Young, Fast Team Passes Past Old

[MeanGreen61]

Interesting article on the youth of the soccer team and adjustments that were made.

Young, fast team passes past old

Michael Neglia

Staff Writer

October 20, 2005

A school record of 16 wins, capturing the conference tournament title and making the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament are some of the things last year’s NT soccer team accomplished.

Add losing eight seniors to that list, and you have a tough act to follow.

Emily Hughes / NT Daily

Jamie Yates, junior forward, goes to kick the ball during Sunday’s game against Arkansas-Little Rock at the Peterbilt field.

But that hasn’t been a problem for this year’s squad, as the Mean Green has reeled off a school record: a 13-game unbeaten streak, which includes a 3-1 road victory over SMU, a 1-0 win over Rice and a 1-1 tie with Missouri State. Those three teams beat NT last year by a combined score of 8-0.

Those results have come with a roster that is more than one-third freshman, including four starters. And three seniors, with none that start.

It has been somewhat of a surprise, at least to Mean Green head coach John Hedlund.

“I really am [surprised] because last year’s team was really made up as a veteran squad, it had eight seniors on that team, the core of that team has been together for three or four years,” Hedlund said. “I really didn’t know what to expect with this team, with so many new faces. I didn’t know whether these young players, these freshmen coming in, could play at a high level immediately.”

Sophomore forward Heather Hutyra wasn’t as surprised by the team’s success.

“You know, we had an awesome team last year, I just think this year the team is working really well together, everybody’s on the same page,” Hutyra said. “We have a lot of young talent and John recruited very well, so I’m not surprised that we’re doing better.”

Experience aside, the biggest difference between last year and this year’s team is athletic ability.

“The speed is a huge difference from last year,” Hedlund said. “We’ve never had this much speed and what helps out more than anything this year is if some of these players make a mistake, they’re so fast that they can get back and still try to correct that problem. But, last year’s team, if we did get beat, usually it would end up in a goal.”

Another important asset and upgrade from last year is depth.

“I would say this is the deepest team we’ve had,” Hedlund said. “We’re probably about five or six deep on this team and maybe a year ago we could probably bring three or four pretty good players on the bench.”

Still, arguably the biggest reason for success this season has been players adapting to new positions and excelling at them.

“We’ve been very fortunate where we move some kids into different spots that don’t normally play there and they have blossomed into that position,” Hedlund said. “Take a girl like [freshman] Gennifer Hurst … she’s always played forward. Now we’ve converted her into a right marking back, defender, and she’s done an extremely good job.

“The biggest key might be [junior] Angela Hawkins, she’s never played sweeper before, but we lost our big-time sweeper from a year ago and we had to fill that void and she’s been tremendous.”

Hurst admitted that playing defense wasn’t necessarily in her comfort zone when she first started.

“It was a different experience but once I got back there and I got used to the system that they’re playing, that we play, I kind of got comfortable,” Hurst said.

The Mean Green still had to make changes this year to better suit the team’s style of play and inexperience at the beginning of the season. NT switched formations during the offseason from a 3-5-2 (three defenders, five midfielders, and two forwards) to a 4-4-2 to play a more defensive-minded game.

If that wasn’t enough, NT started the season off with a goalkeeper controversy as to whether senior Briana Buchanan, who had led the team to the NCAA Tournament last year, or untested but very talented sophomore Kandice Ellis would be the starter. Hedlund tried playing both for a while, and Ellis got the hot hand and never looked back.

“They know coming in that there’s going to be competition in every position, and I think that’s what’s going to motivate them more than anything in the offseason,” Hedlund said. “Bri [buchanan] has done a great job for us, don’t get me wrong, but Kandice has come in and taken it to another level.”

That’s not to say that Ellis didn’t feel the pressure.

“Of course I was nervous but I mean you have to go with a positive attitude,” she said. “Bri and I just pushed each other, whoever’s playing better gets to play.”

All of this could have been a problem, until the big win against SMU.

“We came out in the SMU game, that’s the first game we played together as a team really well,” Hutyra said. “Before every game, John talks about the SMU game and ‘let’s just go out there and play like that,’ and I think that it’s a lot that we can lean back on and proves that we can play that well.”

Since the SMU win – the second of the 13-game unbeaten streak – it’s been riding high for the Mean Green. A win against Denver on Friday night, and a Western Kentucky loss or tie will clinch the regular-season conference title.

All of that bodes well in the future for a team that consistently starts at least a combined eight freshmen and sophomores.

“It’s a talented group of players, and they’re still young and have room to improve, which is exciting,” Hedlund said.