Well, another September season has come and gone. You would be VERY proud of your women’s soccer team for their accomplishments in September. We just finished our last non conference game with a hard fought loss to Denison University, BUT, this past week, we were #23 in the latest NSCAA National Coaches Poll, a first ever for the history of our soccer program. We are all very excited about that and our preparation for the beginning of conference play.
September was a great month for us in so many ways. We finished our extremely strong schedule with a record of 6-2-2, with both loses coming to top programs in the country. Those are programs we felt we could have and should have beaten, but our main focus is now on the OAC. I hope all of you have been following us on the website or our team blog, but if you haven’t, let me get you up to speed.
We opened at home vs Defiance College. That was a pretty successful opener, as we won 7-0. We then hosted a Labor Day Tournament in which Otterbein, Kalamazoo (MI), and Calvin (MI) participated. We beat Kalamazoo 4-1 in our opening game but lost to Calvin 3-0. Calvin came into the game ranked #7 in the country, but we gave up an own goal and a questionable penalty kick, so that game was much closer than the score said it was. The following weekend we traveled to DePauw University and played DePauw in our opening game of their tournament. That game ended in a scoreless tie, even though we didn’t allow a single shot on goal in the 2nd half as well as both over time periods. The girls showed a lot of character in the second game of that tournament when they beat Centre College 2-0. Our next trip was to Wittenberg University, which again ended in a tie. That is the first time we have traveled to Wittenberg and not lost! Hope College then came to town and we handled them 5-1, a team who has beaten us the previous two meetings. Next up was Mt. St. Joseph who we took care of 6-1, beat Case Western Reserve on the road 1-0, and then finished with a very tough loss to Denison University 1-0 in Ada.
The team learned a lot about each other. We have 10 new faces who joined our soccer family. We have been starting 3-4 freshmen per game and they are getting their “eyes opened” to what it means to play the top teams in our conference, region, and country. It’s been loads of fun so far. It’s a very intelligent, soccer savvy group who work very hard for one another. We are very optimistic for what lies ahead.
Conference play begins this Saturday as we host Muskingum College at 2p. This is our “second season” and we try to use September to prepare us for what’s to come in October. Each team in September we play will do very well in the conference seasons, which really prepares our players for our own conference rivals. We finished the NSCAA/Adidas September Coaches Ranking at #2 in the Great Lakes Region, and as I mentioned above, #23 in the nation. We are excited for another opportunity to win the OAC crown and potentially get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history. I’ve attached a schedule for you and hope you can make it to a game in October. We appreciate your continued support of ONU Women’s Soccer!
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