Lady Bobcats continue record pace

Anyone who has kept up with the Lady Bobcats soccer team since their first season in 2004 knows the incredible, record-breaking growth the team has seen in such a short amount of time.
Those of who aren’t quite as familiar with their success might want to start paying attention because the Lady Bobcats are breaking more records and the 2006 season is only just beginning.
The Lady Bobcats ended the 2005 season with a 9-6-2 record overall, earning them their first winning season, and finished 3-3-1 in the Peach Belt Conference, which ranked them sixth out of 10 teams in the conference.
But, it was also the last season for a couple of the team’s more experienced veteran players, such as goalkeeper Michelle Parr and forward Tami Pissot.
While head coach Robert Parr acknowledges the loss of some great assets to the team, he is very confident, not only in his returning players, but also in the new players that are embarking on their first season at GCSU.
“Right now we feel like we are in pretty good shape; our goalkeepers are young and everything is coming along quite nicely. Certainly Michelle has been an important player for us but were not nervous about it,” Parr said.
He also points out a few new players such as freshman Jamie Nevin, a forward who he feels has the ability and skills to be a leading scorer. Nevin, along with the rest of the team, is already proving to be a strong force in the first couple games of the new season.
After a disheartening loss in their season opener against Belmont-Abbey, the Lady Bobcats redeemed themselves with a 1-0 victory over Saint Andrews Presbyterian College. Now, with the team’s most recent 8-0 win against Erskine College last Thursday night, they have earned a second straight shut-out and also set a new record for most goals scored in a match.
Senior midfielder Meredith Moran was ecstatic about the team’s latest victory.
“Everyone played so well and the whole team was into the game, even the bench; everyone was cheering.”
The Lady Bobcats have worked hard in the preseason to strengthen their weak areas so they can keep moving forward, and so far it appears they are on the right track. Coach Parr has many goals set this year and is confident that his team will move forward.
Moran cites winning the Peach Belt Conference as one of her team goals for the season.  The preseason Peach Belt predictions ranked GCSU as seventh, one spot down from last season, but Parr has put the predicted rankings and the new season into perspective.
“What you find with preseason rankings is that coaches will generally vote you in pretty close to what you finished the year before,” Parr said. “It’s really difficult to assess how other teams are going to be. The other thing, I think, is that it takes a while in this sport, most of the time, for a team to really advance and so if you want to change where you are, you have to work extremely hard for a long period of time. And I think we have been doing that; I think that will show. But the rankings really reflect the history and not the future. The only way to change our ranking in the future is to have a better finish this year.”
The Lady Bobcats will play their first team in the Peach Belt Conference, USC Aiken, on Sept. 8, at Bobcat Field.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 8 2006. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry