Women’s soccer gets an early start

NICOLE DUGGAN STAFF WRITER NLD723@CABRINI EDU

The Cabrini women’s soccer team outscored their opponents 5-3 in their tournament at Lebanon Valley College on Sunday, April 20. They walked away from the day with a record of 1-1-2.

The team played four strong teams including University of Scranton, Montclair State University, Lebanon Valley College and Muhlenberg College. The tournament consisted of games with 35-minute durations. Considering they have only had a few practices this spring and haven’t played together much since November, they were very pleased with how the day went.

“We played four high quality programs and we showed that we can play with any of them,” Cabrini’s head coach Ken Prothero said.

Cabrini played University of Scranton first and tied them 1-1.

Sophomore Heather Thompson assisted sophomore Jess Leone in the team’s only goal.

Next, the team played Montclair State University out of New Jersey. Cabrini got a goal in the first few minutes from sophomore Sabina DeGisi. The Cavs held off their opponents until the very end of the game when Montclair just barely put one in the back of the net. The game ended in a score of 1-1.

In the third game against Lebanon Valley, the team came out strong scoring three goals.

The first goal was by sophomore Jenna Laufenberg off of a direct kick. Leone assisted DeGisi for the second and then Laufenberg netted a second off of a feed from DeGisi shortly before time ran out.

In the last game with a Muhlenberg team constantly subbing seven girls in and out and then Cabrini with one, the

Mules had just a little too much more energy to defeat the Cavaliers. The team fell just a little short, losing 1-0.

“For the first time being back together, we really proved that we can play with high ranking teams,” Britt Shields, junior captain and education major, said.

“I was very impressed with how well we played today,” Prothero said. “We had minimal subs and with having to play four 35-minute games, we had a lot more positive than negative.”

The team has been practicing two or three times a week the past three weeks in order to prepare. As a fall sport, the NCAA allows them 15 practices and one official day of play in a five-week span during the spring. With some players involved in spring sports, Cabrini went with a small squad, only bringing 12 which meant that allowed one substitute to use for the entire day.

Prothero stressed the importance of having a tournament like this and practices in the spring and how it affects his team.

“I think it is very important because it gives a chance to the players who don’t get that much playing time to show a little bit more that they can do,” he said. “Just getting together and getting our touches back is very important. It’s a good indication to see who’s dedicated to the program and who has been doing stuff in the off-season since last fall.”

Cabrini has a few more practices left before their spring season comes to and end. The next time they will play together is the first week of August when the travel to Brazil for 10 days. They then have just two days off until they come back to school and begin their fall 2008 season.