When Elkhorn senior Olivia Thompson speaks, her sister, Elly, a freshman starter on the Antlers’ girls soccer team, often listens, especially when it comes to how to play the game. After all, Olivia has seen just about everything in her high school career.
When asked if she looks up to Olivia, Elly’s response, well, that shows the love that the Thompson sisters have for each other.
“I do a lot; I have ever since I was little,” Elly said. “She’s my main motivator for soccer. She’s someone that I always go to, someone who I can always talk to if I’m struggling … She’s definitely my role model. I look up to her a lot.”
On Wednesday, the sisters shared not just one moment they had dreamt of since they were little girls. There were at least four, with more to come.
The first was playing in a state tournament with the mentor, Olivia, leading the herd.
“It’s so much fun,” Elly said. “I mean, I’ve been waiting for this ever since I was a little kid.”
The Thompsons aren’t the only sister-sister pairing playing in a state tournament for the Antlers. There are four groups of sisters on the 2026 Antlers: Olivia and Elly, Reagan and Presley Feuquay, Ella and Evie Rodgers and Lea and Sara Naujoukaitis.
“It’s so cool to see how they work together and how they coach each other,” Antlers coach Danielle Anderson said. “The seniors, especially coaching the freshmen, they love each other so much, and even the sisters that aren’t each other’s, they love each other so much. So it is something special and very unique to our program.”
Before kickoff there was an absent feeling for the Thompsons.
“We were out welcoming family from a long way away, friends, and one of them said there’s somebody missing, and it was Elly,” Travis, Elly, the sisters’ father said. “We’re like, well, Elly is out there competing, and now the story’s happening, and I guess we bought in. It’s really good kids who have a ton of great family and friends, and they get to tell their story here.”
Wednesday’s 5-0 win over Kearney Catholic was the first Elkhorn girls state tournament win since 2018. Olivia got the scoring started for the Antlers in the 19th minute with a free kick to the box that resulted in a Kearney Catholic own goal. Ten minutes later, the third moment happened. The Antlers’ senior leader didn’t need help to connect on the second goal of the game.
In the 35th minute, Thompson found junior Molly Flynn on a corner kick for a header, the third goal.
The fourth moment, the most special of all the Thompson family memories on Wednesday, came in the 43rd minute. A cross to the middle from Olivia’s best friend, her younger sister Elly, found the back of the net.
”Well, she’s just my best friend,” Olivia said, fighting back tears of joy.
After a pause, Thompson continued.
”I feel like a lot of sisters say that. We fight a lot; that’s just what sisters do. But when she scored, I’ve never been so proud of her in my entire life. We always dreamed of that, especially when the season started. So knowing that she got to experience that, along with my goal, that was probably our happiest moment together. Being able to hug her on the field and knowing that she’s looked up to me and she does what I can do, I don’t even have words for it. It just makes me emotional.”
That moment almost didn’t happen for the Thompsons. Olivia, one of the team captains, suffered what she and her sister thought was a season-ending injury on April 27 in the first half of a 4-1 loss to Blair.
“I separated my shoulder and I sprained my AC joint,” Olivia said. “I was going through every emotion,” Thompson said. “I thought my season was over, too. I had to leave the field at halftime to go to the ER, and (Elly) had hyperventilated and had to sit for a second because she was so emotional.”
After all, that is what sisters do. They love one another. If they can’t feel the other’s pain, they want to take it away. That is a deep kind of love that only siblings can share.
“Knowing that somebody cares that much,” Olivia said through tears, “it’s just amazing to know that I have that support system.”
The rehab wasn’t easy and with a short turnaround to a district tournament, the oldest Thompson was back on the pitch just 10 days later, a shootout victory in a district final against Grand Island Northwest.
“It was out of our hands and it was really up to Liv, and she wanted to do it,” her mother, Courtney Thompson, said. “We gave her every opportunity in terms of physical therapy, seeing a good doctor. We said, ‘This is up to you; we’re not going to put any pressure on you,’ but that was her goal, her choice, her dream. This is what she’s always wanted.”
Like a lot of little girls, they gave soccer a try at an early age. For Olivia, that was at 4 years old. After years spent dreaming of playing in a state tournament and, more importantly, doing so with her little sister, she wasn’t going to let a shoulder injury take that opportunity away from her.
“She’s played all these years since she was 4 to be here,” Courtney said. “Then to be able to share it with her sister is a whole other level.”
Sports, especially playing them with a sibling, can provide lifelong memories. There are wins and losses, injuries and friendships along the way.
The lessons sports, particularly high school sports, teach young people are sometimes invaluable. To lean into and learn from not just a captain but your role model, who happens to be your big sister, that is an experience Elly will never forget.
The journey will continue. The group of Elkhorn sisters will make more memories, not just on the soccer pitch, but in life. The younger sister will take some chances that the older sister warned her about taking, and there will be lessons learned from that mistake.
For now, there is another practice, perhaps a few more, and at least one more game.
Saturday, the No. 4 seed Antlers will face the Class B favorite, No. 1 Lincoln Pius X, at 12 p.m. at Morrison Stadium in downtown Omaha.
An upset win to earn a spot in the state championship, that would be the most special moment of them all.
