The Prior Lake girls soccer team has been up and down this fall.

The hope is the Lakers can be up for the upcoming Section 2AA playoffs. Prior Lake earned a solid 3-1 South Suburban Conference home win over Burnsville Sept. 25.

The Lakers went into the game off a 1-0 loss at Chanhassen Sept. 22 in a battle of Section 2AA foes.

Prior Lake (4-7-1 overall, 3-3 in the SSC) is back on the conference field Sept. 27 at Apple Valley at 7 p.m. The Lakers' final two regular season games are also SSC ones — at Rosemount Oct. 2 and home to Farmington Oct. 6 at 5 and 2 p.m., respectively.

The Lakers were supposed to play Farmington Sept. 20, but severe weather postponed the contest.

The Section 2AA quarterfinals start Oct. 9. Prior Lake could be anywhere from the No. 5 to the No. 7 seed depending on its finish. Second-ranked Edina (6-1-2), No. 6 Eden Prairie (6-2-2) and No. 8 Minnetonka (7-3-1) look to be the top three seeds.

Chanhassen (6-3-3) is likely to get the No. 4 spot. 

Others in the field: Bloomington Jefferson (5-4-2), Chaska (3-5-4) and Shakopee (2-8-1).

Prior Lake has section wins over both Chaska and Shakopee, while it's also lost to Eden Prairie and Edina.

In beating Burnsville, junior Josie Machalek scored a pair of goals for the Lakers, while senior Reagan Dahl tallied once. Junior Katarina Decaroli finished with 10 saves in goal.

Decaroli had five saves in the loss to Chanhassen. The Storm scored the game's lone goal in the second half.

Prior Lake has lost six one-goal games this fall and has been shutout five times, four by 1-0 margins. So if the Lakers can find some offense come playoff time, they are capable of making a deep section run.

Junior Calyn Schanzenbach and sophomore Kate Trachsel lead the team with three goals apiece, while Machalek and Dahl both have two goals and junior Erica Moline has scored once, while leading in assists with two.

Decaroli has a 1.27 goals-against average appearing in 11 games with a .861 save percentage.