By Gavin Lindahl
Staff Writer
As they sit in the basement of the Atlantic 10, the women’s soccer team is nowhere near where it wanted to be at this point of the season. The conference campaign has yielded a meek 2-6 record at press time. Coming off back-to-back road losses against Davidson and Dayton, the Bonnies played one of their last two games yesterday.
Coach Steve Brdarski was disappointed by the losses in wake of two straight victories, he said.
“There’s a lot of different ways to cut those games up; you can look for excuses, you can look for true, hard reasoning but bottom line is it was a tough road trip,” Brdarski said. “We came back from St. Louis (the team’s last win at press time) on such a high, and then the long road trip down to Davidson. The first 20 minutes, we did the right things. Then we made a mistake in the box, they scored and the whole tide of the game changed. They put away their chances and we didn’t.”
According to senior goaltender Christina Sarokon, the Bonnies need to play consistently throughout games and cannot afford to lose focus.
“We’ve done such a good job scoring goals this year, so we just need to keep that intensity up,” Sarokon said. “Coming out really strong in the first five minutes is crucial to set the tone for the game, and then we need to keep upping the intensity from there.”
The pair of losses all but ensures the Bonnies to finish well outside the top eight of the conference. With such a poor record and only two wins in the past month, Brdarski admits it would have been easy for his group to give up and lose focus. However, Brdarski knows his squad better than that.
“This team has dealt with adversity so well,” Brdarski said. It’s been a season of injuries, and we’ve had so many players step up. Some of our young players have had to have been thrown into the mix perhaps before they were ready for it, but they did the job.”
However, it’s not just the Bonnies’ ‘never say die’ attitude that has Brdarski looking on the bright side. The play of senior forwards Abby Maiello and Lauren Hill has shown him the success players have had in the organization. Also, sophomore forward Danielle Vis, sophomore goalkeeper Beth Moore and freshman midfielder Marley Jarvis have played to a level that makes Brdarski confident for the coming seasons.
“You see a girl like Abby (Maiello) go out and score 10 goals in a season. That’s tough to do. In my three years here, nobody’s scored more than eight; it’s great to see. And Hill has been our most consistent player in terms of work, effort and stepping up in games,” Brdarski said. “Vis, her play speaks for itself. Moore has gotten a lot of minutes in goal, and that’s going to help us over the next two years. Jarvis has been a freshman that has consistently started, so she’s gotten some experience we’ll need in the future.”
The squad’s last scheduled match will be played at home this Sunday against one of the hottest teams in the A10, St. Joseph’s University, winning four of its last five matches. Kickoff against the Hawks is set for 1 p.m.
lindahg12@bonaventure.edu
