UDPride Discussion Forums    
     

Go Back   UDPride Discussion Forums > LATEST ARTICLES > UDPride Articles

UDPride Articles Published content from your UDPride staff

» Log in
User Name:

Password:

Not a member yet?
Register Now!
» Advertisement
Comment
 
Article Tools Display Modes
2015 UD Womens Soccer Preview
2015 UD Womens Soccer Preview
Christopher Rieman
Published by Chris R
08-17-2015
Smile 2015 UD Womens Soccer Preview

Last Season: 12-9-2 (5-2-1)
A10 Regular Season:
3rd Place
A10 Tournament Champions
NCAA First Round


Coaches like to say ‘it’s not how you start – it’s how you finish’ -- an appropriate description of the 2014 UD women’s soccer season. A demanding non-conference schedule tore a gash through the Flyer flesh, resulting in a rather un-Dayton-like 2-5-1 start. Road losses to Stanford, Santa Clara, Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State may have toughened the Flyers up, but striking out against these NCAA tournament-caliber opponents left an all-or-nothing scramble for the automatic NCAA bid within the confines of the A10.

Conference seeding would play a huge part in salvaging the season – a tourney the Flyers would host at Baujan Field. The Flyers did enough to earn the #3 overall seed and take advantage of the home cooking, winning three games in four days to capture the A10 Championship in dramatic come-from-behind fashion against top-seed LaSalle. The 2-1 victory punched UD’s ticket to the NCAAs -- their first appearance since 2011. A 4-0 shellacking at Virginia Tech in the NCAA 1st Rd was not entirely unexpected and did little to take away from the rags-to-riches season Dayton enjoyed. With most of the talent returning for 2015, expectations are much higher. While not the best team Head Coach Mike Tucker has assembled, this year’s squad is – on paper – one of the better ones. The A10 coaches think so too, voting UD #1 in the preseason A10 poll for the seventh year in a row.

DEPARTURES


Forwards Chelsea Rose and Kelsey Smigel, a pair of 2014 seniors that provided depth off the bench, combined for four goals and four assists last year. Rose was undersized but fought above her weight class, while Smigel had shining moments but never sustained the terrific freshman season three years prior that produced a whopping 13 goals and five assists. Fellow senior midfielder Haley Keller (1gl, 1ast), a part of the starting lineup, fell to injury and was lost midway through the season.

Defensively, Allison Klinefelter was UD’s most experienced back-line player and, like Rose, battled aggressively against bigger players. Generally the results were very solid but against the elite opponents there were obvious challenges that yielded mixed results. To her credit, a lot was asked of her and in most cases Klinefelter held her own.

Sophomore GK Elizabeth James, a two-year starter, was beaten out by Heather Betancourt during the latter third of last season’s schedule. A tall and rangy presence between the pipes, James struggled with leg strength and consistency and ultimately transferred to Butler University in the offseason. Seldom-used bench players Diarra Simmons and Caitlin Carroll have also moved on. Carroll earned two starts a year ago while Simmons – a Canadian product with good athleticism – never found meaningful minutes. Defender Courtney Klosterman did not play in 2014 and also left the program.

RETURNEES

Dayton returns plenty of firepower both offensively and defensively, and while the offense is clearly the strongest muscle, there’s a chance the emerging defense takes a significant step forward in 2015.

In the attack, everything starts with the dynamic senior Canadian duo of Ashley Campbell and Nicole Waters. Campbell registered 16 goals and six assists in 2014 as the main target forward, following up a sophomore campaign that netted 18 goals and five assists. Waters has fed Campbell many of those great scoring opportunities, amassing 35 assists in the last two seasons – good enough to make her the NCAA’s active career leader in that category. She was also named 2014 A10 Midfielder of the Year.

Campbell and Waters are not just Dayton’s two best players, nor the A10’s top striker and possession midfielder; they are arguably the two best players in the A10 regardless of position. Each player brings something to the pitch nobody else in the conference has: a lanky forward that runs like a deer and finishes chances (Campbell), and a battering ram in the middle that physically dominates the run-of-play (Waters). Expectations are high for both players entering their senior years. Top Drawer Soccer thinks they are among the Top 60 players in the nation. Their challenge is to go from being the best players in the A10 to among the best players in the country.

Can anyone else step up however?

