Women's Soccer Bounces Back

Oct. 1

Every athlete will tell you that there is nothing harder than climbing out of a slump. Whether you're a member of the 0-4 St. Louis Rams or Phil Mickleson with a bad case of the "shanks," every athlete has experienced a slump. It's impossible to say where these lapses come from or why they show up when they do, but there's nothing more mentally taxing than finding success in a sea of failures.

After a very successful start to the season, my team stumbled into that slump. It started with a heartbreaking 3-0 loss to Capital where we just did not perform to our ability.  Then there was the hard-fought match against nationally-ranked Denison that ended in a 0-0 tie. Finally, there was the humbling 2-1 overtime loss to Allegheny. It is hard enough to step on the field for practice after these results, but the national, regional, and conference rankings are the salt in the wound. We went from being ranked 22nd in the nation and 4th in our region to dead last in our conference.

But we are almost halfway through the season so there is no time to dwell on the rankings. We have to recognize our weaknesses, remember the feeling of defeat, but continuing to focus on the future. Yes, we have played eight games, but we have nine left in the regular season, including all of our UAA games. Our destiny is still in our own hands; a conference title and NCAA bid are by no means out of reach.

Our coaches have realized that we need to get out of this slump, fast, so the last week of practices focused on the mental aspect of the game. We spent most of Wednesday's and Thursday's practices getting back to basics and boosting team morale. We took a step back from working on complicated plays and new formation and instead worked on our first touch, passing accuracy, and movement off the ball. Every player took a critical look at themselves to decide what they needed to contribute in order to help our team climb out of this hole. Friday was a standard pre-game practice focused on finishing and set pieces, but the environment was different. There was an energy and focus on the field that I had not felt before, and at that moment I knew we were out of our slump.  

On Saturday we faced Kenyon College, a team that beat us 3-0 last year. This time, we were the better team, and came away with a 5-1 victory. I had no doubt our team would step on our home turf and play like NCAA Champions.

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