Ending the season with a record of 12-5 and finishing ranked fourth in Western Athletic Conference, CBU women’s soccer said they are content to have exceeded their goals.
“Starting the season we set a few goals: We wanted to get 10 wins and we wanted to finish in the top four, and we accomplished both, which is awesome,” said Seth Taylor, assistant coach of the women’s soccer team.
Taylor said that for the team’s first year in Division I this achievement would satisfy any coaching staff.
“Just the way we finished Division I, if you told any first year Division I coaching staff that you’re going to win 12 games and finish at the top of the conference, they would take it,” Taylor said.
Being the new kids on the block, Kristen St Clair, head coach of the women soccer team, said the team knew they had an uphill battle ahead.
“We knew we need to prove ourselves in a new conference and we did that,” St. Clair said. “We finished fourth in a challenging conference where we were picked to finish eighth.”
Finishing the season with a win against the University of Montana on Senior Day, the team said they have left everything on the field.
“Being able to send our senior class off with a win over Montana was the goal,” said Miranda Hald, junior health science major and forward. “Winning on senior day impacted the team and the senior class emotionally as this was the last game of the season.”
Now that the team had a taste of DI competition, St. Clair knows which teams she should look for next season.
“They’re all going to be challenging. (The University of Missouri, Kansas City) is currently the top team, but we want to shoot for every team. We want to take it one game at a time,” St. Clair said.
Taylor said he believes intra-team competition would help the team develop and improve in the new season.
“I’m a recruit coordinator, so I’m always thinking about how I can make the program better from the standpoint of bringing in new people,” Taylor said. “Basically, it’s like a race. You try to out-recruit the players you have, but then you also try to develop the players you have to beat the recruits.”
In their first successful season at the DI level, the team was led by senior history major, Desarae Felix. With Felix graduating, St Clair plans to pass the baton of captin to Hald.
“I plan on leading the team through my actions,” Hald said, “leading by example is the most impactful form of leading because it pushes others to reach the same level.”
Pointing to Hald as the team captain and looking for recruits, St. Clair and Taylor have started preparing the team for the next season and the second year of Western Athletic Conference action.