Junior MF Erin O’Malley is a strong horse to place your bet on, was last year’s A10 Tourney MVP, and perhaps Dayton’s most impressive player in the NCAA Tournament. O’Malley (5gls, 2asts) plays more like a holding/withdrawn midfielder that can shadow back to help in the defensive third. She’s developing into a reliable ball-winner however and at 5’9” has the size and physical tools to compete at a high level. Those traits paid off against the imposing beef of Virginia Tech’s lineup and provided a ton of optimism in the offseason. A preseason All A10 nominee, O’Malley has a chance to be one of the best midfielders in the A10.

Additional offensive punch should come from 2014 All-Rookie Alexis Kiehl, one of five preseason All A10 nominees on the Flyer roster. Kiehl (4gls, 7asts) started 22 of 23 game as a true freshman and showed great pace and creativity as a right winger in the Flyer offense. She’s at her best when running at defenders and using her staccato pace to flat-foot the opposition with the dribble-drive. She’ also a battler, but her maturation process will hinge on getting stronger and more physical. Kiehl no longer has the luxury of flying under the radar and remains a bit undersized as a striker (5’4”). Power-5 schools typically field seasoned defenders that carry more size and weight yet similar athleticism. The Flyers need Kiehl to be the budding sophomore star that can perform against players that are – on paper – more talented. It’s within her to make that leap.

Junior Meghan Blank (3gls, 4asts) splits time as a winger or wide midfielder that pinches forward looking to make runs at the corner flag. With nine starts in 23 matches, Blank brings considerable experience to the pitch after two seasons in uniform. She’s yet to truly ‘flip the switch’ and make those long, engaging runs down the sidelines produce results that match all the hard work she invests in them. It took Juliana Libertin a couple years to solve the same riddle. If Blank figures it out, she’ll become more than just a complimentary player.

Another potential darkhorse candidate for most-improved could be RS-Soph MF Libby Leedom. Gimped up for the better part of two seasons with lower body injuries, she took a medical redshirt her freshman year after sustaining an injury in late August. Leedom (1gl, 0asts) made 11 starts in 16 matches a year ago but more or less gutted it out and was never fully healed. If she’s 100% in 2015, she has size like O’Malley to clog up the midfield and make life difficult for opposing teams in the central third. Her next challenge (other than avoiding injury) is adding more offensive punch to her game. Doing so will also take pressure off Waters and O’Malley and make her running mates better players too. Leedom played her best match against Virginia Tech in the NCAAs, a positive sign considering the level of competition.

Sophomores Kaitlynn Kiehl and Sidney Leroy combined for 25 appearance and three starts as true freshmen, and will get thrown in the mix as additional options in the Dayton offense. The same can be said for senior Alyson Smigel, RS-Soph Catherine Devitt, and Soph Emily Coudret.

Defensively, Flyer fans should be cautiously bullish. UD suffered mightily last year by gift-wrapping soft goals despite conceding relatively few scoring chances. The results were oftentimes frustrating after playing so well for extended periods of the match and at least two or three losses on last year’s record could have ended more favorably with better attention to detail. The returning defenders are a year older, wiser, and more capable of avoiding such trappings again, but they’ll need help from the mids and forwards to avoid defending short on numbers in the defensive half of the field.

Sophomore Nicollete Griesinger started every match a year ago, and as a true freshman logged the most minutes of anyone on the team – that’s impressive. The preseason All-A10 nominee should be more seasoned and a shoo-in to lock down one of the starting spots in the back line.

Another mainstay is Sarah Byrne, logging the third-most minutes and starting every match last year. The tandem improved significantly over the course of the season and that experience should carry over.

Senior Lesley Chilton returns on defense and made 12 starts in 18 appearances. At 5’2”, Chilton concedes size anywhere on the field, but battles hard and fills her role as a supporting cast member wherever she’s most needed.

Junior Kathleen Golterman and senior Megan Herr combined for two starts and 35 appearances last season as additional depth in the back line. Either one has starter potential and should once again find ample playing time as important pieces in the Flyer defense.

Sophomore defender Abby Wiegel has a 6’0” frame to throw around, but injuries relegated her freshman season to just four matches. Having her size is indeed a luxury – especially on defensive set pieces to clear away high balls in the box. If Wiegel is healthy, Dayton has additional flexibility back there.

RS-Senior Heather Betancourt is – if nothing else – the sentimental favorite to lock down the goalkeeping job. Betancourt won the starting job last season when the Flyers were in jeopardy of watching the season completely unravel. She eventually started seven matches and no-so-coincidentally UD turned their season around late in the year. Her performance in the A10 Tournament was remarkable and without her the Flyers wouldn’t have won three games in four days. It was Betancourt’s performance against Virginia Tech in the NCAA Tournament that produced her strongest 90 minutes of the season; she was stunning and turned away four or five certain goals on diving saves that kept the score halfway respectable.

