Ladies fall short of expectations

The GCSU Women’s Soccer Team finished its season with a loss in the first round of the Peach Belt Conference Championship Tournament in Columbus last Wednesday.
The 1-0 loss came against the number one seed, Columbus State, and brought to a close a season marred with injury and inexperience.  The Bobcats ended up 6-7-4 overall and 2-4-3 in the conference after the tournament.
The Lady Bobcats were ranked seventh in the preseason and finished eighth out of 10 teams in the PBC.
“The key to this year was that we were really effected by a fair amount of adversity,” said Head Coach Robert Parr. “I don’t like that being an excuse, but that certainly is part of the difficulties we faced this year.”
Parr had to sit 18 players on the sidelines due to an array of injuries throughout the season – a number higher than many teams have on their entire roster.
The Bobcats suffered the loss of goalkeeper Meghan Rothenburg early in the season, due to non-soccer related health issues.
“After the very first weekend of the season eliminating one of your best keepers, that makes it a challenge for the rest of the year,” Parr said.
The team also suffered the loss of two unnamed players who were removed from the team for disciplinary reasons.
“If they’re not dedicated to the team, they have to go,” Parr said. “That’s unfortunately something that came up and had to be done.”
 The resulting lack of consistency for the Lady Bobcats meant unexpected and extended play for team members like goalkeeper sophomore Kristen Moore, who had the second lowest goals scored against her in the PBC.
Moore said the support of her roommate and fellow teammate, Beth Coughlin, helped her remain confident through her difficult and unexpected playing time.
“I think this year we kind of suffered, but I think in the long run we have to adapt and realize we have to be ready to step onto the field,” Moore said. “We have to be working hard in practice because our turn may come to get on the field.”
Moore’s teammate, midfielder and forward Hayley Ferrell, also saw significant playtime as a sophomore.
“We did face a couple hardships, but I don’t really like to make any excuses – we didn’t perform as well as we should have,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell said that in efforts to enhance team chemistry, which was lacking this year, she and other players will focus on being more welcoming to incoming freshmen rather than viewing them as competition.
Despite the team’s unavoidable inconsistency this season, the hardships could actually end up helping the team in the long run.
“That’s the margin of difference right now that is between (us) being at the very top of the conference,” Parr said of the one missed save that separated his team from Columbus State.  “That’s where you want your veteran players on the team so they can hopefully come up for you in those circumstances, but then again, younger players gained a tremendous amount of experience. Our young players played very well and were very flexible, moving positions, and helping the team in being successful going forward.  We just didn’t expect for that to happen this year.”
The young team was ranked second in defense this year, and also outscored their opponents nearly 2-1.
Next year the Lady Bobcat’s fourth season will mean the first time the team has ever had four recruiting classes.
“The quality of the players and the quality of the team is going up every year,” Parr said. “We didn’t encounter nearly as much adversity last year as we did this year – few teams do.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 3 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