The UMBC women's soccer team went only 7-58-3 under Alyssa Radu.

After a 0-14-3 season UMBC director of athletics Dr. Charles Brown announced head women’s soccer coach Alyssa Radu’s contract will not be renewed.

Radu joined UMBC before the 2008 season but guided the Retriever to only seven victories in her four years, totaling a 7-58-5 record. The team never made the six-team America East tournament in her tenure and never finished above eighth place in the nine-team conference. The team never improved their record from the previous season under Radu.

Radu’s first year at UMBC after spending four seasons at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the women’s soccer team went from having four wins in 2007 to a 3-16-0 record, scoring only 10 goals and allowing 51. The second year the team scored four more goals but still allowed 51 goals in the season as their record dropped to 2-14-1. In 2010 their record stayed the same but saw significant defensive improvement, allowing only 27 goals, but this season the team allowed 41 goals, only scored 10, and went 17 games without a victory.

UMBC officials have announced they will begin a national search for a replacement immediately.

Despite having junior forward Rachel McKee developing into a potential all-conference forward with seven goals on the season, while having sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Kadet lead the conference with 95 saves, the women’s soccer team was unable to put everything together for a victory this season.

Capping off season the Retrievers were shutout by the Binghamton Bearcats. In the 23rd minute AnnMarie Rizzi send a through ball to Mary DeWitte, who beat a rushing Kadet with a low shot from 12 yards out. Then, in the 41st minute Conor O’Brien collected her own blocked shot and put the rebound into the lower left corner from 17 yards out.

UMBC has been outscored 41-10 this season. It was their fewest number of goals scored since 2008 when they also scored only 10 goals in the season.

The women’s soccer team is 14-83-9 since Michelle Salmon moved on from the program after the 2005 season and have gone only 7-58-5 since Alyssa Radu took over the program before the 2008 season, with no season having an improved record over the previous.

Alyssa Radu's squad is back to 0-0-0 at the midway point.

Winning has not been a very common occurrence for the women’s soccer team in recent years. Having played for over a month already this year the team is without a victory at 0-8-1. Missed opportunities, an inability to rebound from big momentum shifts, and a few injuries have tortured the women’s soccer team through their non-conference slate this season but, guess how many of those games matter: zero.

No matter how good a team in the America East conference’s record may be, getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament is hard to do; the only way to guarantee a spot it by winning the conference tournament.

Now I’m not saying the women’s soccer team is going to win the conference but simply getting into the America East tournament would be a successful season for this squad at this point and not one game they have played yet this season has any baring on their chances to do that.

Last Wednesday the women’s soccer team snapped an eight-game losing streak. While it was a scoreless draw against an incredibly banged up Navy team that had to play a man-down for the final 52 minutes of the game, the players saw a small glimmer of light. Even in the situation, anything is better than losing; all the hard work the girls have put in since the beginning of August didn’t just get smashed with another tally in the loss column.

For the women’s soccer team conference play can’t come at a better time. Going into their eight-game conference schedule off a tie rather than nine-straight losses is going to be a confidence booster and that is what has really been hurting the team.

The women’s soccer team has a good corp. group of players that can contend in America East games but losing bread losing and more losing.

In the grand scheme of things the women’s soccer team’s record is 0-0-0. Conference play is sort of a “second season”. Nothing the team has done, or not done, means anything, all that matters is the eight games they have left and in a nine-team conference that allows six-teams in the tournament it doesn’t take too many conference wins to get in, historically the sixth-placed team in the conference only has three victories, and sometimes even two has been enough.

The season is far from over for the women’s soccer team, it starts tomorrow when they host Hartford.

Brooke Piper scored a goal in the 85th minute against St. Joseph's.

Seven games into the 2011 season the women’s soccer team has yet to find a victory. Their latest loss came on Wednesday night when they fell to St. Joseph’s, 2-1.

After a scoreless first half the Hawks put two goals up on the scoreboard by the 64th minute. Their first score came from Mo Hawkins in the 59th minute, after she made a move on a defender at the top of the arc and booted the ball just under the crossbar in the top left corner. Then, five minutes later Jen Pfeiffer doubled-up on the Retrievers when she collected her own rebound after a save.

But the Retrievers did not just pack it in and give up, which would have been easy to do in the situation – winless on the season and down two goals in the game. Instead they battled back and in the 85th minutes Brooke Piper bounced a ball off a defender to prevent the shutout.

At 84:10 Melissa Hummel took a corner kick, the ball bounced off the goalkeeper before it landed in front of Shannon McGuinness on the outside. McGuinness took a laser shot but St. Joseph’s goalkeeper made a save but dropped the ball, allowing Piper to come in for the clean up goal.