Junior GK Jenna DiTusa will do her best to win the job as well. She earned one start in 2014 and appeared in three matches.

NEWCOMERS

Dayton welcomes a large recruiting class, with a mix of defenders, mids, and forwards that bring varying degrees of size, speed, and physicality to the roster.

Quincy Kellett (5’6”, Bristol, IL), Beth Kamphaus (5’8”, Walpole MA), and Sara Robertson (5’4”, Cincinnati, OH) will fight for playing time in the attack. Kampaus was an All-State player in Massachusetts while Robertson was 2nd Team All-Ohio as a junior and senior. Kellett made a name for herself as a champion wrestler, a budding theme in this year’s incoming class.

Alongside Kellett, 5’8” MF Keagin Collie has mat experience too as one of the top wrestlers in Canada. Wrestlers have great footwork and are used to moving people around, so their physical tools should translate well to the soccer field as both players were dual-sport athletes at the prep level.

Additional midfield help comes from Big Sky country and the south suburbs as Mia Tompkins (5’8”, Bozeman, MT) and local product Dani Ruffalo (5’2”, Alter HS) join the program. Ruffalo was 2nd Team D-II All-State for the Knights and led the Greater Catholic League in scoring.

Defensively, Nadia Pestell (5’2”, Waterloo, Ont) brings “make-up speed” anywhere on the field and is one of the more accomplished players from north of the border. Kaelyn Johns (5’8”, Downington, PA) is the lone goalkeeper of this year’s recruiting class and was a 4-star recruit according to Top Drawer Soccer.

The 2015 recruiting class addresses a number of needs. There’s an eclectic mix of size and speed, plus the luxury of learning from a deep pool of returning veterans that won’t ask too much from too many too early in the season. That said, one or more frosh should make noise sooner than we think. It’s inevitable.

SCHEDULE

The UD staff put together another solid non-conference schedule and one of the better home schedules in recent memory. The Flyers open the season on Friday Aug. 21st at Florida International and follow up two days later with a match at Atlantic-Sun power Florida Gulf Coast. FGCU is one of the top mid-major programs in the country and should provide a great early test. UD returns home for the season opener at Baujan Field vs. in-state rival Ohio State on Aug. 27th, followed by a road trip to familiar Big-10 foe Michigan State on Aug. 30th.

A four-game home stand commences on Sept. 4th versus Nebraska. Cross-town rival Wright State takes the bus to Baujan Field on Sept. 6th. The following weekend brings in Rice on Sept. 11 as the return game of a two-game home/home series, while nationally-ranked Texas A&M obliges similarly on Sept. 13th.

The non-conference wraps up with yet another west coast trip, this time to mid-major power Cal Poly on Sept. 18th and UC-Santa Barbara on Sept. 20th. Cal Poly is a familiar Dayton opponent while UCSB fulfills the return game of a two-game series that Dayton won 2-0 in 2014.

The A10 schedule begins on Oct. 1st with a match at St. Louis, followed by a pair of home games vs. George Mason and Davidson that introduce the new Thu/Sun scheduling philosophy of the league. Dayton hits the road for matches at VCU on Oct. 11th and LaSalle on Oct. 15th. Fordham visits on Oct. 18th, followed by a road trip to Rhode Island on Oct. 22nd. SBU and Duquesne finishes up the home schedule while the last regular season game is in Amherst.

The non-conference schedule provides plenty of chances to punch UD’s NCAA at-large ticket, but the Flyers can’t afford to strike out completely again and squander the opportunities. This time the expectations are greater and this year’s team is too talented to hinge their entire fortunes on a weekend conference tournament.

DAYTON WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IF…


…the key to the season is keeping UD’s main cogs healthy and on the field. Ashley Campbell is eight months removed from a foot injury that knocked her out of the A10 tournament and kept her off the field for the NCAA First Round game against Virginia Tech. Assuming she’s fully recovered her presence and the presence of Nicole Waters, Erin O’Malley, and a few others are vital if the Flyers have an honest chance at upsetting a few teams in the non-conference schedule. These are UD’s Rolls Royce players and true equalizers on the pitch against Power-5 opponents. Without them, it’s an uphill battle.

…Heather Betancourt or one of the other goalkeepers is rock-solid in front of the net. Betancourt was penicillin last year when UD was hemorrhaging soft goals against suspect opponents. Her teammates rallied around her and played up to her level.

