Bishop O’Connell junior Ryanna Dill prepares to deliver a corner kick in last week’s game against Bishop McNamara. Dill scored the game’s first goal on a free kick and the Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over the host Mustangs.
Bishop O’Connell junior Ryanna Dill prepares to launch a free kick in last week’s game at Bishop McNamara. Dill scored on this free kick and the Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over the host Mustangs that day.
Bishop O’Connell junior Ryanna Dill prepares to deliver a corner kick in last week’s game against Bishop McNamara. Dill scored the game’s first goal on a free kick and the Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over the host Mustangs.
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News
Bishop O’Connell junior Ryanna Dill prepares to launch a free kick in last week’s game at Bishop McNamara. Dill scored on this free kick and the Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over the host Mustangs that day.
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News Bishop O’Connell junior Ryanna Dill launches a corner kick in the second half of last week’s game at McNamara.
Although she still has one more season of high school soccer on tap and then perhaps four years of college, Waldorf resident Ryann Dill has already earned a berth on one United States women’s national soccer team and would like to play for several more.
Dill, a junior at Bishop O’Connell in Virginia, which plays in the ultra-tough Washington Catholic Athletic Conference for boys and girls sports throughout the school year, recently played for the U.S. 17-under women’s soccer team in Mexico and Spain and is now seeking to cap her current campaign with a WCAC title for the Knights.
“That entire experience of playing for the national team was unbelievable,” said Dill, who has already committed to playing women’s soccer at the University of South Carolina beginning in 2027. “You’re among the best players in the whole country at your age group. It’s definitely a goal of mine to keep playing for the national teams and keep advancing and hopefully play with the U.S. national team.”
Dill, who also plays for the Bethesda United Soccer club, is normally a defender for the upper tier squads. But last Thursday afternoon at McNamara she had to display her dribbling and shooting skills as an attacker up top.
On that occasion, Dill was responsible for taking a vast majority of the corner kicks and free kicks and accounted for the game’s first goal on a direct free kick.
“It’s a little challenging at times,” said Dill, who was zoned to attend McDonough High School before opting for O’Connell. “On the corner kicks I am usually aiming to go beyond the goalie and look for Moira [Kinsella] running back post. She’s really good at timing the kicks. On the free kicks, I typically aim toward the cross bar and hope to just get it past the goalie.”
Although O’Connell is a private co-ed school that competes in the WCAC for titles each season, the Knights are also allowed to compete in the Virginia State tournament each season. Conversely, the Maryland state tournaments are reserved for public schools.
Dill is hoping the Knights will be able to attain both titles this fall.
“We really want to win a title this season for coach [Alberto] Starace,” Dill said. “He’s been with the program a long time. We’ve always had good teams, but we always seem to come up short in the WCAC playoffs. We really want to win the WCAC and state tournament this season for him.”
