Despite the early losing record at 2-3, the Warhawk women’s soccer team looks to grab a few more wins after defeating conference opponent UW-Eau Claire on Saturday 2-1.
The season started slow for the Warhawks losing their first two games at neutral sites against NCAA tournament quality teams in Concordia-Morehead and Macalester College. The last week and a half or so has gone better for the Warhawks and Head Coach Ryan Quamme hopes the recent success continues.
“The team has accepted the difficulty and purpose of our early season schedule. We faced four NCAA tournament quality teams away from home to start the season,” Quamme said. The players understood the challenges these games present and the positive impact they have when we get into conference play which showed yesterday.”
Senior Chrissy Tooren knows her team didn’t exactly get off to the start they would have liked, but she feels things are starting to come together.
“I believe we have finally found the right formation and the personnel to fit that formation,” Tooren said. “We as a team have been working at the little things like 50/50 balls and high pressure to make our team attack improve and to play with urgency.”
Senior Alyssa Chamberlain has also been pleased with the way her team has improved over the last week compared to early on in the season.
“Our team has done a lot of work on getting end line in the attacking half and we did that on Saturday,” Chamberlain said. “We’ve also done a better job winning 50/50 balls which is another big thing we’ve been working on.”
After another successful season last year, the Warhawk’s goals continue to be the same in winning the conference once again.
“The team has never been rattled or concerned about their short term record instead focusing on their season long goals of winning the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference again and postseason play,” Quamme said. “That attitude is a reflection of the experience and leadership of eight upperclassmen and their experiences over the last two seasons where we faced similar starts to our season.”
The Warhawks hit the road today for a game in Rock Island, Ill. against Augustana College at 5 p.m. They will play their first conference home game this Saturday against UW-La Crosse.
