Historical Season

Week of November 12, 2007

Where do I begin? There have been so many significant achievements in the last week, I don’t know where to start. First, we had 4 players named to the All-Conference Teams. Sarah Brandt (First Team), Micaela Crowley (Second Team), Erica Carter and Jessica Rix (Freshman Team). Belmont has never had 4 players get All-Conference honors in the same year.

Tuesday night, we attended our first tournament banquet. The Atlantic Sun was very nice in recognizing Belmont’s season achievements, national rankings in the statistics, etc. I thought it was great for all of our players but especially the seniors to be acknowledged in front of their peers for their accomplishments. A few weeks ago, our players cheered on the bus when they found out that we had qualified for the A-Sun Tournament. I don’t think I told you that they cheered even louder when they found out there was a banquet and even louder when they decided they would straighten my hair for the banquet. So, Tuesday night I was beginning to wonder if our tournament was over when the banquet was over.

I am happy to say that our tournament lived on long after the banquet. I thought we got off to a great start against Jacksonville on Wednesday, and were definitely playing them better than the first time we played them in the regular season. Elizabeth Bublis and Erica Carter were not having any problem getting to the endline and sending in some dangerous crosses. We were having some problems getting on the end of their crosses. The 3rd time Erica got by her defender, she decided to dribble to the goal herself and put the ball in the net herself. There were some shifts back and forth in the momentum the rest of the half. There came a time in the 2nd half when we could not get the ball out of our half. JU was taking dangerous shots and putting a lot of pressure on us. They earned a corner kick and served a left footed inswinger that we couldn’t defend, and they tied the score 1-1.

JU had been relentlessly attacking us for at least 10 minutes prior to that goal, and I was afraid it was the beginning of the end for us. What happened next will go down in my book of “Most Memorable Moments.” Jayme Trocino scored off of Kari Lennon’s cross from the left side 38 seconds after we had given up the tying goal. Talk about a shift in the momentum. Our team did a good job for the rest of the game of staying out of dangerous situations and holding on to the lead. I hated having to make some substitutions in the last 5 minutes because I knew the clock would stop, but it was well worth getting Kari, Jamie, and Holt back in the game and securing our first ever tournament victory and defeating the defending Tournament Champions!

After the game, the team and parents had dinner together at Alex Mindel’s house. The food was great and the atmosphere was electric! We were excited to play Mercer in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Thursday morning, I watched our regular season game against Mercer. Like the day before, we had positional meetings and watched clips to see what we needed to change or continue doing to be effective against our opponent. We did not play with much energy or urgency against Mercer on October 14th, and we were still winning with 15 minutes remaining in that game, so I knew we would be capable of winning this game. Our players were a little quiet during the warm up. Wendy and I were worried that they were tired and saving their energy for the game.

I didn’t worry long. Once we kicked off, I thought our team played one of the best games we have played all year. We were playing quality soccer in the most important game of these players’ collegiate careers. I didn’t see any nerves. I didn’t see any fatigue or anxiety. I just sat and watched and enjoyed. We strung passes together. We used the width and changed the point of attack, and we made dynamic runs up front, out of the midfield, and on the flanks. I would not say that composure is a strength of ours, but we had it in the semi-finals of the Conference Tournament with 4 seniors and 7 underclassmen on the field.

About 15 minutes into the 2nd half, we gave up a corner kick, and Mercer scored off of a rebound. It was different than JU heading the ball in directly off of the corner kick. Nonetheless, it was another goal allowed on a corner kick that we would need to address if we got to play another game. Just like the day before, we scored immediately after allowing a goal. This time it took a minute and a half, but Bublis got down the left side to the endline and put the ball across the goal inside the six. Anna Holt was there to score her first goal of the season!

The scariest thing for us in the overtime period was giving up 2 corner kicks, but we got 2 of our own, and I thought we had the momentum as the clock wound down and sent us to penalty kicks. As you know, we fell short in the penalty kicks. We finished our season with a 13-6-3 record and an A-Sun semi-final appearance. Not such a bad season after finishing 8th out of 10 teams last year and being picked to finish 8th out of 12 teams this year.

One of the most unique things about this team was its depth. Our depth impacted our style of play more than any team I have coached. We were not a possession oriented team. We rarely slowed down the play by passing from left to right or right to left. We call that east/west. We were a north/south team. When we got the ball, you knew where we were going with it. We call our system a 4-3-3, but some of our opponents might have called it a 4-5-1. We rarely locked our opponents into our attacking half and created shots. We spent a lot of time in our half and counter attacked when we got possession of the ball. We led the conference in corner kicks, so that shows you that we got behind defenders and looked to cross.

In a 90 minute game, it was typical for our starting forwards to play 45-50 minutes. During the regular season, it was not unusual for us to play 7 or 8 forwards. I think this rotation and depth helped us stay healthy this season. It was one of the healthiest seasons I have ever had as a coach. We used 18 players in the quarter-final and 19 players in the semi-final. Mercer only played 14 players. Despite playing the day before, I thought we had more energy than Mercer in the overtime periods, and it helped us create 2 dangerous chances to score in the final minutes.

Like I said, I think this was a unique characteristic of this team and would not expect the style to be exactly the same next year. I still have more to say about this year, but I will wait and say it next week. Til then…