All season long, Bryan girls soccer coach Amy Pettibone could see snapshots of greatness in her Lady Vikings.

"With each game, they get more confident," Pettibone said. "When they came from behind and beat Temple [during District 12-5A play], I think that was turning point in our season. Granted, we turned around two days later and played the worst game ever. It gave us snapshots of the season -- remember how ya'll did this."

Now, needing a victory over Garland Sachse on Tuesday to reach the Class 5A Region II tournament, Bryan (18-8-2) is beginning to see a motion picture, a highlight reel.

It's all forward motion for a team that began the playoffs with questions after a fourth-place finish in 12-5A. The Lady Vikes had never won a playoff match, nor had they scored a postseason goal, but a solid group of seniors has helped to change all that.

"It's awesome to be part of this team and see what we've built in four years," said senior captain Kylie O'Connor. "Our freshman year was actually the first year we made it to the playoffs. We've never been past the first round and this year we're going to the third round. It's really exciting."

O'Connor, who has scored four goals and assisted on six others, believes the 3-1 bi-district victory over 11-5A champion Tyler Lee was a huge confidence-booster.

"That really motivated us, and since that game we have been connecting well, moving the ball around and working as a team really well," O'Connor said.

Bryan played well and confidently in its area championship win over Richardson Berkner on Friday. Dani Fellows' long throw-in set up the Lady Vikings' first goal in the 2-0 triumph, as Brittany Little flicked the ball over the defense for her 10th goal of the season.

Fellows leads Bryan with 14 goals and 12 assists.

"I'm absolutely pumped we've made it to the third round," Fellows said. "This whole year has been history-making. To share this with all of these girls is absolutely amazing and I'm proud of all of us. You never know when your last game will be, and you can tell. We continue to do better and better."

Before this year Bryan had never gone 5-0 en route to a tournament championship, which it did at Galveston Ball's tournament. That set the foundation for what is now happening.

"From day one, the girls talked about wanting to get past the first round [of the playoffs]," Pettibone said. "They wanted to try to win district, but that wasn't the most important thing. It was putting yourself in position to be in the playoffs and putting yourself in position to hang with Belton and with Consol.

Sophomore goalkeeper Ana Meyer posted the shutout Friday against Berkner, making her Bryan's player of the match.

"You feel a lot of pressure and stress to do your best, but it makes me want to do everything that I can to keep us going," Meyer said. "Now that I've had a taste of victory, I like it. We had never had that before. As a team, we are bonding and doing really well."

Bryan's match against Sachse is set for 6 p.m. at Waco ISD Stadium. Sachse and A&M Consolidated played to a scoreless tie through regulation and overtime in the last round, but the Lady Mustangs advanced on Summer Saylor and Candice Followwell's shootout goals as Bryan waited to take the field at Corsicana's Tiger Stadium.

While Bryan didn't get to face Consol, in some ways the Lady Vikings are still playing to outdo their Crosstown Showdown rival.

"I saw some of [Consol's loss], but we were doing our warmups," Fellows said. "With [Sachse] being able to beat Consol, it makes us want to kick their butts even more. We want to prove that we are better than Consol.

"I love the girls [at Consol]. They are some of my friends, but we have always been rivals and I want to beat the team that's gotten them."

Some of the pictures of the Lady Vikes' season are painful to review, but they are putting those behind them.

"We've had some injuries, but that's forced the girls to step up and play even better," Pettibone said. "Having Jessica Chicas back now is huge for us. You know that she's going to take care of the middle. There are not very many people that can run over Jessica Chicas, and that allows the other girls to play with more comfort and ease.

Pettibone picked up her 200th career victory this season. For all of her success, she says she has never had more fun coaching in the playoffs than with this team.

"That win at Tyler Lee was huge, because we knocked them off on their home field, the No. 1 seed," Pettibone said. "Everything now has been icing on the cake. We are going to ride this wave as long as we can. We're going to get better and we're playing good right now.

"It's the least stressed I've been in the playoffs in my life because no one expected anything of these girls. They are surprising me at how hard they are going."

On Bryan's soccer Web site, you can hear the strains of Going the Distance, Heart of a Champion and Don't Stop Believing.

There's little chance the Lady Vikings will stop believing. They just learned how to get it right.

"We just want to do the best we can and get as far as we can so it doesn't look like a fluke to everyone else," O'Connor said. "We want to leave something to carry on after us, and they can keep progressing."