepare his team for the late season one-and-done playoffs.
“I think our success comes from a combination of things on the schedule — the WAC teams are always competitive and then our non-conference schedule is filled with a number of outstanding opponents,” Vital said. “I think that schedule conditions our team to play at a high standard.”
This year’s version of the Buffs was not a high-powered offense for Vital. Of the Buffs 7 conference wins, three were by one goal, two by 2 goals and two by four goals. Their lone loss was by a single goal.
The race to the title was not decided until the final regular season match at home against Hays, the only team to hand the Buffs a WAC setback (3-2). In that final deciding match, the Buffs won 2-1 to secure their second straight crown.
“Nothing came easy for this team,” Vital said. “All you have to do is look at how close our matches were to know that it’s a tough road to win WAC.”
Vital says he believes the WAC provides one of the strongest conference in Kansas in Classes 5-6A, and values the quality of the opposing teams.
“We’re fortunate in that we’ve got some great coaches, some great players who have shown they can compete on the bigger stage,” Vital said. “We’re getting players nominated for state honors which is great to see.”
This year’s WAC also saw a little bit of a flip-flop in which teams were competing for the title as Hays and Great Bend finished second and third while Liberal and Dodge City placed fourth and fifth.
“Very strange season to see Liberal and Dodge finish at the bottom,” Vital said. “It was a bit of a shock because they’ve been so good for so long. I think everyone deals with that when you aren’t able to regroup or reload with another quality group. It only takes one or two classes to see a downturn in a team.”
With that high level competitiveness, Vital says he and his staff emphasize all the time to the players not to take anything or anybody for granted.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Vital said. “You’ve got to go out and earn it. We’re not entitled to anything.”
The Buffs scored just 43 goals while giving up 34. Of the team’s overall seven setbacks, three of them were by a combined total of 19 goals. Goalkeeper Jarica Hutcheson yielded all 34 goals. Two players — junior Aliyah Rodriguez and sophomore Jennyfer Tamayo — led the team with 8 goals each. Rodriguez added 9 assists and Tamayo 6.
“Our success came more from a collective group effort rather than relying one just one or two players,” Vital said. “We are losing some quality players, but we’ve got a lot returning with more good players coming up from middle school.”
The all-WAC first team is comprised of Player of the Year Xali Arias of Great Bend (see story below), Teegan Guerra of Great Bend; Rodriguez, Tamayo, Hutcheson and Jasleen Ortega of Garden City; Annie Humphrey and Kinslee Newell of Hays; Lilly Guy and Ashley Batista of Liberal; and Jazmin Rojas of Dodge City.
Vital was voted Coach of the Year.
XALI ARIAS, GREAT BEND, SOPH., MID-FIELDER — Girls Player of the Year
For most of the past decade, the girls’ soccer program at Great Bend High School could be found in the basement of the Western Athletic Conference standings.
The Lady Panthers would win an occasional non-conference match, but rarely found a victory in the always-tough WAC.
Things have changed dramatically for the program, now under the watchful eye of head Coach Noel Rodriguez.
The Lady Panthers finished with an overall win-loss record of 9-8-0 and then went 3-5-0 in the WAC to place third behind Garden City and Hays.
One major reason for turnaround is sophomore Xali Arias, the nimble mid-fielder for the Panthers who was voted WAC Player of the Year.
Arias was the top scorer in the WAC, finishing the season with 33 goals and 7 assists to end with 73 points (2 points for a goal, 1 for an assist). She nearly doubled her scoring output from her freshman campaign when she scored 18 goals and added 3 assists (39 points).
“I found out (about the award) last Friday (May 29) and I can’t lie, I cried,” Arias said in a telephone interview. “It was just a little crazy because I’ve worked so hard. We were at a team dinner and that’s when I learned. It was amazing to share it with my teammates.”
Arias said she and her current teammates have been playing on a travel teams for several years and coach Rodriguez had changed the team’s work ethic.
“We’re more competitive and more serious about getting better,” Arias said.
Arias described herself as an aggressive mid-fielder who doesn’t mind some of the physicality of the sport.
“I’ve worked a lot with weights to get stronger and I think that helps when I can get control of the ball,” Arias said. “We push ourselves to get better and our practices are tough when we breakdown different areas to work on.”
Arias said she likes to have the ball so she can move it to her teammates for them to have scoring opportunities. Her strength, she said, is in her ability to shoot the ball. The area she wants to improve upon the most is her speed and quickness.”
We had a good year, but we know next year can be better,” Arias said. “We want to compete for the WAC title and to make a deep run in the playoffs.”
Her coach, Noel Rodriguez, said Arias is an “all-in” player who loves the sport and wants to excel.
“She’s a good role model now and she will be growing into more leadership as an upperclassman,” Rodriguez said. “She’s hard to match up with because she’s quick and agile and can get open and get the ball to her teammates.”
For Arias, the recent season was just a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the future.
“We have new and higher goals now,” Arias said. “We completed with a lot of teams and now we need to turn those into wins.”
WAC Girls Soccer Final Standings
| SCHOOL | WAC | OVERALL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garden City | 7-1-0 | 13-7-1 |
| 2 | Hays | 5-3-0 | 8-8-0 |
| 3 | Great Bend | 3-5-0 | 9-8-0 |
| 4 | Liberal | 2-5-1 | 6-8-1 |
| 5 | Dodge City | 2-5-1 | 3-12-1 |
ALL-CONFERENCE GIRLS SOCCER
| FIRST TEAM | YR | SCHOOL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xali Arias | 10 | Great Bend |
| 2 | Teegan Guerra | 11 | Great Bend |
| 3 | Jazmin Rojas | 12 | Dodge City |
| 4 | Annie Humphrey | 12 | Hays |
| 5 | Kinslee Newell | 12 | Hays |
| 6 | Lilly Guy | 10 | Liberal |
| 7 | Ashley Batista | 10 | Liberal |
| 8 | Aliyah Rodriguez | 11 | Garden City |
| 9 | Jarica Hutcheson | 11 | Garden City |
| 10 | Jennyfer Tamayo | 10 | Garden City |
| 11 | Jasleen Ortega | 12 | Garden City |
Coach of the Year: Jose Vital-Caro, Garden City
| SECOND TEAM | YR | SCHOOL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liliana Santiago | 11 | Liberal |
| 2 | Ana Vela | 10 | Liberal |
| 3 | Kenya Ortiz | 12 | Dodge City |
| 4 | Briana Garcia | 10 | Dodge City |
| 5 | Liz Cunningham | 12 | Hays |
| 6 | Sienna Lummus | 12 | Hays |
| 7 | Karlee Crispin | 12 | Hays |
| 8 | Trinicia Garcia | 12 | Garden City |
| 9 | Annaly Enriquez | 10 | Garden City |
| 10 | Melissa Gutierrez | 12 | Great Bend |
| 11 | Araceli Aguilera | 11 | Great Bend |
