By Gavin Lindahl
Staff writer
With senior night past, tournament dreams quelled and the last bit of administrative work being hemmed up, the women’s soccer team’s 2015 campaign is over.
The squad finished Sunday with a match against St. Joseph’s University. Coming off a two-to-nil victory against Richmond University, the Bonnies were unable to ride the momentum and fell 3-0 against the Hawks.
The Bonnies’ final Atlantic 10 record (3-7) placed them 12th in the conference, ahead of only Saint Louis University (2-6-2) and Rhode Island University (0-10). But while the disappointment of missing out on the post-season may signal an end to the work for some, that’s not quite the truth. For Coach Steve Brdarski, a new set of obstacles and goals have just begun, he said.
“Recruiting; that’s what we’re looking at,” Brdarski said. “When you look at the fact that we are graduating two seniors that scored a combined total of 17 goals, that’s a lot of firepower. For a team that I think could have done better, recruiting is a big thing for us.”
The two seniors Brdarski referenced were forwards Abby Maiello and Lauren Hill. Maiello and Hill’s offensive performances have dominated the season and have been one of the most consistent factors about the squad as they have led the team in scoring. Aside from the offensively potent pair, Brdarski’s squad is graduating four seniors. Forward Gabriella Balseca, midfielder/defender Stephanie Jenkins, midfielder Alex Meador and goalkeeper Christina Sarokon are the four other departures.
“Not only do we need to find the right players to fill those roles, but we need to find depth,” Brdarski said. “Injuries have affected us all season, so we need to get into a place where injuries can’t affect us in the middle of the season. We need to get some players to replace and reload”
The physical holes in Brdarski’s squad and the stats from the scoresheet won’t be the only thing leaving with the graduating seniors. According to Brdarski, it’s up to the younger players to step up and take the leadership role.
“You lose six players, and that’s one thing, but you’re losing six personalities – huge personalities,” Brdarski said. “We’re going to have to foster and develop some leaders this spring. Test them, develop them and try some different things. Anybody can wear the armband, but it’s a different story to get the best out of every player.”
Going into next season, Brdarski said the defense is a point of emphasis.
“When you look at the box scores for this season, the thing you notice is that we allowed too many goals against; maybe not overall, but too many goals in conference play,” Brdarski said. “The big picture is defending and not giving up so many goals. A lot of our players right now think of defending as an individual part, but that’s not the case. I’d rather have better defense as a team and have that be our motivation rather than score a bunch of goals and bleed just as many or more. Tightening up on defense will definitely be our focus for the spring and next fall.”
