PREP GIRLS SOCCER / DULUTH EAST 2, DULUTH DENFELD 1
Neither Audrey Przybyl nor her sister, Sophia, had any bets planned on the outcome of Duluth Denfeld's girls soccer game against rival Duluth East on Wednesday night.
But the sisters' mother, Monica, was intrigued by a reporter's suggestion that the loser had to clean the room she shared with her sister for a month.
"That's a good idea," Monica said.
Sophia says that's something she already does in the sisters' "Odd Couple" relationship.
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"It's awful because she's a very messy person and I'm a very clean person," Sophia said. "I clean every single night, including her stuff. Sometimes I try to make her clean it."
If any such bet was consummated, Audrey will be doing her sister's chores after Sophia's Greyhounds rallied to beat Audrey's Hunters 2-1 at Public Schools Stadium.
The midfielders each entered the contest at the midway point of the first half, moments after Alivia Radig gave Denfeld a 1-0 lead by deking around East goalkeeper Quinn Clark and depositing the ball in an empty net.
But East (5-7-1) rallied with a pair of goals from Kate Twomey and Meredith Hill in the final nine minutes of the half to win their fifth straight.
Prior to the game, Sophia, a freshman, predicted she would win any 50-50 ball that she contested with her sister, a senior.
"I'm going to take her down," the 14-year-old Sophia promised.
No such occasion presented itself during their time together on the field, however, and it marks the only time the sisters will square off in their prep career as East and Denfeld play in separate classes and cannot meet in the upcoming playoffs.
The oddity of sisters opposing one another came about when the Przybyl family moved from Duluth Heights to the Congdon neighborhood when Audrey was in eighth grade and Sophia in fifth.
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But after attending Ordean East Middle School for a year, Audrey chose to join older brother Timothy at Denfeld.
"Logistically, I figured it would be a pain, but her brother was driving to Denfeld so it was easy," their mother said. "I understood. She wanted to be with the friends she had grown up with for years so I let her."
Audrey, who was born in the Dallas area where her father, Rob, played soccer for 20 years and then moved to Duluth as an infant, joined the Hunters' varsity midway through her sophomore year. But in the start of a two-year string of bad luck, she broke her tibia when colliding with Hibbing's goalkeeper and missed the rest of the season.
The following season, Audrey learned she made the varsity team during preseason tryouts. Yet in the final 30 minutes of those sessions, she dislocated her kneecap.
"The ambulance had to come on to the field and take me off," she recalled. "I was out that whole season as well."
To prepare for her last shot, Audrey says she and Sophia - the sisters have five other siblings - spent the summer conditioning.
"We practice with each other all the time and go on runs with each other all the time," Audrey said. "We practiced together the whole summer to get each other into good shape for tryouts."
That doesn't mean the sisters aren't competitive to the core. From simple tasks like shopping to getting better grades, they are always trying to outdo the other.
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"Yesterday we got into an argument," Audrey said on the eve of the game. "We were fighting with each other and saying, 'My team's better, blah, blah, blah. Oh yeah? We'll see tomorrow.' "
Their mother said it's not the only time she's heard disagreements from the pair.
"Last night Sophia was screaming at Audrey because Audrey was nagging her about soccer," said Monica, who planned to sit at midfield and cheer both teams. "They have all the sibling fights that go with sharing a room, and then they're also good friends."
Friends or not, Sophia has the bragging rights.
Duluth East 2-0-2
Duluth Denfeld 1-0-1
First half - 1. DD, Alivia Radig (Elena Davidson), 21st minute; 2. DE, Kate Twomey (Meredith Hill), 32nd; 3. DE, Hill (Aubrey Guenther), 35th.
Second half - No scoring.
Saves - Quinn Clark, DE, 7; Alysha Volkenant, DD, 10.
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