The Collegian
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Women's soccer opens conference play tomorrow

Senior Kelsey Rdzanek puts away a penalty kick to secure the win over Davidson.
Senior Kelsey Rdzanek puts away a penalty kick to secure the win over Davidson.

The University of Richmond women's soccer team is almost halfway through its season, but the most important games are just about to begin.

The team finished its non-conference season last weekend with a 2-0 win against Longwood University on Sunday, and a 3-2 win against Davidson University on Friday, bringing its record to 4-4-1. The team will play Atlantic 10 teams the rest of the regular season, starting with Fordham University at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Ukrop Park, and La Salle University at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Philadelphia, Pa.

"The non-conference is important," coach Peter Albright said, "but the conference is what we're getting ready for. We're really trying to put together a team that can win in the A-10 and advance in the tournament and hopefully qualify for the NCAA tournament through A-10 play."

Last season, the team began the season 9-2-1, the best starting record in program history. The 2009 team is still learning how to consistently play well, Albright said, and has lost its focus at times.

"The challenge is always to score goals and win games," he said, "but our bigger challenge is to play hard and to fight hard and work together for the entire game.

"That sounds simple and it seems like a pretty reasonable expectation, but we haven't been doing it. ... We feel like our record should be much better than it is, but we're completely responsible for the reasons that it's not."

Senior midfielder Kelsey Rdzanek said the players did well when they worked hard, but had sometimes lost to opponents when they were laid back and expected to win. But she said she wasn't too worried about the team's record thus far, because the past two years had shown that non-conference results were misleading.

In 2007, the team was 1-7-1 against non-conference opponents, but earned a bid to the Atlantic 10 tournament with a 6-4-1 record against conference opponents. Richmond won its quarterfinal game before losing to the eventual conference champion during the semifinals. Last year, the Spiders were 6-2-1 during non-conference games, but failed to reach the Atlantic 10 tournament with a 4-7 conference record.

One of the keys to improving upon last season is for the team's leadership to evolve and get stronger throughout the season, Albright said. He said the team's four captains - seniors Rdzanek, Carter Blair and Jen Ruhe and sophomore Bridget Kinealy - each helped the team in different ways.

Rdzanek is the strongest personality and the team's on-field leader, Albright said. Blair is not a vocal leader, but Albright said she was passionate, tough and would "cut off her arm to win a game." Ruhe has a relentless positive attitude, he said.

Kinealy is the only sophomore captain during Albright's 14 years at Richmond, but he said he had always known she'd be a great Richmond captain. The sophomore class is the biggest on the team, and Kinealy said she was excited to represent those players.

The team is also already benefiting from the play of its freshmen, three of whom - Shondel Archer, Emily Parisi and Natalie LeClair - started both games last weekend. Along with Ruhe, Archer and Parisi were named to the Virginia Commonwealth University All-Tournament Team on Sept. 13.

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Albright said Parisi, a defender who played on three national finalist club teams in high school, was an accomplished player who was already playing like a veteran. Forwards Archer and LeClair are among the team's offensive leaders - Archer has five goals and two assists and LeClair has two goals and one assist.

"They're both track kids - big engines, very strong-willed, high-energy type of players that can stretch a defense," Albright said. "We have to learn to do a better job of bringing the rest of the team forward with them. The tendency with players like that is just to try to put them in all the time and let them go get the goals, and that's not realistic."

Rdzanek agreed and said that last year there were a couple of players the team expected to take all the shots on goal, but the scoring responsibilities would be more widespread this year. They will all have to do their own part, she said, instead of relying on one or two people.

Albright said he thought the team had more good players than last season, and that depth could help later during the season, when fatigue and injuries often take their toll on the players. Rdzanek said confidence was important for the team and she hoped to finish first or second in the conference, because only six of the 14 A-10 teams compete in the tournament and the top two get a bye during the quarterfinals.

Kinealy said she thought the team had had enough time to work through its early season problems, and she was excited about the new challenge that the conference games presented.

"This year we started off struggling," she said. "Last year we didn't. We've dealt with losses this year. ... As much as it stinks to lose, I think it's good. It has taught us a lot."

Contact staff writer Barrett Neale at barrett.neale@richmond.edu

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