Although the women’s soccer team ended its season with a 3-10-4 record, the team still views the season as a win.
Head coach Krissy Engelbrecht said she was happy with the way the team played.
“We weren’t happy with our record, obviously,” Engelbrecht said, “But the freshmen stepped up in a big way, which will help us in the future.”
With the season being the last for the four seniors, Engelbrecht said they are leaving some holes for the other teammates to fill.
Two of the four seniors played in the back, leaving some of the younger players, who had quite a bit of playing time this season, to step up and play a bigger role next season.
Engelbrecht said she credits a lot of lost goals to a shaky defense when the season began.
“At the beginning of the season, defense were making little mistakes that would cost us goals, but we worked to fix that,” she said.
Senior defender Maura Hulme played in 16 of the 17 total games. She scored six points, two goals and two assists, and played a total of 1,038 minutes.
Hulme considered the last game her best of the season, which was against Bellarmine. She scored one goal during the game, but she said that wasn’t the reason it was her best.
“I mean, I knew it was kind of that point that we knew we weren’t making it to conference, so I knew it was the last time stepping out onto that field,” Hulme said. “I just really prepared myself individually and then tried to get the team ready as well.”
Hulme decorated the locker room and made sure everything was set for the last game so that the team could finish strong.
She said the players kept their determination throughout the entire season, whether the team was winning or not, and no one ever gave up.
“We didn’t hang our heads low, we just kept every game fighting,” Hulme said. “Every game was a battle pretty much.”
She said any player could have had negative feelings about not having a winning season, but that it is a team effort to have a winning season.
“Overall, I don’t think people can go off from this season saying that it was the worst season they played,” she said.
Hulme, who will no longer play soccer competitively, said she she will continue to coach and train aspiring soccer players.