Alex Thomas
Staff Writer
Winning is what we all work for; it’s what all the blood, sweat and tears are for. In sports, you play to win the game, but that can be especially tough when you have to play on the road. For the Springfield College women’s soccer team, it doesn’t matter where they play – they win.
The Pride are off to a terrific start to their season, posting a 6-3 record in their first nine games of the season. They recently went 3-1 on a road trip that took them through Connecticut, Rhode Island, and out to the Boston area.
Going on the road didn’t matter; this team is on a mission and has started off the season with the best-case scenario. In addition to being 6-3, the Pride are a perfect 2-0 in league play, having beat Coast Guard and MIT.
The team started out the season playing five games at home, and won three of them. They opened the season with a win over UW-Stout in the Springfield Invitational before losing to Westfield State, 2-1. The team then knocked off Western New England and UMass Dartmouth in back-to-back games.
The Pride closed out their home stand with a 4-0 loss to Amherst, in what was the worst performance of the season for the team. That led into the recent four game road trip where the Pride went 3-1 beating Coast Guard, Roger Williams and MIT. They lost to Williams College.
Senior captain Lauren Muser explained the early success for the Pride.
“I think a huge part of our success is our ability to adapt to different situations. We recently learned a new formation, so now we are able to play in two different formations, so our opponents never really know what formation we will be playing against them. We have also grown so much as a team over the past month and we have huge depth in our team.”
It’s that ability to adapt, and that depth that has allowed the Pride to take off in the early going, and make it easier for the Pride to achieve their season goals, which Muser described.
“For the long term we want to be regular season champs again of course, and when we do become regular season champs we want to make it past the first round of NCAAs. We made it to the first round last year and we did not have a very good game. So this year we want to focus on making sure our intensity and drive is 100 percent during every game so that when we do reach these goals we won’t just be satisfied that we reached them, and we can go one step further.”
Using last year’s first round disappointment has helped Springfield come flying out of the gate, and they clearly have their sights set on a successful season that leads them to the playoffs, and hopefully further.
The Pride will continue their road swing on October 2 against Williams before returning home to take on Babson this Saturday at 12 p.m. in a league game. The Pride will also take on Smith, Wheaton, Clark, Emerson and Mount Holyoke in the coming games. There are plenty of league games which could help make or break the rest of the season for the Pride.
As Muser said, the goal is to win the regular season title and get past round one of the NCAAs. So far, so good for the Pride.