Women's Soccer Ready for New Season

The College of Wooster women's soccer team has had a storied run of success, but now it will be about putting it all together to make another appearance in the ever-important North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.

Wooster would have made last year's tournament if they had captured a win in its final regular season game. Unfortunately, the Scots could not find the back of the net against DePauw University in 1-0 defeat as the Tigers moved on to compete in the tournament.

Wooster ended with an 11-3-3 record where each loss was determined by a single goal. 

"We had a lot of one-goal games that went against us so we're trying to be strong enough to concede a few less and score a few more in the games that matter," head coach Geordie Brown said.

Wooster had a 3-3-1 conference record and an 8-0-2 non-conference sheet. It was the 25th time Wooster had won 10-plus games in a season.

After a season opening tie, Wooster railed off seven consecutive wins. However, despite the successes it was the second straight year Wooster was kept out of the NCAC Tournament.

"I thought we played some of our best stuff early in the season," Brown said. "We put together a good run of games and peaked early; then [we were] just on the wrong side of a couple of results later in the year."

Wooster will have to find its scoring outside of its top two scorers last season, losing Naomi Mann and Grace Gascoigne to graduation. The duo scored 16 of Wooster's 36 goals (44 percent).

"There's holes to fill in every department, but we have a strong core, some players who have grown well over the last year or two, and new talent who can bring a little more athleticism and quickness," Brown said.

Yet, Wooster has plenty of depth returning. Two rising seniors had their fair share of scores last year as Hallie Krzys (5 goals) and Lily Glaza (3 goals) return. In addition, rising junior Julia Struck netted four goals herself.

Krzys and Glaza were two of Wooster's five All-NCAC players from last year. Krzys was third on the team in points but first with five assists.

Glaza will lead an experienced backfield with classmate Bailey Farrell and junior Kelsey Maley. Wooster scored 36 goals last year while its defense gave up just 14.

Wooster returns all three of its keepers from last season. Kameryn Nelson played 793 minutes of action and had a goal against average of .57 while Amanda Flory saw 720 minutes of action and made 34 saves, while sophomore Lucy Carlin will challenge to make an impact, too.

This year's captains are Krzys, Ellie Saguto and Maggie Stieby.

"Every year is a new starting point," Brown said. "We've had some players in the lineup who have done some great things and we're looking for both that and new players to emerge who we can lean on to do good things."

Wooster opens the season Aug. 31 at Earlham College. Their first home game is Sept. 4 versus Franciscan University, and the first NCAC matchup is Oct. 5 when Wooster hosts Kenyon College.