ST. GEORGE - Nobody will confuse the Hurricane Tigers girls soccer program for the likes of the Alta Hawks who begin their push for a fifth consecutive state championship title this week. However, it's safe to say the 3A school is making tremendous strides this season in building a winning tradition of their own.

It all starts with today's first round playoff matchup at home vs. Ben Lomond at 4 p.m.

"We're excited for our first-round game. It's going to be a tough, physical matchup with Ben Lomond, but our girls will be ready," said Tigers first year coach Lacy Kennington said.

Hurricane captured the No. 1 seed from Region 9 in the 3A tournament, a significant accomplishment considering the program won just four games overall a season ago.

"I have to give a lot of the credit to our new coach (Kennington). She brought excitement and detail to our team, preparing us well for the entire season with a hard conditioning program," said two-year starter Carly Stratton, who has scored nine goals entering today's contest.

Kennington brought with her impressive soccer credentials: a three-sport letterman at Mountain Crest before suiting up at Dixie State. After two years, Kennington transferred to Utah State to finish out her four-year college athletic career in soccer. The experienced player decided to take up coaching soon after and served as an assistant in a few different places, including a stop in Bakersfield, Calif.

When the Hurricane head coaching position opened up, the former Aggie, formerly Lacy Gustaveson, thought it was worth a try and so far it's paying dividends for the program.

Like any coach taking over a prep program, Kennington wanted to put her own stamp on it.

What made her philosophy interesting, though, was she didn't want to know anything about the Tigers (9-5-1 in region) recent history on the field. The coach wanted to start with a completely fresh approach.

But one can't turn around a struggling program without talent.

Stratton, a center midfielder, is one of 11 juniors on this year's team. With a limited senior class, one of the challenges for Kennington was to get the young athletes to buy into her system after they endured a disappointing 2009 campaign.

Stratton's partner-in-crime, forward Shantai Bowen (eight goals), explains the Tigers went through two-different training camps before the season started, which conditioning and soccer fundamentals were stressed on a daily basis.

"I think the year before we ran a few sprints and that was it," Bowen said. "Coach (Kennington) has physically prepared us to not get tired in the second half of games or in the final weeks of our schedule."

Kennington's early impressions of the Tigers (1.8 goals per game scored, 1.1 goals allowed) were positive, immediately recognizing the players had speed and physical toughness. She took those strengths and incorporated them into her coaching philosophy, which stems from years of experience as a prep and collegiate letterman.

Kennington said she was happy that she didn't need to recruit students to come out for the team. With that said, though, no cuts were made, meaning the Tigers had just enough of a turnout to form a team, albeit a few varsity players are competing on the junior varsity team as well to fill out that area of the program.

Nonetheless, Kennington is pleased and hopes the program's success this season will spread the good word to prospective players in the future.

In other action, Cedar hosts Judge and Desert Hills travels to Bear River. Both contests begin at 4 p.m.