Soccer - Girls - Varsity | Mercersburg Academy

Mercersburg fielded its first girls’ soccer team in 1990, though Mary Curtis ’86 actually set the standard for the program five years earlier, when she earned the starting goalie position on the boys’ team in 1985. Curtis went on to play collegiately and was the head coach at Holy Cross. The Curtis-VerStandig Soccer Award is awarded annually to the Mercersburg player who makes the most outstanding contributions to the team.
The varsity team has won five IPSL championships since the league was founded in 2011. Recent alumni have competed at the NCAA Division I level, including at Furman University and Idaho State University. The schedule features high-level competition in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League and regionally against some of the top programs in West Virginia and the greater Washington, D.C. area.
Two of the school’s 11 athletic fields are dedicated to training and competition for the girls’ soccer program. Upper Field, the primary competition venue for the varsity team, is a full-size, natural-grass facility equipped with in-ground irrigation.

Kristen Pixler

Arts Faculty and Head Girls’ Soccer Coach

Bio

Kristen Pixler teaches digital art and photography, as well as CommArts: The Art and Business of Graphic Design (a Springboard capstone course available to seniors). She is also the head coach for Mercersburg’s girls’ varsity soccer team, works with Mercersburg Outdoor Education, and is an adviser to Blue Review, the school’s student literary-arts publication. Kristen came to Mercersburg from Harrisburg Area Community College, where she was an adjunct professor of web design. She is an experienced commercial photographer, illustrator, and designer, and owns KHP Photo and Design in Chambersburg. She received a bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University and a master of fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University, both with an emphasis on photography. Kristen and her husband, Matthew, live off campus; Kristen is an adviser and dorm faculty member in Fowle Hall.

Skyler Clark

Science Faculty

Bio

Skyler Clark, a native of Connecticut, joined the Mercersburg science department in 2018 as a teaching fellow and was appointed a full-time member of the science faculty in 2020. Skyler serves as an assistant girls’ varsity soccer coach and has been the faculty adviser for the John Marshall Literary Society on campus. He graduated from Washington College in Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in theatre. Skyler grew up on the campus of The Gunnery, an independent boarding school in Connecticut; his father taught and coached for more than 30 years, giving Skyler an enormous appreciation for and understanding of residential life. Skyler lives in Keil Hall on campus.

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