“Finding and creating opportunities is not what’s preventing us from getting results,” fourth-year head coach Alyssa Radu said. “it’s reacting to the other team’s momentum shift against us.”

By the time UMBC regrouped it was too late for a come back, the team did however end the game with 17 shots, seven of which were on goal, something that even at the beginning of the season was unheard of from them.

“That’s something we worked on all spring,” Radu said. “I still think we’re passing up shooting opportunities. We’re shooting on goal more than we ever have but we still see more opportunities where we’re passing up and you have to shoot to be able to score to be able to win.”

Junior forward Rachel McKee led the Retrievers with four shots and two on goal while Sarah Kopytko had three. Three other Retrievers too two shows while four others attempted at a goal. Kopytko started the game off with a shot barely 99 seconds into the game after starting in place of freshman Lilly Rydon, who was held out of the game after suffering an injury in practice.

Sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Kadet returned to the goal after having to miss the team’s previous game with an injury. She made six stops in the fill 90 minutes.

“She’s still not 100 percent.” Radu said. “She’s always going to be solid and consistent and if you ask her she’s never going to be pleased with her play. The second goal, great first save that not even a lot of keepers are going to make the first save.”

While the Retrievers end their three-game home stand without a victory and fell to 0-7-0 on the season Radu’s squad is in a much better place than even a few games ago where the focus in practice had to be creating opportunities, now, Radu said she is going to focus on “the mental side of that challenge, having confidence and playing with confidence when you’re not feeling as confident because you haven’t had the results.”

Rachel McKee

In her first two years in a Retriever uniform Rachel McKee was plagued with bad luck that limited her career goal total to only two. But already this season she’s scored a goal when in the 82nd minute of the team’s season opening game against American she scored a shot from 20 yards out on a hard angle from the right side. Now a junior McKee is going to be relied on ever more as an offensive threat for Alyssa Radu’s women’s soccer team.

Lauren Kadet leads the AEC with 103 saves.

Vote for freshman goalie Lauren Kadet for America East Conference women’s soccer fans’ choice Player of the Year

Alyssa Radu took a big gamble when she replaced incumbent goalkeeper Mo Van Vlerah, who was coming off a season in which she led the America East Conference with 109 saves, with an unknown player in freshman Lauren Kadet, but there is no question that it was the right decision. While Kadet may not have had the goal support needed to have a successful record, she did everything she possibly could to get the team wins.

After Van Vlerah got a win over Delaware State in the season opener, Kadet was brought into the goal and has recorded 103 saves, which leads the AEC. More impressively, however, is that Kadet has stopped over 81 percent of the shots she has been faced with.

Voting for the award will end Monday, Oct. 26 at noon and the winner will be announced the next day.

Lauren Kadet

True freshman Lauren Kadet was in a goalkeeper battle with incumbent Mo Van Vlerah all preseason and proved to be the victor as she has started the last two games. Van Vlerah is a very talented goalkeeper, which is apparent by her 109 saves last year, but coach Alyssa Radu just couldn’t keep Kadet on the bench this season and put her in goal over Van Vlerah after the season opener. Kadet absolutely shined in her collegiate debut, making 11 saves in a game against Drexel. Then in her second match she saved seven of 10 shots, giving her 18 total saves on the weekend, which was 82 percent of the shots she was faced with.

Stat Line:
Longwood: 11 saves, 1 goal allowed, 91%
George Washington: 7 saves, 3 goals allowed, 70%

Junior goalkeeper Mo Van Vlerah is currently in a very interesting position battle with freshman Lauren Kadet.

Longwood may be just 0-2 to start the season, but they are a much better team than their record. Last year the Lancers went 9-8-1, and return most of the key players from that campaign, including a strong senior class of goalkeeper Marcia Biddle, defenders Kayle Huggins, Katie Devlin, and Lauren Trizna, and forward Jessica Varela.

With three seniors across the back line, and a senior in goal, Longwood has a stingy defense. But what really helps them out in this game is that they will be playing at home, where they are 27-9-1 since 2006.

UMBC can certainly win the game. The team already has four goals this season and have been more aggressive and confident, when in possession with the ball. Last year the women’s soccer team, when they had control, always took to long to take a shot, wasting opportunities to take shots to try and set up better shots. Sometimes that can be a good move, but this year the team is taking their chances and already has 23 shots in just two games, nine of which were on target.