…UD’s emerging back line talent of Nicollete Griesinger and Sarah Byrne take another step forward and bring other defenders along with them. This isn’t a defense with a superstar like Erin Showalter or Jen Simonetti, but there’s enough collective skills to tag-team the problem and earn some clean sheets. The last two seasons have been frustrating at times for a program that‘s built a reputation on keeping the score down, but the young pups have learned on the job and should be better for it in 2015. If UD can concede just a goal to the good teams on the schedule, the offense has enough brawn to manufacture two goals pull off some upsets.

…Erin O’Malley becomes as a junior what Campbell and Waters became as sophomores – stars.

…Libby Leedom is 100% and Alexis Kiehl punches above her weight class.

DAYTON WILL STRUGGLE IF…

…the Flyer defense continues to surrender soft goals to the opposition. As much as the back line and goalkeeping took a public beating a year ago, team defense requires all 11 players to play it well. Too often the back line and goalkeeper are putting out fires beyond their own marks and responsibilities. Midfield defending must get better and the forwards must track back and be the first line of resistance as opposing teams attempt to play out of their own defensive third. Campbell alone can change the game when she bull-rushes opposing defenders and GKs, but a lack of overall defensive pressure everywhere on the field ends up costing Dayton with conceded goals that are gift-wrapped rather than earned. If UD doesn’t perform “preventive defensive maintenance”, there’s a chance the problem doesn’t go away.

…set pieces continue to be a wasteland of scoring opportunities. Few teams do a better job of winning dangerous free kicks and corner kicks as the Flyers, but UD hasn’t capitalized over the last two seasons. Conversely, opponents have battered Dayton on dead-ball opportunities – oftentimes hitting paydirt on their only decent scoring chances of the match.

…injuries take out one of the stud ducks. At some point in every game against the best teams on the schedule, the tactics, schemes, and game-planning go out the window and innate God-given abilities take over. If UD doesn’t have the players on the field capable of orchestrating magic, it’s tough to slay Goliath.

…another slow start to the season occurs. The Flyers never fully recovered from the inept results of last season’s non-conference slate to make up for it in the A10 regular season. A miraculous overtime win at George Mason turned the season around just in time to win the A10 tourney title, but UD can’t afford to pull bunnies out of the hat every year.

OUR PREDICTIONS


We like this team and so does everyone else. The Flyers were picked first in the preseason A10 poll and return a matric butt-ton of talent from a squad that punched their ticket to the NCAAs in 2014. If last year’s team underachieved during the season, they did what most expected they would in the A10 tournament – win when it counts. For better or worse, that’s what the Flyers are best at. Even in the most trying seasons, Dayton has a habit of playing their best soccer when the stakes are highest and the critics have all but counted them out.

For 2015, replicating last year’s results won’t be satisfying enough. Fans and critics alike expect to see a few scalps in the non-conference portion of the schedule. With Campbell and Waters, UD possesses one of the best offensive duos in the entire country – but the Flyers are by no means a duet. Quality talent surrounds them while the defense is out of excuses and poised to take a significant step forward. The A10 is always tough and well-scouted, but UD wins every conference match this year if all teams play to their potential.

This is the most talented team Head Coach Mike Tucker has fielded since the departure of three-time All-American Colleen Williams. It’s a credit to his staff for re-building the program after major personnel losses like Williams, Libertin, Beljan, and others. But it didn’t happen overnight. It has taken time for players like Campbell, Waters, and O’Malley to forge their own identities. It has taken time for young pups like Alexis Kiehl and Nicollete Griesinger to join the program and provide that added punch. It has taken good timing for players like Libby Leedom and Heather Betancourt to put past hurdles aside and be given an opportunity to be at their best at a time when their best is most needed.

This is the year where all points of light intersect at the same place at the same time. The Flyers are too good not to be great, and too hungry not to be animalistic at the upcoming season. If UD can control the peaks and valleys and find early success, it might be all they need to smell blood in the water every night throughout the season. No mistake about it: it’s a talented team but not so talented that Dayton can mail it in against good opponents and still expect to win. If the Flyers avoid the pitfall of complacency and compete with a chip on their shoulders, 2015 has a chance to be special – this time from start to finish.

Prediction:
A10 Regular Season Champs
A10 Tourney Runner-Up
NCAA At-Large
__________________

Hot shooting hides a multitude of sins.
Make everyone else's "one day" your "day one".
Article Tools
Comment

Article Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.1

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:34 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.6
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Advertisement System V2.6 By   Branden

Article powered by GARS 2.1.8m ©2005-2006

     
 
Copyright 1996-2012 UDPride.com. All Rights Reserved.