A-team, Lady Cavs win indoor tournaments

by Bridget Egan staff writer

It may have been cold and snowy outside this weekend, but inside the Dixon Center the Cabrini College soccer teams were red hot. Both the men's and women's teams hosted and dominated their tournaments and brought respect to the Cabrini community.

The women's team hosted its fust ever indoor classic and eventually swept the round robin tournament and walked away not only undefeated, but not scored upon. The shut out was a great boost to the confidence of the six-year-old team. Coach Diane Pierangeli credited great team sprit and goalie Jessica Huda with the complete shutout.

Teams that participated included Beaver, King's, Albright, Eastern and Catholic University. Only Eastern is a conference team, but Cabrini has had every other team except Catholic on their schedule in past years. Pierangeli was excited about playing Catholic University and added that Cabrini has now picked them up for the next season.

The women's team had played in their first ever indoor tournament the Friday before the Cabrini toumament at Beaver College. Pierangeli claimed that the Beaver tournament helped to prepare the team and added that out of 15 teams, Cabrini advanced to the finals.

The move from outdoor to indoor soccer obviously didn't bother the Lady Cavaliers. Pierangeli claimed that indoor tends to be a quicker game where players are able to showcase more skills.

There is also no limit on substitutes, unlike outdoor, so that there are always fresh legs on the floor. With constant substitutes and the five-on-five format, the game keeps a quicker pace, and there is rarely a lull in the action.

Junior captain Erin Barney was excited about the sweep and optimistic about the upcoming season. She claimed that the team came ready to play and kept up the intensity for the entire tournament.

"We looked in the best shape out of everyone," Barney said. "And our bench was crazy."

Barney claimed that the indoor game required more ball control and, while the quick pace allowed for more mistakes, it also opened new windows of opportunity. Barney's desire going into the tournament was to get a win for Cabrini and to attain the championship that they had lost when the PAC title slipped out of their reach. She claimed that to finally attain a complete shutout and a championship gave the team the spark of hope necessary to catapult the women's team into the next season.

The men's team was also partly victorious in their tomnament. The men's program split into two teams for their first annual indoor tournament: A team and fr team. The B team was comprised of graduating seniors and some juniors. The B team was eliminated in the semi-finals, while the A team went on to win the tournament.

The men's soccer program's future seems to be in good hands, though, considering the A team was comprised of all underclassmen.

Don Eadie, senior co-captain of the men's team this year, claims that the B team eventually was eliminated due to several factors. He claimed that they were too anxious to score and were without their normal coaching staff.

Senior co-captain Wayne Brown filled in for the coaching staff and assisted the B team in their game, while normal head coach Duncan Hubley concentrated mainly on the efforts of the A team.

The A team defeated the B team in the tournament and, according to junior Sean McDonald, an A team member, it was an intense victory. He claimed that the entire tournament was fun, but the game against B team forced both he and his teMnmates to play especially hard.

Eadie, a member of the B team, also said that the game was intense and B team had just as much desire as A team, but the win just fell through.

Eadie lamented that his team couldn't get their revenge on A team when they lost to Catholic University in the semifinals. Had the B team beaten Catholic, they would have been pitted against their usual teammates for the bragging rights of the championship game.

Like Barney, Eadie claimed that indoor forces players to be quicker and use more skill and scoring is harder due to the smaller goals. held in the Dixon Center.

The men's team has participated in indoor toumaments before and last year won the Elizabethtown University indoor toumament. r

The difference between Cabrini's tournament and other indoor tournaments is that at the Cabrini tournament, there were "out of bounds" zones, whereas in other tournaments the ball can be played off of the walls like a hockey game. McDonald claimed that both indoor and outdoor soccer are basically the same; it is just a smaller area in the indoor game.

As far as next season, McDonald claimed that the championship game gave the men more confidence as far as playing as a team. He claims that the incoming first-year students and the current underclassmen can step into the shoes of the seniors who will be graduating this year.

Eadie wishes the men's team good luck next year and hopes that they do well. As far as the defeat of the seniors by the underclassmen goes, Eadie claimed with a smile that the B team took a laid-back approach to playing their teammates.

''We took it easy on the youngsters," Eadie said, "because we didn't want to crush their confidence for next season."