One big boost to the team could be the return of senior defender Erin Johnson. She was held out of he first two games after suffering some minor preseason injuries, and is expected to be back for this game. Johnson is a very talented and experienced center back. She came right in her freshman year and started every game en route to an All-Rookie Team selection. In three years she has played in every game (54) and has started 52 of them.

The other story line that deserves special attention is the goal keeper battle between junior Mo Van Vlerah and freshman Lauren Kadet, who have been battling for the starting job all preseason. Van Vlerah started every game last year, and despite being stormed by shots ever game, was very successful. She started the season and wasn’t faced with much action, but saved three shots while conceding a goal. But coach Alyssa Radu made a surprise change for the second game, starting Kadet. And Kadet had a stellar debut. It was ashame she didn’t have any offensive help, as she lost the game 1-0, but she saved 11 shots, which is impressive for a collegiate debut to say the least.

Probably Starters:

Jessy Brown is one of the freshman who has already become an impact player.

UMBC (1-1):
F- LeAnne Edgar (1 goal, 0 assists, 2 SOG)
F- Rachel McKee (0 goals, 0 assists, 2 SOG)
M- Jessy Brown (0 goals, 1 assist, 0 SOG)
M- Sandra Vacarino (1 goal, 0 assists, 2 SOG)
M- Katie Gitlin (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG, played defense the last two games)
M- Morgan Andrews (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
B- Aly Gazarek (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
B- Erin Johnson (Has not played)
B- Christine Sadowski (1 goal, 0 assists, 2 SOG)
B- Kelsi Morris (0 goals, 1 assists, 0 SOG)
GK- Lauren Kadet (11 saves, 1 ga, 91.7%)

Key Reserves:
F- Brooke Piper (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Amy Savage (0 goals, 1 assist, 0 SOG)
M- Nicole Clark (0 goals, 1 assist, 0 SOG)
M- Sarah Purdum (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
GK- Mo Van Vlerah (3 saves, 1 GA, 75.0%)

Longwood (0-1):
F- Lindsey Ottavio (1 goal, 0 assists, 2 SOG)
F- Lindsay Booth (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Kelsey Pardue (0 goals, 0 assists, 1 SOG)
M- Dylan Spicker (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Jessica Varela (0 goals, 1 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Katie Devlin (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
B- Kacie Oliver (0 goals, 0 assists, 1 SOG)
B- Natalie Massey (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
B- Kayla Huggins (0 goals, 0 assists, 1 SOG)
B- Lauren Trizna (1 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
GK- Marcia Biddle (11 saves, 3 ga, 78.6%)

Key Reserves:
F- Nikki Glisson (0 goals, 0 assists, 1 SOG)
M- Lindsay Wilshaw (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Kristi Dixon (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Mackenzie King (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)

In their season opening game against MEAC foe Delaware State the women’s soccer team already showed they are an improved team as they blew past hornets, 4-1, breaking a 12 year streak without a season opening win. The last time the women’s soccer team won their season opener was in 1998, when they beat another MEAC team, Howard, 3-0.

But despite the team nearly scoring one third of their total goals a season ago, Coach Alyssa Radu, and her team still aren’t satisfied.

“They felt last year the play was there but they just didn’t have the results behind it,
Radu said. “You need the results to feel good and in all honesty they don’t feel that they played as well as they should have and when you still win 4-1 and still feel that way that’s something you can build on.”

Senior midfielder Sandra Vacarino led UMBC to a season opening victory over Delaware State with a goal and an assist.

Senior midfielder Sandra Vacarino opened the teams scoring with a goal in just the sixth minute of action. Pittsburgh transfer Kelsi Morris played a ball into the team’s leading scorer last year, who tapped it into the far low corner.

It didn’t take long for the team to score their second goal as Vacarino flicked a ball to LeAnne Edgar for a goal following a throw-in in the tenth minute.

“I just think we have more persistence and urgency; we’re a little more hungry this year,” Vacarino said. “We also have a good attitude this year too so that’s not going to drag us down early.”

That attitude and hunger led to an offense that ripped off 14 shots, and consistently pressured the Hornet goalkeeper, who was forced to make three saves while conceding four goals before being taken out in the 72nd minute.

“We’re a little more confident, we took more outside shots and then a couple we just slipped through and got behind them,” Vacarino said. “We also had a lot of free kicks off the corners and outside the 18 that led to a lot of our goals.”

Another one of those goals that a free kick from outside the 18 led to was from senior defender Christine Sadowski, who was voted the team’s MVP after last season.

“I was just hoping for [the ball] to take a bad bounce off someone and it did and it was right in front of the goal and I couldn’t miss it,” Sadowski said.

