Women’s soccer off on the right foot
Lady ‘Hounds show improvements from last season.
By Fangfang Li
Editorial Assistant
The Greyhound women’s soccer team has made big improvement from last year with a record of 6-2-1 overall, and 3-1-1 in GLVC play so far this season. The team has achieved a record of 3-2 in their home games and a record of 3-0-1 away games thus far this season.
Last season was the first year for head coach Geoff VanDeusen. The Greyhound’s had a rocky start in 2007 that reflected throughout the season when they finished with a 8-10-0, 6-7-0 GLVC record.
This season, 13 freshman were added to the roster, bringing the total to 27.
“The coaching staff has done a fantastic job recruiting top kids both in the classroom and on the field,” said head soccer coach Geoff VanDeusen. “We brought new players in and it has really been returning players who work hard to make a huge difference.”
According to VanDeusen, the soccer team has brought in 14 new players and 13 returners this year, including two transfer students, junior Kate Donnelly and sophomore Kristen Granath.
“Both of them wanted a division Ⅱ atmosphere, where I feel division Ⅱ gives student athletics a great opportunity to be involved in a high level soccer program as well as be involved in the classroom,” VanDeusen said.
Senior goal keeper Abby Tracy said the team works as tighter group this seaon and VanDeusen is looking more for the teams success.
“This year we have a lot better team chemistry than we did last year,” Tracy said. “We brought in a lot of talent to help make cohesiveness. It’s important, because if we cannot work together, we can never get our goal accomplished.”
The team practices three days a week and competes on Fridays and Sundays.
According to Tracy, the team will receive more technical training as the season goes on. She said those practices will help to tone their skills and make them become better in the future.
While making progress in the soccer records, players are also making their effort to improve their academic scores.
Last year, the soccer team won the Team Academic Award from National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
“As much travel as we do, we’re only going to miss three and a half days of classes this season, I think that’s outstanding,” VanDeusen said. “The number one reason why they are here is to get an education and a degree.”
VanDeusen said he sets up goals for the team every month to help the team have enough attention on both academics and soccer, including wining home games and not missing classes.
“He works well with helping us balance school and soccer [and] keeps us focused when we are at practice,” Tracy said. “I think he is doing really well on looking at the strength of our team and putting them together to make us the best team we can be.”
According to Tracy, it’s harder for those incoming freshmen to learn how to find time for studying and soccer than upper class students.
“We want to have players that are very serious about their academics, as well as very serious about becoming better soccer players,” VanDeusen said. “We’ll keep that practice, continue to get better and keep doing things we were doing. I think we have a lot of talent.”
