Last season's historic run to the conference tournament championship game has the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team hoping for even bigger things in the 2020-21 season.
Coach
Shiloh Posey's team shocked the Sooner Athletic Conference last November when, as the No. 7 seed in the league tournament, they upset second-seeded, 13
th-ranked John Brown on the road in the Arkansas in the first round. That advancement, thanks to a 4-2 shootout win following a 1-1 overtime tie, gave the program its third-ever playoff advancement.
The Pioneers then went on the road and defeated Texas Wesleyan to move into their first SAC Tournament title match. WBU fell to No. 9 USAO to finish up a remarkable season with a 7-7-3 record.
While he'd love to see it happen, Posey isn't promising another historic post-season run. One thing he is promising about what will be his 13
th team at Wayland is this:
"They will battle," he said.
The Pioneers begin battling at 5 p.m. today when they host Arizona Christian in the first game of a doubleheader with the WBU men against the Firestorm.
It will be the first meeting on the pitch between Wayland and Arizona Christian.
"It will be nice to play some people we're not as familiar with," Posey said. "If we play well I think it will be a really even match."
The season-opener follows what the coach called a less-than-pleasing scrimmage performance for his team last week against Western Texas College. Posey took his team's struggles with a grain of salt since they were without four players due to eligibility matters and five for COVID-19 issues. As a result, Wayland played with just one substitute.
"We were not at our peak, by any means," said Posey, adding that the Pioneers are getting back "three or four" of those missing players for today's debut. "We'll still be a couple of players short today, but we should be on a lot better footing.
"The girls weren't happy with how they played and took it as a personal challenge for them to improve. I'm anxious to see the results" against Arizona Christian.
While Wayland returns a good portion of last season's roster, the Pioneers don't have their top two scorers in
Taylor Moore and
Megan Attenborough, who combined to score 21 of the team's 37 goals last season. A two-time all-conference honoree, Moore provided 12 goals while Attenborough notched nine.
Also gone is goalkeeper
Maci Merket, the former basketball all-American who helped bail out the team in goal after starter
Victoria Bonahoom was injured early in regular-sason conference play. Taylor, Attenborough and Kede were among six seniors and seven players total lost from last year's squad.
"We return the vast majority of our team," Posey pointed out.
It's not secret, though, that Wayland will have to find new offensive production. Posey said they'll do it "by committee."
"It will literally a full-team effort," he said. "I don't know if we can count on one individual."
With six goals, senior
Fortune Kede is the top scorer back from a year ago. Posey said the native of Ghana "is our point person right now," but she's been dealing with knee issues and is regaining her strength.
Other seniors "who were key for us last year as juniors" are
Bianca Roman, who started all 17 contests last season, and Myra Sosa, while others expected to take up the slack are sophomores
Natalie Terry and Arial Garcia.
Taking over in goal will be
Iris Nevarez, a senior from Dumas who has mostly played in the field up until now, and freshman
Victoria Paz of Mexia.
Posey said his team has shown an "exceptional" closeness as it prepares to kick off the season.
"This team has a really good team mentality. I've watched the girls as a group be as cohesive as any other group I've had. They're encouraging and positive. The leadership that we have is very team-oriented and helps bolster a mentality of success and strong work ethic. Their goal is to help the team continue to improve and get better.
"They're working hard on improving their capabilities and technical skills as always, and the team mentality they have only helps to bring that a long faster."
Because of COVID-19, Wayland will play a six-game schedule this fall, the final five competitions against SAC schools. Those results won't count in the league standings, only the results when the season resumes in February.
"It will be interesting to have a shortened (fall) season. I figure it will be harder to get in a rhythm only playing once a week, but on the other hand it will be beneficial as far as our health and recovery time. This fall will be good preparation time for the spring."
Posey applauded new assistant coach
Jack Laurie and graduate assistant
Alan Reyna, both of whom are new to the women's program after helping the men exclusively last season.
"Jack has done an exceptional job, especially having never coached women before. The girls are responding to him well. Alan, too. He's helping out our goalkeepers."
Except for dealing with all of the COVID-19 issues, Posey said everything has been great this fall, especially the cohesiveness of his team and his new assistants.
"It's been an enjoyable time up to this point."
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