ARGOS - When Kevin Christy returned to the LaVille girls soccer team sidelines, he knew he had some solid seniors and a good nucleus of letterwinners to provide a good season. With the change in conferences, LaVille moved from the Hoosier North to the Indiana Northern State Conference, plus a chance to add a variety to the match schedule, there was excitement in the air. Now, some seven weeks later, the regular season has concluded and the Indiana High School Athletic Association state tournament begins. The Lancers will participate in the 1A Argos Sectional October 8, 10, and 12.  LaVille drew a first-round bye and will face the host Dragons on October 10 at 7 p.m.  The winner will advance to the sectional championship on October 12 and 2 p.m. "The team is coming along just fine," said Christy when asked how the season has been so far.  "They're working hard. When you take about getting three months or so from open field workouts in the summer to where you are now, they've all bought into what we are trying to do. Really happy to see where we progressed to. They have all bought in and are working as a team. They pick each other up. They also get after each other a little bit, which is what you need to do.  All in all just really happy with the leadership and the support everyone's been given. The coaching staff has done a great job with them and it has gone as well as I could have expected." LaVille and Argos met on September 17 in Lakeville for its regular season tussle.  The Dragons came away with a 3-0 victory. "We are fortunate," Christy explained when asked about playing a sectional team in the regular season.  "Any team would want to see a sectional team during the regular season and kind of get familiar with what they do and they get familiar with what you do for a better match the next time around.  "Argos is historically, obviously, a good program - boys and girls side. They've got a good pedigree. They are coached well and I know they are young, but they are good players. That is the first thing we got to try to take care of is getting past Argos. Believe we can. The girls believe we can. The draw is what it is and the draw puts us effectively in a semifinal. If we can find a way past Argos, and we believe we can, you are sitting there with good teams on the other side of the bracket.  Manchester was a one goal differential and Culver was a two-goal. A real nice sectional as far as competition-wise and that is what you want to see.  You don't want to see 10-0 scores.  You want to play someone that will challenge you and I think there are 3 or 4 teams there that could challenge anybody.  We are looking forward to it.  We got a few days to prepare for it and we are going to take advantage of every single one of them." In the upper half of the bracket, Manchester (9-6) opens with Culver Community (12-2-1) on October 10 at 5 p.m.  In the 7 p.m. nightcap, Oregon-Davis (0-8) faces Rochester (2-8-3). Tuesday winners return for the 5 p.m. Oct. 10 semifinals, followed by Argos (4-7-1) and LaVille (9-6). The championship match is set for Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. Christy's club has been led by seniors Mackena Deason, Brooke Edison, Ava Barrett-Heaton, Mikalah Kuskye, Sydney Miller, and Reagan Mitchell. Mitchell, however, has been sidelined after an injury against West Noble. "It is in the doctor's hands at this point," noted the Lancer boss. "We miss her. She is vocal on the bench. Anytime you get a starter to go down, that is tough. She is a senior, she is everything you want in a player ... work ethic, practice ethic, everything. You love a player like Reagan and when she goes down you feel for her and you feel for the teammates, too.  And (her teammates) have, they've done a very nice job recovering from her injury.  (Reagan) has been there every step of the way, she has been there.  She has done everything that the doctor will allow her to do." So far in 2024, the LHS defense has been stingy, allowing more than five goals in a match just twice this season. The Lancers 27 goals against is the best since the 2021 team. "The defense is led by good seniors and good leadership back there," said Christy, who has watched his team win four of its last five matches.  "Good communication, that's the key, they move well together, they cover for each other, they are aggressive, and their mentality is to stop the ball. It's everything you can hope for out of a defense. We try to keep people from scoring, obviously, and they've done a pretty good job of it." As LaVille spends the next few days preparing for the 2024 state tournament, Christy is "just really proud of how they are working.  We bend, we don't break. We keep fighting. We don't quit. We've had a few games (this season) where we have had to be gutsy and (the West Noble match) was one of them." Admission at the Argos girls soccer sectional will be $7 each per session. There will be no full session passes available this year. Stay tuned for live streaming information at www.lavillelancers.com, @LVAthletics (on X), and facebook.com/AthleticsLaVille