Nurse, mom, coach? It’s all in a day’s work for Marvin Ridge soccer’s Jenna Borrelli

You think guiding a girls’ high school soccer team into the state playoff semifinals in your first year as head coach is tough?

Try raising four children, all 6 or younger, and holding down a challenging job.

Welcome to the life of Jenna Borrelli, rookie coach of the Marvin Ridge team that will host Mooresville at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 4A West regional finals.

Tuesday’s winner advances to the state championship match, either Friday or Saturday in Matthews, against the East winner, either nationally ranked Ashley or its Wilmington rival, Hoggard.

Borrelli and assistant Katie Morton, who has her own set of scheduling challenges, have guided the Mavericks to a 13-4-5 season. Mooresville brings an 18-3-2 mark into Tuesday’s match.

“To be honest, the job just dropped into my lap,” Borrelli said.

Longtime head coach Keith Koteles stepped down before the current season, and Borrelli’s name was mentioned to Marvin Ridge athletics officials. She was named head coach shortly before the season began, recruited Morton as her assistant, and set off on the process of becoming a high school soccer coach.

Returning to soccer

She had plenty of background in the sport.

Jenna McKeon was a high school standout at St. Francis Prep in Queens, N.Y. and played with a U.S. national team. She then played four seasons with the Charlotte 49ers and was among only six players to start all 21 of the team’s games in 2011, her senior season.

McKeon played where she was needed, spending time as a defender, midfielder and attacker in her 49er career.

She graduated with a nursing degree, and then life happened. McKeon became a nurse, got married, and started a family. Somehow, she has managed to make it all work — children, coaching, and serving as a hospital nurse in the pediatric wing.

“It gets kind of crazy,” she said. “I do my nursing shifts on weekends. The rest of the week is pretty busy with our children and the coaching.”

Morton, her assistant, has two children and a third on the way, in early autumn.

Often, the coaches’ young children accompany them to practice.

“They have to deal with a lot of chaos,” Borrelli said of the Marvin Ridge players. “We bring our kids to practice, and we’re dealing with their water and their screaming.”

And if that’s not enough, there’s Morton’s pregnancy.

“Sometimes I’m dry-heaving, over in the corner,” she said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of stuff going on.”

‘Bit of a reckoning’

Perhaps not surprisingly, Marvin Ridge’s season got off to a tepid start. The Mavericks were 2-3-4 near the midway point of the schedule.

“Halfway through the season, we had a bit of a reckoning,” Borrelli said.

The coaches and their players discussed what it would take to be successful.

“Early in the season, we were all getting used to one another,” Morton said. “The girls were playing to be successful. What has changed is they’re now playing for one another.”

Marvin Ridge has gone 11-1-1 since that midseason reckoning.

“There was always a lot of talent here,” Borrelli said. “Once we all got on the same page, it began to show. I think we have empowered the girls to tap into their own skills, and to play for each other.”

The Mavericks have several senior leaders, including Camryn McKee (nine goals). But younger players also are feeding the playoff surge. Junior Isabella Zicchinolfi, with a team-high 10 goals, scored twice in the opening six minutes last week in a 6-0 quarterfinal rout of Myers Park. Freshman Lucy Chin, who also scored twice against the Mustangs, has nine goals.

Goalkeeper Molly Estes, with a 0.17 goals-allowed average, is a junior.

On Tuesday, Marvin Ridge faces another team which has seemed to thrive on challenges. Mooresville hasn’t scored more than two goals in its last five matches but has relied on a tough defense to advance in the playoffs. The Blue Devils have won three of their last five matches in overtime.

Junior Cameron Cline (18 goals) and senior Claire Downing (15 goals) lead the offense.

“Our girls have displayed a lot of endurance,” Borrelli said of the Mavericks. “We’ll need more of that to keep advancing.”

Also playing Tuesday

Three other Charlotte-area teams will play in the regional finals Tuesday.

Two-time defending 1A state champion Christ the King (17-3) travels to Polk County (15-4-3) in the 1A semifinals; Pine Lake Prep (19-1-1) hosts Wheatmore (17-4) in Class 2A; and South Point (17-2-2), which lost in the finals a year ago, travels to North Davidson (21-2).

State championship matches will be played Friday and Saturday at the Matthews SportsPlex. The championship schedule is expected to be announced Wednesday.