JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers KEEP-AWAY- Simi Valley's Kaylee Finnan, right, fends off two Agoura defenders during a Marmonte League match last week. At the beginning of every new year, millions of people make resolutions and ask for a fresh start. In 2008, that list will include the Simi Valley High girls' soccer team.

Although the Pioneers played well in the preseason and posted a 3-0-2 record, the team has fallen on hard times recently. After a loss last week at Agoura High, Simi Valley's Marmonte League record stands at 0-2-1.

"We're in a hurting spot," SVHS head coach Mark Johnson said. "At best, we're an average team right now. We're young, and we don't have much experience. We're also not playing well consistently. We play brilliant at times, but there's also times when it seems we're not playing at all."

Senior defender Tawny Skultety said SVHS must to do a better job of communicating.

"Our team has a lot of great individual talent," Skultety said. "If we want to start winning, however, we need to learn to communicate better as a team. We played pretty good in the preseason, but then league started and things got tougher. We still have a long way to go."

Skultety is one of six seniors on the Pioneer roster, three of which are starters. Senior Jackie Anglin starts at midfield. Although the Pioneers were getting beat in nearly every facet of the game against Agoura, Anglin continued to outhustle just about everyone on the pitch.

"Jackie is our Energizer Bunny," Johnson said. "She doesn't leave anything on the field, and she always plays with a lot of intensity."

As a result of her hard work last season, Anglin was named the Pioneers' Most Inspirational Player.

"Coach Johnson has always shown good support," Anglin said. "As a player, you have doubts of how good you actually are. I try to never give up on the field, and it was nice that someone noticed that last season when I received that award."

Anglin agreed with Skultety that the team must talk more. She's trying to address the problem by organizing practices over the winter break. Anglin's seen improvement in games, but only in short spurts.

"There are times when we're passing the ball well to each other and we're very vocal on the field," Anglin said. "But we need to do that for an entire game, not just three seconds."

Johnson said that while the team needs to work on its on-field communication, the offense also must improve.

"We have to slow down our ball play on offense," Johnson said. "We're a fast team, but we don't have many fast-on-the-ball skilled players. We seem to be losing the ball on our second pass too much.

"If we want to win more games, we're going to have to control the ball on our side of the field for more than 20 to 30 percent of the game."

Johnson said that besides Anglin and Skultety, sophomore Rochelle Duffau, along with juniors Stephanie Mankey, Kaylee Finnan and Jessi Sampogna, have all contributed. Sampogna scored her first goal of the year in the second half against Agoura.

Although Simi has struggled lately, Anglin is hoping for better results as the calendar changes.

"We play in one of the toughest leagues around, and our team is very young, but I like everyone on our team," Anglin said. "I still believe that we're going to eventually put it together, and when that happens, everyone in the league better watch out."

The Pioneers' next game is at Westlake High on Jan. 7.