The pressure of beginning a season as a section champion weighed on the Albert Lea girls soccer team as it opened its 2008 season Friday against Waseca at Hammer Field — fortunately it didn’t last too long.

The Tigers (1-0) played tight in the first half but were still able to find the net in the sixth minute when junior Sophie Miller scored her first career goal from 35 yards out on a teardrop shot that arced just under the crossbar and over the outstretched arms of Bluejay keeper Jessica Brayman en route to a 4-0 win.

“It’s a new experience this year, it’s a new dynamic,” said Albert Lea head coach Rick Barnhill. “We’re kind of playing with a weight and responsibility of being a champion from the prior year.”

The first half remained tenuous as Waseca had opportunities early to tie the game and Tigers senior center midfielder and playmaker Jenna Christensen went down in the eighth minute with a knee injury. The Bluejays had a quality chance in the 14th minute of play when they had a wide open net, but could not get a shot off as the Tigers defense collapsed inside the goal box quickly to clear the ball.

“I just had a little concern when the score stayed 1-0 for a long time,” Barnhill said. “Any kind of mistake, the grass was wet, any kind of a good shot by them — you don’t have any margin for error. If they would have tied the game up — their confidence was already pretty high by staying that close to us and they were riding a hot hand with the goalkeeper. The good thing is our defense did what it needed to do.”

The Tigers struggled to connect on offense and missed opportunities to put the game away early. In the 22nd minute Stadheim dribbled past the Waseca defense deep into the 18-yard box and sent a pass across to sophomore forward Taylor Freihl. Freihl twice tried to put a shot on goal, but could not find the net.

“At first we were kind of struggling so I was really nervous that maybe we weren’t going to quite get it,” said junior defender Morgan Stadheim of the team’s first win. “There’s a lot of weight off of us. It feels really good.”

Then in the second half Albert Lea calmed down and started to put together a consistent attack. Armed with 23 players for the evening Barnhill rotated fresh players in and off the field throughout the second half and the team produced three goals.

“Barnhill just told us ‘You are the better team, you just need to show up,’” Stadheim said.

The Tigers announced their presence when junior midfielder Mariah Maras sent a left-footed shot toward the near post in the 22nd minute to give the Tigers a 2-0 cushioned lead.

They would add to that lead just four minutes later when senior midfielder Alex Ciota drilled a shot into the lower right corner of the net from 12 yards out to make the game 3-0 and sophomore midfielder Ariel Christensen added a fourth goal when Freihl collected a rebound at the near side and sent a pass across the 18-yard box to a wide open Christensen who did the rest.

“We just needed to relax and realize that we could do it,” Ciota said. “We were really tense the first half.”

Albert Lea controlled much of the play in the second half and recorded 54 shots on the evening compared to just 10 for Waseca. While the Tigers failed to finish as much as they could have, Barnhill knows his team is not the type to hang many crooked numbers on opponents.

“We’re not a team that is going to blow people out,” he said. “We’re not a team that’s going to score 7, 8, 10 goals probably. That is probably the identity of our team, what you saw tonight.”

Christensen would later return to the game in the second half and saw limited action. Barnhill said she hyperextended her knee slightly in the first half, but it did not appear that any ligaments were damaged.