With more than 25 players on the roster, it is hard to imagine the women’s soccer team being low in reserves, but that’s the case for the Wolfpack this year.
“It might seem like we have depth at every position,” coach Emmy Therrell said, “but, with starters falling left and right. We only have about 4 reserves right now.”
With starting goalie and public relations junior Josephine Porter out for most of the season with stretched ligament in her left foot, and several other players ailing a variety of injuries, Therrell is having to move players around.
In two losses late last week against Mississippi College (7-1) and East Texas Baptist University (5-0), the defenses gave up goals early on in the game.
Since starting forward and team captain Clare Springer, a biology/pre-med. senior, fell to injury, Therrell said she decided to change the defense around for Wednesday’s game against bitter rival Spring Hill College.
Shifting the defense from a three-flat formation to a diamond formation to get more help in the backfield, Therrell has moved criminal justice freshman Amy Budahn to sweeper and international business sophomore Adrianne Golias to stopper.
“We needed to make some adjustments after Friday and Saturday’s games. We have to put some more speed in the backfield,” Therrell said.
Although Loyola seemed lackadaisical in the opening minutes Wednesday against Spring Hill, the diamond formation started to kick into full gear about 10 minutes into the game. This was, unfortunately for the Wolfpack, after the Badgers scored a goal.
With the defense keeping Spring Hill’s star forward in check, Loyola forward Lindsey Diak, biology/pre-med freshman, took the ball down the field and applied some much-needed pressure.
Teaming up with fellow forward and music sophomore Michaela Bono, Diak got some nice breaks down the field but never got to capitalize due to the outstanding play of Spring Hill’s goalie.
As the first half came to an end, Therrell was happy with what she saw, but made a few adjustments in the mid-field to bring in some speed from the sides.
Late into the second half, emotions started to flare as two yellow cards were given minutes apart to players on opposing teams for hard contact fouls that nearly injured some players.
While the ‘Pack ended up getting shut out, 3-0, Therrell said she saw nothing but a lot of improvement from a young team getting ready to play its first home game this Saturday at 5 p.m. against Louisiana College at The ‘Fly behind Audobon Zoo.
“Although we have some things to improve on, the pieces are finally starting to come together,” Therrell told the team.
“I like what I saw today, but we still have a lot to work on to get to where we can be.”
