Lawrence High senior Bess Davison volleys a ball back to a teammate as she and the rest of the LHS soccer team get warmed up at the beginning of camp on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at LHS.

When Lawrence High’s girls soccer players returned to their home field for team camp this week, they felt like they were picking up where they left off.

About six weeks following the end of last season, around 15 players showed up to start laying the foundation for next year. That included some varsity returners and five freshmen.

Lawrence coach Matt McCune, entering his third season, said the purpose of the camp is a chance to focus on the fundamentals. The Lions work on possession and simply touching the ball more.

“We’re not coming in here to work on set pieces or anything like that,” McCune said. “I always tell people, there’s kids in Brazil and kids in Germany who have never gone through an official training session, but are amazing soccer players. That’s just because they play.”

After ending last season with a 6-10-1 record, the Lions were excited to play alongside each other again and meet a strong group of freshmen.

The Lions will have to replace three starters who graduated, including leading scorer Skylar Drum (17 goals, six assists), but they are confident they will continue to take steps forward as a program.

“I think we can be a better team,” McCune said. “We probably won’t score as many goals. But I think we’ll be a better team because this will be the third year in what we’re trying to do as coaches — the system that we’re trying to run, which is a lot of short passes, play to feet, moving together as a team.”

Lawrence High girls soccer head coach Matt McCune directs his players during soccer camp on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at LHS.

Throughout the 90-minute practices during the camp, which ends today, the Lions work on their technical skills and end it with games on a shortened field.

Playing with seven or eight team members on each side, the Lions use half the field for a simulated game. McCune said it gives a chance for more touches in a confined space.

“I think smaller games help a lot,” LHS senior Bess Davison said. “Nobody is really in shape right now, but it’s fun to just play together and have fun together over the summer. It’s good to not forget about everybody between the long break between seasons.”

Along with the team camp, the Lions had an opportunity to scrimmage against McCune’s adult league team.

When the two teams played last year, the adult league team won 7-1. This year, the Lions put up a stronger fight in a 4-2 loss.

“Experience is everything in soccer,” Lawrence junior defender Leslie Ostronic said. “We just try to play as much as we can because it always helps.”

McCune added: “I don’t care about the score. As a coach, you just want to see results on the field, not necessarily on the scoreboard. That really does help. We’d like to play other high schools, but at the same time, an adult league team is pretty tough to beat.”

It was only a few years ago that Lawrence’s girls soccer program would draw only a couple of participants throughout the summer.

With stronger results in the past two seasons, players definitely can feel more enthusiasm in the offseason.

“Even from like last summer when we would have two people at workouts, this has gotten so much better,” Davison said. “We have scrimmages that more girls have been showing up to. It’s definitely a better commitment.”