The Herald’s 2025 Girls Soccer Player of the Year: Olivia Taylor

Olivia Taylor had been to two state tournaments with Shorecrest as a freshman and sophomore.

The forward had seen what it took for a senior-laden team to finish second at state in her freshman season, and had helped lead another experienced squad to the state tournament’s first round in 2024.

When 2025 came around, Shorecrest (10-5-4, 7-2-3) had graduated nearly 20 seniors in two years. While Taylor, fresh off a season where she was voted team MVP, was entering her first campaign as an upperclassman, there was uncertainty within the team about how far the Scots could go with a young core.

A 3-0 loss to Snohomish to open the campaign affirmed the feeling that it may be an off-season for the Scots, but Taylor helped shift that thinking.

After a 4-0 win over Bethel, Shorecrest played a scoreless game with Mountlake Terrace in the early going. The team could’ve resigned itself to a draw in its league opener, but Taylor, ever the opportunist on offense, pushed for a winner from the outset. Sophomore forward and longtime teammate Pip Watkinson delivered a ball up high to Taylor in the 18th minute, which she headed in for the only goal of the night.

That kind of timely scoring ability would prove to become a theme, as Taylor would go on to score multiple result-changing goals, including one against rival Shorewood, en route to an 11-goal, seven-assist campaign.

For her efforts in fighting through opposing double-teams and triple-teams all season and her ability to contribute to timely goals, Olivia Taylor has been named The Herald’s 2025 All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

Taylor also netted her second straight Wesco South 3A/2A first-team selection and league Offensive Player of the Year as the junior helped power Shorecrest’s offense all season.

Scots head coach Mindy Dalziel goes way back with Taylor, as she was the winger’s elementary-school physical education teacher when her family first moved to Shoreline. Even then, Dalziel could see the passion that the San Diego native had for the game of soccer.

“I’ve known her since she was little … she’s always wanted the ball, and she would work on her dribbling skills at recess,” Dalziel said.

Taylor would take that passion for dribbling the ball into club play with Seattle United, where she was encouraged to keep developing that on-ball quality. When she arrived at Shorecrest as a freshman in 2023, though, she was introduced to a new level of soccer.

The Scots rostered 10 seniors on varsity, leaving freshman spots at a premium. Taylor waited most of the season for her number to be called.

After Shorecrest managed a second-place league season, Taylor got her chance with a postseason call-up — filling in wherever Dalziel and the staff asked her to.

“I was scared at first, but it was pretty much just excitement that came over me,” Taylor said of the call-up. “I always felt that varsity was there for me and that I would get my chance.”

The Scots ended up with a second-place finish at state while Taylor got a first-hand glimpse of how to succeed in the postseason.

With plenty of roster turnover and still 10 juniors-turned-seniors for the 2024 campaign, Taylor managed to earn a starting spot. Manning the wing, Taylor had plenty of space to work with as opposed to the striker position she typically plays during club seasons. She made good use of it.

She created opportunities by winning one-on-one duels with her technical ability — something she chalked up in rather simple terms.

“I always felt like if I could knock this one player out of the game, then we have a green light towards goal,” Taylor said.

With that straightforward thinking, Dalziel will have to remind her young winger about exactly what she’s getting into at times.

“There are moments when I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, Olivia, you’re taking on three people, like what are you doing?’” Dalziel said with a laugh. “And she’s like, ‘It’s fine.’ And I’m like, ‘You do you!’”

The underclassman was voted team MVP as the Scots made it to the first round of the state tournament, falling to Seattle Prep 3-2. Going from fighting for minutes a season before to being recognized as a valued starter meant the world to Taylor.

“I felt like the hard work of the season had paid off, but I remember my parents talking to me about that too,” Taylor said of the individual success. “It’s like, ‘you have a lot of expectations next season.’”

Taylor and company felt those expectations almost immediately, as the junior was double-teamed and even triple-teamed to prevent her from working in space normally. That was where Watkinson came into the equation.

The sophomore forward burst onto the scene with nine goals and six assists herself in 2025. But the connection that she and Taylor forged defined both of their seasons.

“Those two were in cahoots,” Dalziel said of the pair, who have known each other for over five years through club soccer with Seattle United. “Over half of their goals and assists were with each other.”

The connection wasn’t just the result of familiarity, but a commitment to seek one another out at all times.

“Before games and in practices, we’d always just talk and be like, ‘I’m going to assist you,’” Watkinson said. “Like we just say that ‘I’m going to get you the ball throughout the game.’”

Taylor’s ability to score late goals always had the Scots believing as well. She scored a sliding overtime winner against Shorewood on Sept. 30 and equalized an Oct. 23 bout with Meadowdale in the 79th minute of 2-2 draw, changing important league outcomes left and right.

“What goes through my head is, our team has worked hard to create an opportunity to score. So why not just score it?” Taylor said of her clutch goals.

All of those moments landed the Scots in a loser-out, winner-to-state match with league rival Edmonds-Woodway in early October. Despite Shorecrest’s success in qualifying for the state tournament recently, there wasn’t much in the way of hope for another deep run at the top of the season.

The team had watched 17 seniors come and go in two years, leaving just five rostered for 2025. As such, Dalziel’s team relied on underclassmen like Watkinson, sophomore forward Parker Almquist and others with just five seniors.

Both Watkinson and Taylor agreed that Taylor’s header to decide their league opener against Mountlake Terrace turned the tide.

“That’s when the attitude and mindset shifted,” Taylor said of the game. “We’re not going to spend these moments losing … we’re going to step up.”

The Scots carried that fire to a third-place league finish at 7-2-3 and into round three with Edmonds-Woodway for a spot at State.

Watkinson scored on a free kick and Taylor powered the offense with long runs into Warrior territory all night. After a late E-W goal and a last-chance shot from the opportunistic Taylor, the No. 4 Warriors had the last laugh and advanced past the No. 2 Scots 2-1 at Shoreline Stadium.

Despite the tough ending, Taylor and the former five-time champion Scots are confident in their ability to push further into the postseason in 2026.

”Toward the end of the season, the underclassmen really stepped up,” Taylor said, shouting out contributors like Ava Sasnett, Paige Bosley and Nemesia Peters. “In soccer, everyone has a trial run at things … after (the underclassmen’s) trial run passes, and all that stress is gone, you go to the next season feeling 10 times better.”

For now, Taylor is back in club play with Seattle United as she mulls over interest from Division I and Division II collegiate soccer programs.