BURLINGTON, Iowa – Despite the handful of stars that adorn the jerseys of Visitation Academy (St. Louis, Mo.) players, there’s one crown that has eluded this program – an Adidas Girls Soccer Tournament of Champions title.

Visitation has never even reached a final in any of its previous seven ToC appearances, and it has lost more matches than it has won at the event.

This is the year the Vivettes, the two-time defending Missouri Class 2 state champions, are hoping to flip the script.

“We always seem to be snake-bitten here,” said senior Abby O’Keefe, whose two-goal performance Thursday helped Visitation defeated Liberty (Liberty, Mo.) in the opening round of the ToC Heartland Lodge & Resort bracket. The win sends Visitation into Friday morning’s semifinal against Divine Savior-Holy Angels (Milwaukee, Wis.), a defending state champion from Wisconsin. “It’s important for us to do well this year.”

Important, well, perhaps. But certainly not critical.

After last year’s 1-2 showing at the ToC, Visitation then rolled off nine straight wins, outscoring opponents 40-3 en route to the state title.

Visitation and Liberty were scoreless at halftime Thursday, then O’Keefe converted two passes from Kayleigh Stahlschmidt into goals as the Vivettes took control on the scoreboard after dominating most of the early possession.

“After the first goal, you could see a sigh of relief,” said Jay Zaber, the acting head coach since veteran coach Dick Westbrook did not make the trip. “You could see them feed off that energy.”

“That first goal settled us down,” O’Keefe said. “We thought, ‘We got one, then we can get two’ and we kept pushing.”

In other first-round matches Thursday, all the favorites won setting up two interesting semifinals matches. St. Thomas Aquinas (Overland Park, Kan.) defeated Jefferson City (Jefferson City, Mo.) 5-1 behind Jamie Kutey’s two-goal effort; Lexie Howard scored twice as Kearney (Kearney, Mo.) rallied past Waukee (Waukee, Iowa); and Maria Kass scored twice as Divine Savior-Holy Angels defeated Helias Catholic (Jefferson City, Mo.).

Aquinas, a defending state champion, faces Kearney, the state runner-up to Visitation last year, in one semifinal match while Visitation and Divine Savior square off in the other, both games slated for 11 a.m. local time starts. The winners meet in Saturday’s final.

Also Thursday, Fort Madison (Fort Madison, Iowa) defeated Macomb (Macomb, Ill.) 2-0 in the first game in a four-team round-robin event.

All other brackets start play Friday, meaning 42 teams will be competing at the Burlington RecPlex.

Kutey had a hand in Aquinas’ first three goals as it pulled away from Jefferson City in the second half. Kutey broke a scoreless tie with a blast in the upper left corner, drew a foul in the box that a teammate converted for a penalty kick goal, then Kutey scored a second goal to give the Saints a 3-1 lead at the time.

THURSDAY'S RESULTS

ToC Heartland Lodge & Resort Bracket

Quarterfinals

St. Thomas Aquinas 5, Jefferson City 1: STA -- Jamie Kutey 2, Olivia Meyers, Madison Holmes, Katelyn Heying. JC – Eden Hoogveld.

Kearney 3, Waukee 1: K -- Alexis Howard 2, Ashley Coonfield. W – Rebecca Corbett.

Visitation 3, Liberty 0: V – Abby O’Keefe 2, Kayleigh Stahlschmidt.

Divine Savior-Holy Angels 3, Helias Catholic 1: DSHA – Maria Kass 2, Emmalee Ramon. HC -- Kayla Yanskey.

Round Robin Event

Fort Madison 2, Macomb 0.