While Sadowski had offensive success, the team captain also helped lead her team in an impressive defensive performance where they only allowed three shots, only one of which went in the goal.

“We just wanted to keep them from getting in front of us and get high pressure, and not let them get any shots off,” Sadowski said.

Junior forward LeAnne Edgar has always been an offensive threat for UMBC, but finally scored the first goal of her career.

The team’s fourth goal came from freshman Shannon McGuinness less than a minute after Sadowski scored. McGuinness’s goal came after Jessy Brown tapped her the ball following a corner kick from Nicole Clark. All three players involved were freshman.

“I think we’re balanced in a sense that we have great leadership and you’re combining that with young, hungry, tough, physical players, technically sounds, all bringing something else to the table,” Radu said.

The leadership she was referring come from senior captains Vacarino, Sadowski, Erin Johnson, who did not play in the game, and Edgar, who is only a junior.

Radu said: “I already see times where I’m like ‘Oh my gosh how am I going to replace players like that.’

“Christine, Sandra, and Erin have logged more minutes that any player in the last four or five years and that is invaluable because now when you put them in game situations they can handle it much better and there is a lot great trust for them to do their jobs and it helps me do my job better.”

Radu also said that the team was also much deeper than in years past, which she hopes will also help with their improvement.

“When you have that leadership and a deeper team…this is the deepest team, the most talented team that I’ve had in my three years, it allows everyone’s jobs to be a little easier so you can focus on the smaller parts of the game,” she said.

With a new sense of confidence in them the team will attempt to win their second straight game to open the season in two days in Philadelphia against Drexel.

“We don’t feel that we’re a finished product,” Radu said. “We still have a lot of improvement, we’re still hungry and we know this is just one game.”

Alyssa Radu’s squad has a great chance to win their season opener for the first time in at least the last 10 years. I’m not taking any credit away from Delaware State, who the women’s soccer team’s lone non-conference win came against, but UMBC is going to be better this year. The last two years Radu did not really have much say over the schedule as contracts were already signed by the previous head coach, and Radu was not really playing with players that fit her style of play. But now is when you’ll see Radu’s style of coaching come in, and the team will have a much more favorable schedule that isn’t jam packed with Big East competition.

Mo Van Vlerah

The biggest thing for a coach when they are coming into a new team is molding the team to play into their style of coaching. Radu’s coaching style is very different that the style of former coach Tara Koleski, and now she finally has her players on the programs. Koleski recruited some very good players, in fact Sandra Vacarino, Erin Johnson, Christine Sadowski, and Mo Van Vlerah will be some of the best players on the team this year, but it takes a bit of time for those players to transition to the new coach (which they’ve all had two years to do), and with players that already fit that style around them the transition period is over.

Even Radu will tell you that her realistic goal for a team that has just five wins over the last two seasons is not a conference championship, it’s moving up into the middle of the conference and contending for a spot in the conference tournament, and that is going to be a realistic goal, but before that happens the team will have to show improvement in their season opener against Delaware State.

While the roster will most likely be changed around from last year, the team returns nine players who started at least 10 games, including top goal scorer Vacarino (4 goals, 2 assists) and goalie Van Vlerah (109 saves, 69.4% saves).

Last season Rachel McKee was able to rip off five shots on goal, and while she was unsuccessful in all of her attempts, she split the defense and found ways to pressure the defense. The odds are this year, with a better supporting case around her, she will be successful this time.

Aly Gazarek

The defense also had a stellar game as they allowed just two shots on goal in their game, allowing just one in the back of the net in the 4-1 victory.

Aly Gazarek, Megan McDonald, Elyse Bilardo, and Danielle Kell all scored in last year’s game, and while two of them are gone, the offense should still have some success as the midfield should be able to control the ball in this game.

Just for fun I will attempt to project the starting roster, though it is clear the team will make some changes after just a two win season last year.

F- LeAnne Edgar (0 goals, 1 assist, 4 SOG)
F- Rachel McKee (1 goal, 1 assist, 14 SOG)
M- Katie Gitlin (1 goal, 1 assist, 2 SOG)
M- Morgan Andrews (0 goals, 0 assists, 0 SOG)
M- Sarah Purdum (1 goal, 0 assists, 4 SOG)
M- Sandra Vacarino (4 goals, 2 assists, 8 SOG)
B- Erin Johnson (16 starts)
B- Christine Sadowski (17 starts)
B- Kelsi Morris (Transfer from Pittsburgh)
B- Aly Gazarek (17 starts)
GK- Mo Van Vlerah (109 saves, 48 GA, 69.4% Saves)
*2009 Statistics