The University of Dayton women's soccer team captured both the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament titles for the second consecutive season in 2010. The Flyers were 19-3-1 and also advanced to the NCAA Second Round for the second straight year. Head Coach Mike Tucker answers questions about the continued success the Flyers experienced this year.
What were the goals of this year’s team?
The goals were to win the league, win the league tournament and play in the NCAAs. We managed to get all those accomplished this year.
Talk about the mindset of the team after battling Ohio State to a 1-0 loss during the regular season:
The start of the season we were trying to integrate a lot of new players in our system as we always do early. We had to find the right mix. Playing Ohio State here early, we knew was going to be a good challenge for us. I thought we played very well. The game was even-matched. Looking back at it and what they accomplished (reached the Final Four) it was a great preparation for us early in the year. That was a match we hung our hats on the rest of the year and said, “We’re going to be pretty darn good.”
The Flyers advanced to a league-record 15th consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship. Discuss winning the A-10 Tournament for the second consecutive year and seventh overall, this time in dramatic fashion with two overtime victories.
We certainly took both of those games down to the wire. To pull off overtime wins is never easy. It showed the character of our girls that they could just persevere; particularly in the final when we got behind early and then it turned into a slugfest. It turned into a battle of wills. I give Charlotte a ton of credit too. They really fought like crazy but the Flyers managed to fight just a little harder and a little better.
What are some of your favorite memories from the 2010 season?
Wow! There are so many. We had some brilliant goals scored and some brilliant goalkeeping. My memories are really just the overall season. The fact that we were able to be a great defensive team – to have Lisa Rodgers step up and really have a great senior year. To be able to score as many goals as we did showed we were a well-rounded team. To actually be rewarded and have Colleen Williams named an All-American and to have an Academic All-American with Kathleen Beljan, and the numerous all-conference awards, it’s a pretty cool feeling. You can’t ask for a whole lot more in terms of what we accomplished and the recognition we received.
What is the significance of having two players earn all-America honors in the 2010 season?
It’s a first for sure. We’ve never had two in one season. Colleen Williams was near the top all year in goals scored and is certainly well-deserving of her award. We wouldn’t have got to where we did without her and her contributions. The fact that she is just a sophomore and we have two more years of her is terrific and I think she can actually get better. Kathleen Beljan received the Academic All-American award, which means she was doing her job in every sense of the word. We really stress academic performance. She’s an engineer and she has to work at it. She performs on the field as well at an amazingly high level. I’m really proud of them. Plus, all the league awards; it was so overwhelming to see so many of our girls do so well.
How do you build on the success of a 19-3-1 record, just one win away from the school record for single-season wins?
We wanted that 20th win for lots of reasons. That tie at the end (against Ohio State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament) really sidetracked us from reaching one of our goals. I would take that record every year. We’ve continued to upgrade our schedule. We play a lot of really good teams that made the NCAA Tournament. If you go back to the year before we had six ties. The difference this year is that we persevered and got the wins in those tight games and there is a lot of difference in the records when you put up wins rather than ties. 19 wins is just one heck of a year. It gives us a goal for next year: Can we surpass what we accomplished this year. That’s what we’re going to work toward the minute they get back here.
Talk about the Flyer defense this year that posted 14 shutouts, one off the school record:
We thought we’d be pretty good defensively because we had so many people returning and yet, it was Katherine Boone that was in goal last year. When Lisa Rodgers stepped up and started playing so well, it was nice to know that we had two that could get it done. We were consistently good and not just in the back. We were a good defensive team. We defended well from the front to the back which is always going to give you a chance to win. That’s always our starting point: we want to be great, defensively, every year and we’ve set a precedent for that. If you look back at the Defensive Players of the Year in the A-10 we’ve had a whole bunch of them.
The offense put up big numbers this season, outscoring opponents 49-13. What was that like, considering your teams are usually more defensive-oriented?
49 is a big number! To be able to put up multiple goals and have a cushion was comforting. Colleen had a heck of a year but so did a lot of people. It was neat to see her jump in and take the lead like that and turn into a goal scorer more than we ever thought she would be. That opened up a lot of space for other people and they performed as well. When Kelly Blumenschein was injured some other people stepped up. We moved Alli Giner out of the back and she ended up being quite an offensive weapon.
Talk about the NCAA experience this year:
It’s ironic that our first game was against Virginia Tech who knocked us out the year before. We were really looking forward to that game. We knew how good they were. We were brilliant in the second half and we held on in the first half. That got us back to a replay with Ohio State. We were confident going into the game. They prevailed and to see them go as far as they did gives us confidence that we’re pretty close. It says a lot. They’re a team we aim at every year. It’s a good barometer. It showed a lot of people what the quality of soccer is here in Ohio.
What is the outlook for next year?
We go back to the drawing board with five seniors graduating. We’re going to have to have some significant contributions from people who maybe haven’t had that opportunity to do it yet, and we feel very confident that they will. We’ve got a good group of incoming freshmen that will step in and give us a lift. Our freshmen this year really grew up a lot and our ready to step in. But we’re certainly going to miss those five seniors that were on the field for most of the year. The really comforting part is having all the backs and the goalkeeper sitting back there again. Our starting point again is going to be a great defense. We’ll see this spring how we develop offensively and start plugging people in. We’re not going to settle for anything less than we’ve already accomplished this fall. Our plans are to be right back there, competing at the highest levels in the league again and being in the NCAA Tournament. We want to be thought of as the best.
