Season Preview: Women’s Soccer

With the team’s constant struggles over the last half decade, it is never a surprise to see some of the team’s better players leave. This year the team will be without Danielle Kell (2 goals, 2 assists) and Elyse Bilardo (1 goal, 1 assist), who ranked second and fifth in scoring on the 2-14-1 team.

It is do or die time for Coach Alyssa Radu, who is entering her third season as coach of the Retrievers. So far in her tenure, the Retrievers have not budged from the bottom on the league as they have gone just 5-30-1 with her at the helm, and the team has also lost several significant players since she signed on, including Kell, First-Team All-CAA defender Morgan Warrington, and former All-Rookie Team Forward Ashley Singer.

This year the Retrievers will have a brand new look to them. While the team only lost three regular starters, they lost six key contributors from last season.

For the last few years the problems with the team has been the inability to find a scorer. The team managed just 14 goals last season, and allowed 51.

Losing two of their top five scorers is going to be rough for an already inept offense. But this year, it is going to be obvious who the offense will be built around: Rachel McKee (1 goal, 1 assists, 22 shots, 14 shots on goal), and Sandra Vacarino (4 goals, 2 assists, 17 shots, 8 shots on goal).

Vacarino led the team in goals and points last season, and has been one of the few players in recent years to show that she does have an ability to score.

McKee on the other hand did not score much as a freshman, but she did shot she has a scorers mentality and did not hesitate to shoot the ball when she felt she had an opportunity to put the ball in the back of the net.

Without adding a forward to the team with her freshman class, Radu isn’t going to be left with much in reserve. LeAnne Edgar and Brooke Piper were both expected to be the team’s leading scorers at this point in their careers, but neither one has shown an ability to score. Neither one scored as a sophomore, and only Piper has a goal to her name as she scored two her freshman year.

Vacarino will be the key player in the midfield. As on the the team’s three seniors, and leading returning scorer, she will be called on for a big leadership role. Around her will be sophomore Katie Gitlin, and two new faces to the starting lineup. Gitlin scored the team’s first goal of the season against George Washington five games into the season, but was unable to score again the rest of her freshman campaign. Replacing Kell and Bilardo for the final two spots in the starting midfield will be tough to do though. Bilardo may not have been much of a scorer, but she did have speed and at least decent ball control. Kell though, may have been the team’s top player the last two years.

Sophomores Sarah Purdum, Sarah Kopytko, and Morgan Andrews all saw decent time last year and could initially be the ones looked at to fill the empty spots. Of the three, Andrews looked to be the best. She did not score, but she did start three games because she was better with her technique than the other two.

Another option could be on-and-off starter Megan McDonald who has made 14 starts in her career but has only totaled five points in the two years she’s played.

But with a 2-14-1 team, it would never be a bad thing to look at freshman to spark something in a team. Radu’s second recruiting class brings in five midfielders. Of the five, either local product Stephanie Smith, who helped lead Archbishop Spalding to an undefeated season her senior year, or Jessy Brown, a four year varsity starter at American Heritage High School in Florida, are the most likely candidate to fill the holes.

Statistically the defense was a mess last year, but honestly, the defense is the most talented group on the team. The team gave up 51 goals last year, but the forwards and midfielders just could not do their part and control the ball, putting all of the pressure on the defensive unit.

While the fourth spot on defense had a revolving door of players last season, Christina Sadowski, Erin Johnson, and Aly Gazarek were three very good players.

After Sadowski’s first two seasons at UMBC, she was named the teams Unsung Hero, and last season she was named the team’s Most Valuable Athlete. There isn’t much question that Sadowski was the team’s top player last year. She has developed into a very good defensive player with very good ball control, but is also a player who is not afraid to take a run up the field and shoot the ball.

Johnson was a 2007 All-Rookie team selection, and while she has not received a post season award since, she has gotten better each year.

Gazarek was new to the team last year as she transferred from South Florida. Despite being a transfer, Gazarek, was just a freshman last season and got better each time she stepped on the field. She is another player who is not afraid to take a run up the field, shown by her one goal and two assists last season.

But backing up those three is Mo Van Vlerah, who led the America East conference in saves last season with 109. Vlerah gave up a lot of goals, but she was faced with an awful lot of shots, and managed to hold off nearly 70% of them. If the forwards and midfield can manage to keep better control of the ball, and take pressure off the defense, and Van Vlerah, they very well could move up in the standings because of the talent the defensive unit holds.

The fourth spot on the back line will be up for grabs, but junior Kelsi Morris is likely the heavy favorite to take over. Morris is a transfer from University of Pittsburgh, where she started seven games as a freshman, and saw action in 17 games in two years.

There are no disillusion from from anybody that the women’s soccer team at UMBC will win a championship. But after being stuck at, or near the bottom of the conference the last four years there has to be a turn around coming soon. Right now, the goal isn’t even to make it into the conference tournament, it is to move up in the standings and win more than just a single conference game.