STLCC women’s soccer team looks to build off of a national tournament appearance in 2012
By: DAVID KLOECKENER
Asst. Sports Editor
After coming off of a 16-6 season and a National Tournament berth, the Lady Archers will be playing with 11 returning sophomores to keep the team going with emphasis. The team runs deep with skill levels and great position players for what will make for a season that could rival last season.
With a preseason that included a game versus Webster University, the Lady Archers are taking good strides at being a contender for the National Tournament. The game versus Webster was a season setting pre-season game would depict what the rest of the season has to hold. Though the Lady Archers pulled off nail-biting win, players and coaches were excited to play a school such as Webster in a pre-season game.
“It is a preseason game for us but we took it serious because it’s a Division 3 school,” Lady Archer head coach Juergen Huettner said after the game versus Webster. “We wanted to show them we have good players on a junior college level.”
One of the biggest parts of the win over Webster was a combined effort of starting players and players of the bench. It’s a good thing to have bench players to step in and help finish a game if starters have contributed good efforts towards a game.
With starters and bench players, the depth of the lineup comes into play for the coaching staff when running into close games. This preseason game gave way to why all players are useful to winning games.
“With the starting lineup, we are very happy but the players from the bench did a good job coming off the bench. So I think overall we are a pretty good unit,” Huettner said. “When the regular season comes along, we aren’t going to move players as much as we did today.”
With bigger schools such as Webster having many transfer students from community colleges, players feel as if they need to prove to the other team that they have talent and can hang with the best of the best teams.
“We just wanted to beat [Webster] really bad because they are a Division 3 school and they are really confident,” freshman center Anne Downey said. “They think that a Community College is nothing but we showed them we would not just give up.”
Returning this season are a couple stand out players from last season. Forwards Jessica Smugala and Donna Jolliff bring a strong pressence up front. Both players led the team in goals last season. Jolliff also led the team in assists and Smugala was second on the team with assists with five.
Back in goal is sophomore Apolonia Thomas who is a solid asset to the team. With the season starting and a big preseason win over Webster, the Lady Archers are excited to get this season started off on a high note.
“We have high expectations for sure,” sophomore Jessica Smugala said. “This is definitely how we are going to go into other games. Now we know to start strong because Webster is a Division 3 school. So we know what we have to do because I still feel like people are under estimating us.”
Freshmen players are looking to sophomores to help carry the team to a second National Tournament berth and hopefully and a championship.
“They have been doing the same things since they were freshmen. They carry us and being freshmen you have to follow your sophomores,” Downey said. “They know what to expect and they know how they have to push themselves. Then they have to push us.”
The Lady Archers are clicking on all cylinders and looking to stay strong throughout the season.
“We are a lot closer than we were last year from all the feedback that the sophomores have been telling us,” Downey said. “With the training we have been doing, we all stick together fight until the end.”
