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DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

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As ninth-graders Ayla Medina and Kyra Graham became best friends.

They were the two girls with unique first names who were trying to make a name for themselves on the Costa Mesa High girls’ soccer team. They were two of four freshmen who were designated to keep the winning tradition intact for the Mustangs.

Fast forward to their senior year. Medina and Graham are still friends, but their respective goals have changed. They work together, trying to sell clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch at South Coast Plaza. But they no longer work together on the pitch.

Graham, who was the Orange Coast League Player of the Year last season when she led the team in scoring, decided not to play for the Mustangs this year.

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“She just got burned out and really didn’t like soccer anymore,” Medina said of Graham.

Soccer has always been a part of Medina’s life. She’s not ready to let it go just yet. She’s been playing the game for 13 years and wants to compete for at least one more. Next season, she’s planning to play at Orange Coast College.

“It just doesn’t get old for me,” said Medina, who was the Orange Coast League Co-Player of the Year as a sophomore and a first-team selection a year ago, when the Mustangs won their sixth straight league title, second consecutive in the OCL. “I love scoring in soccer. I like winning. I just like the feeling of winning and doing it all together as a team.”

Even during the off-season, she played for the Palos Verdes Soccer Club. Two days a week, she would travel to Carson to practice at the Home Depot Center. The year before, she played for the Brea Blaze.

Even before coming to Costa Mesa it seemed like every day that Medina was either practicing or playing for an AYSO team or a club.

She grew up in the game, and held stronger to it after dabbling in another sport in the fifth grade. Her older brother, Christian, played water polo and competed in swimming. He talked her into trying water polo.

“There was this co-ed league in the summer,” Medina said. “I found out that I was better on land than in the water. I decided to stick with soccer. I have better luck with that than in the water.”

Medina’s younger brother, Eric, a freshman at Costa Mesa, also competes in water polo and swimming. But Medina chose soccer, the same sport her father, Al, played at Costa Mesa.

But that’s not the only aspect that sets her apart from her brothers.

“I get extra spoiled being the only girl,” Medina said. “That’s the advantage, no hand-me downs.”

The disadvantage?

“Being the only girl it kind of sucks not having anyone on my side,” she said. “But they do look out for me. My best friends are like my sisters.”

Some of those friends include Graham, as well as seniors Teresa Fox and Jessica Rubright, who are both on the Mesa team.

They’re trying to get the Mustangs their seventh straight league title and then another deep run in the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Last year they reached the second round.

Medina thinks the team started to live up to its potential last week in a 3-1 win over Calvary Chapel. It helped that Medina scored three goals and now 12 to lead the team. She also has six assists, including one Thursday that helped the Mustangs to a 1-0 win at Laguna Beach and kept the team unbeaten in league at 3-0-1.

“Things are starting to change,” Medina said. “All of us want to win league and go as far as we can. We feel that this is our year. We just want to leave with another patch for league champs.”


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