Even the best have flaws
Maria's pretty much untouchable at range yeah but her best main game attack is probably Scatter Beams and that can sometimes be rather inaccurate at range missing a number of hits on smaller enemies so for max Scatter Beam potential it's best to get up close and personal with your enemies
Or you could just go for Pulse Blast which is more accurate from range though slightly slower than SB. Still powerful though.
Plus I think lew's been using Aiming Device which with only one hit doesn't have much stopping power unless it juggles which it doesn't always.
Why does Sophia need Boots of Prowess? o_o
I recommend giving her a Regeneration Symbol or a fully refined Ring of Mental Power to constantly regen her MP - I noticed that you said somewhere you were having problems with her draining her MP lew. My Sophia never runs out of MP chaining spells because I pump her up with 12% MP Regen and sometimes +20% Max MP as well
The only time I ever consider giving Sophia BoPs was if I was going for a melee based Sophia with her powerful short O or Long O physicals but I assume lew isn't doing that
I just use Power Dance to buff Sophia's ATK in that scenerio anyway though <_<