Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
It will be the last season seeing seniors Sarah Brochu, LeAnn Disisto, Bryana Poulin and Hannah Spreckley playing together on the same soccer field and they hope to go out with a bang.
Adam Cohen, Owls head coach, said that his seniors, throughout their years at Southern, have been very important to the team’s success.
“Our seniors have been outstanding and they have put so much work in over the course of their career,” said Cohen. “They have helped organize the team and have gotten the team to the point where the team is leading itself and that’s a credit to the seniors.”
After a 7-9-2 season, the Owls began practices with one thing in mind, “getting better each day.” Poulin said her team has a strength on the defensive side of the ball, but there is still much more improvements needed in other areas before they hit the field for their first game against LIU Post on September 5.
Brochu said, “I think we stay compact on defense and have picked our chances to squeeze the field and move forward. But we need to strengthen our final third to better our chances up top.”
DiSisto said communication is one of their strengths so far especially for the incoming freshman. She said they have been very vocal with them during their first couple of practices.
“Telling them where to step and when to come back is something we have been very big on so far,” DiSisto said.
The Owls finished last season on a strong note, winning four of their last six games. As for this season, led by the four seniors, Brochu said it’s very important to be vocal and communicate because the conference (Northeast-10) is very competitive.
“It’s important to be vocal because the actual games are much faster than our practices,” she said. “If we can communicate as much as we can, if we can talk about where our players are, where the ball is and stuff, it will makes things flow much easier.”
Cohen, who is entering his 11th season as Owls head coach, said practices so far have been good, but improvement is needed in numerous areas.
“We didn’t come in until Aug. 21,” he said. “So we had a limited amount of time to get ready. But I’m very optimistic and poised with the team and where they are. We all would like to score more goals in order to win more games. So that is something we are working on in practice.”
As for the upcoming season, Cohen said there are a few expectations his team is hoping to meet by the end of the season.
“At this point,” he said. “We want everybody to understand and know what their roles are within our style of play and with that I believe they are going to be very very successful.”
After a tough season last year, Brochu, who is a team captain, said she has learned a lot and hopes to implement them into this season in order to help her team out as much as possible.
“Team chemistry is a huge thing,” she said. “I think last year was pretty much definitely hard. But also watching from the side lines, I noticed team chemistry is very important on and off the field.”
