The South Suburban Conference boasts four of the top six teams in the Class 2A girls' soccer coaches association poll. They are No. 2 Eastview, No. 3 Burnsville, No. 4 Prior Lake and No. 6 Lakeville North.

Those four teams "are all very strong this season," Lakeville North coach Bulut Ozturk said. "I predict that three of the four teams will make it to state this season. I also believe that we will have a state champion from one of these teams."

Lakeville North (8-1-0) is in Section 1, Prior Lake (11-1-0) in Section 2 and Burnsville (10-0-1) and Eastview (9-2-1) in Section 3 come playoff time. The Panthers were the top state tournament finisher a year ago, taking third place.

"We lost some top players, but still have the heart of the defense back," Ozturk said.

In the past three years, Lakeville North's senior centerbacks Lauren Brownrigg and Lauren Sherry and goalkeeper Alexis Joyce have recorded 39 shutouts in 53 games while compiling a 44-5-4 record.

They have seven shutouts and three goals against this year.

The Panthers' only setback was at hands of Burnsville, 2-1 on Thursday. The Blaze also handed Eastview one of its two losses.

Meet to remember

Lakeville North's girls' swimming team raced to an 100-85 victory over Rosemount in a South Suburban Conference dual meet on Sept. 17 at Kenwood Trail Middle School in Lakeville.

It wasn't just another ordinary dual meet. Two swimmers — senior Zoya Wahlstrom of Lakeville North and sophomore Megan Wenman of Rosemount — contributed to six pool records in the meet.

"In my 38 years of coaching I don't think I have ever seen a meet with six pool records broken," Lakeville North coach Dan Schneider said.

Wahlstrom was part of four pool records and one school record. She set pool records in the 50-yard freestyle (24.61 seconds) and 100 butterfly (56.27). She also swam on the 200 medley relay team, which broke the school and pool record (1:48.54), and anchored the 400 freestyle relay team's pool mark (3:35.50).

Wenman posted pool records in the 100 freestyle (52.08) and 200 freestyle (1:53.33).

Top performances

• Senior midfielder Abby Soderholm scored both goals in Burnsville's 2-1 victory over Lakeville North in South Suburban Conference girls' soccer play.

Both teams entered the matchup unbeaten. Soderholm leads the Blaze in scoring with six goals.

• Ali Ahmed and Vivian Hett, both senior cross-country runners at Burnsville, were the boys' and girls' medalists in the Burnsville Invitational on Thursday. Ahmed covered the 5,000-meter boys' course in 16 minutes, 47.3 seconds; Hett ran the 4-kilometer girls' course in 14:49.1.

Ron Haggstrom • 612-673-4498