The Terrapin women’s soccer team knows it needs to score more to win more – two things it did very little of last season.
After struggling last season to put the ball in the back of the net, coach Brian Pensky went out and found some players to help bolster the Terps’ offense. Now, he’s hoping the mix of veteran players and a touted recruiting class can solve that problem.
How the newest Terps adjust to the rigors of college soccer, and if they can add a new dimension to the offense, will largely affect whether or not the team can get back to the ACC and NCAA tournaments this year.
The incoming recruiting class, ranked No. 14 in the nation by SoccerBuzz, is expected to make a big impact early on for the Terps. Headlined by top-150 recruits defender/forward Sade Ayinde, midfielder Becky Kaplan and forwards Skyy Anderson and Lydia Hastings, Pensky and the Terps are hoping they’ve found the missing pieces to their offensive puzzle.
The 12 freshmen will join a strong cast of returning players this fall, and it will be Pensky’s job to make sure the team blends together.
Offensively, the Terps lost their second-leading scorer from last year’s team to graduation in Kelly Rozumalski, so senior Kaila Sciascia and sophomore Annesia Faulkner must team up with the new Terps and put some goals on the board.
“We need to start challenging [opposing] goalkeeper[s],” Pensky said. “When we give up scoring opportunities, it usually comes back to bite us.”
Pensky will rely on senior captain Nataly Arias to control the midfield for the Terps and to be the leader of this young squad. Arias, who led the team with five goals last season, believes that as this year’s team plays more and gels more, the offense will click.
“We just need to relax when we have the ball on offense,” Arias said. “We need to be a possession team and really take good care of the ball.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the Terps will try to build on last year’s success.
Anchored this year by juniors Mary Casey and Brittany Cummins and sophomore Colleen Deegan, the defensive unit was one of the lone bright spots on last year’s squad. All-ACC freshman goalkeeper Yewande Balogun will return in net fully healed after her season ended early last year with a broken foot.
Against George Mason in their Terps debut, the freshmen had a strong showing. Hastings led the Terps with two goals, and fellow freshman Amy O’Sullivan tallied two assists in helping the Terps to a 5-0 win in their season opener over the Patriots.
However, the Terps lost two games this past weekend that they felt they should have won, and at some critical points in both games, the Terps’ youth showed.
“We have young kids who are playing in some of their first college games,” Pensky said of his young team. “Maybe we’re experiencing some growing pains right now.”
With the defensive unit appeared set, the lone questions remaining heading into the season are the offense and the freshmen. If the freshmen can help solve the team’s offensive struggles, the Terps could surprise a lot of teams this fall.
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