2008 Woodie Awards
Women's Soccer Looks For Redemption
Denis McGuire Staff Reporter
Issue date: 9/22/05 Section: Sports
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The Sacred Heart women's soccer team has learned a little something about heartache the last two years: each saw the team lose the Conference final in penalty kicks.
The focus this year?
Get back to the final, and win it outright.
On August 25 the women's soccer team began their 2005 fight for the finals against the University of Maine.
Maine's Black Bears took a 4-0 win over the Pioneers for their season opener. On September 2, the Pioneers took another hard loss to Boston College when they lost 2-0 to the Eagles.
Maine and BC are both nationally ranked teams, so the women knew these games would be a challenge.
It was not until Sunday, September 4 that Sacred Heart claimed their first victory against Brown. The women scored three goals in the first half on their way to a 4-3 win over the Bears. This was the first time in Sacred Heart's history that the Pioneers have even scored against Brown.
After a record of 8-8-3 for their 2004 season, the Pioneers planned to make this season better then the last. Although they suffered two hard losses early on, the team is trying to regain their composure and pull ahead for the rest of the season.
The team is now being coached by last year's assistant coach, Kim Banner. For six years the team had been lead by the current men's soccer coach, Joe Barosso.
There are also new faces on the team itself. The 2004-05 team graduated nine seniors, but the team has regained some of that talent with 10 brand new freshmen. Three are three talented enough to start their first year on the team.
With so many new faces, the team will rely heavily on leadership by their captains, senior midfielder Orlagh Cullen and junior forward Lisa Burbige.
"The team this year has more overall talent than last year's," Burbige said. "We are playing a new formation this year that has more of an attacking mindset, and so far we have adjusted well to it."
Burbige already has three goals this season. She said that if the team keeps up the good work, they will place well in this year's conference.
"We are slowly but surely coming along," Cullen said. "We've been consistent in our play with some bad lapses that have made us pay dearly, but we have a great team spirit and we are very determined to correct things and learn from previous mistakes."