The 2003 edition of Dayton soccer returns and it’s time to take a look at the womens program. Last year was another productive one for Head Coach Mike Tucker’s squad, and expectations should remain high again this year. With a large group of returnees and some talented newcomers, the Flyers have a chance to continue the winning tradition they’ve become accustomed to.

LOOKING BACK

Any year that ends with a 17-4 record, a co-championship in the Atlantic-10 regular season race, and an NCAA at-large birth is a very good one. The Flyers by and large delivered the goods last season and used a strong start in the non-conference portion of the schedule to propel them to one of the best records in school history. Coming off an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2001, question marks were everywhere. The loss of standout Megan McKnight and several others might have caused problems, but as fans have come to expect, new players stepped up and made the transition relatively seamless. Seniors Liz Brown, Stephanie Weisenfeld, and Lindsay Whitehead stepped up as veterans should, giving Dayton the leadership it needed to pile on the victories.

If there was any disappointment last year, it was at the beginning and end of the conference season. UD lost a pivotal home match to Rhode Island in the conference opener that ended Dayton’s record home winning streak of 20 conference games and ultimately cost UD an outright regular season title. Near the end of the season, the Flyers bowed out of the Atlantic-10 Tournament on the home field with a semifinal loss to Richmond. Considering Rhode Island up-ended the Flyers and also advanced further in the A-10 Tournament and in the NCAA Tournament, it’s only fair to say the Rams were the best team in the league a year ago – at least by the numbers. The Flyers also drew an unlucky foe in Virginia in the NCAA Tourney. A 1-0 second half lead didn’t hold and the Cavs prevailed 3-2 to hand the UD program their first-ever NCAA 1st Rd loss. In spite of Dayton’s otherwise superb 17-4 record, perhaps those realities didn’t sit well in the offseason for a program so accustomed to having their way of things. Such is the life of a program with incredibly high expectations.

THE PERSONNEL LOSSES

The departure of All-Everything Steph Weisenfeld in goal could be the biggest loss to overcome in several years. A four-year starter, Weisenfeld was rock solid every night and made the tough plays look routine. Gifted with strong instincts and an ability to come up with the huge save, she commanded respect from every opposing goal scorer and on most nights had the better of them. Not to say Weisenfeld didn’t have help – she played behind the league’s best defensive line. A great goalkeeper need only be great for two or three minutes a game to secure their reputation however and Weisenfeld always answered the call.

Attacking-minded players Lindsay Whitehead and Liz Brown also need replaced. Whitehead saw most of her time in the midfield as a possession midfielder who distributed to teammates and poached well in the goalmouth as a superior opportunist. She was crafty enough to finish sixth in points with four goals and six assists. Brown, who spent most of her career as a midfielder, spent all of her senior year at striker and led the team in scoring with 30pts on 11 goals and eight assists. Brown was a bulldog in the front line and used her high work rate to grind out goals and give Dayton a dangerous presence up top. While Brown might not have been a natural goal scorer, players don’t get extra style points. Dayton will miss her blue-collar efforts.

Clare Quinter, a walk-on from nearby Carroll, also finished out her career after spot duty each of her four years.

THE RETURNEES

The bulk of the firepower from last year’s team will suit up once again for Dayton in 2003, including redshirt senior striker Shannon Kuhl who opted to return. That’s significant because Kuhl finished third in points last year (16) with seven goals and a pair of assists. A strong player in the air and very opportunistic in the goalmouth, Kuhl’s leadership will be one of the key factors to the 2003 season.

Joining the senior class with Kuhl are Nina DiGuardi, Judi Aschenbrener, Erin Showalter, Beth McHugh, and GK Stacy DeLuca – though DeLuca does have another year of eligibility remaining.

DiGuardi, who’s played stopper for the Flyers her whole career, battled injuries all season and when she did play was obviously running at less than full throttle despite her best efforts to gut it out and ignore the pain. By most accounts, DiGuardi healed up in the offseason and should return as a top physical presence and ball winner in the Flyer defensive third of the field if she avoids re-aggravating her knee and lower leg injuries.

Judi Aschenbrener remains one of the top threats in the Flyer offense and could be poised to put up big numbers in 2003 if the coaches expect the same. She played in all 21 games a year ago as a striker, including six starts. While only scoring three goals and assisting on another, she has all the tools to be this year’s Liz Brown given her physical presence and ability to close quickly on defenders. Aschenbrener has always been much faster than some give her credit for and if she trusts her strong foot skills and get-by speed, she will go as far as her assertiveness can take her. She is definitely a player to keep an eye on.

Erin Showalter, a 1st Team A-10 performer a year ago and the 2001 A-10 Defensive Player of the Year, remains in the rear with the gear once again as the Flyers’ sweeper. Showalter’s best assets are her patience and confidence in the back, giving her the ability to make hairy situations quite undramatic. Strong foot skills allow her to juke her way out of problems and she has the biggest foot on the team. Everybody has a bad day at the office and thankfully, Showalter has very few, making her one of the main cogs for the Flyers once again. And she’s also an offensive threat on set pieces. At times, it looked like opposing forwards scouted Showalter better last year and anticipated some of her patented moves. Adding a few more moves and some quicker pace should put those fires out against the craftier A-10 goal scorers.

Beth McHugh began her career as a left fullback, and impressed enough people as a freshman defender to earn A-10 All Rookie Honors – all this despite being a goal scorer in high school. For the last two years, McHugh has spent time exclusively in the midfield and that’s where she’s likely to stay this year. Gifted with extreme speed, she stretches defenses and crosses well. Her teammates must put more balls in front of her in transition so she can run onto them, rather than beat defenders off the dribble. McHugh finished fifth on the team in points last year with four goals and seven assists and could improve on that if the Flyers can counter attack more quickly. McHugh was exceptional in the exhibition match last Friday at crosstown rival Wright State.

Stacy DeLuca has only seen spot duty as a backup goalkeeper to Weisenfeld the last three seasons and redshirted last year to preserve her eligibility. Without match play in over a year to her credit, DeLuca is a bit of a mystery at this point. She has good size, good hands, and by all accounts is a solid goalkeeper in the Flyer program. What she doesn’t have is experience and it remains to be seen if that will hurt her or not as the UD coaching staff identifies the order of their goalkeeping rotation. With roughly enough minutes to equate to three games of playing time in her goalkeeping career, DeLuca may find competition from incoming GK Sarah West and returning GK Amanda Kuntz. Regardless of who wins the job, there are more questions than answers at this point.

Looking at the defense, all four starters from last year return. With DiGuardi out of the lineup because of injury, the coaching staff inserted freshman Jaqueline Luehrs at left fullback while moving Jen Simonetti to DiGuardi’s position at stopper. For the most part, Luehrs did well as a first-year player in what’s usually the most pressure-packed position on the field. Left backs typically mark the right striker and in many cases, right strikers are a program’s most talented scoring threat. While Luehrs must tighten her mark as a sophomore and deny the ball more often rather than concede and defend, she’s got the speed and persistence to be a career starter if she continues to improve.

Simonetti, a 1st Team A-10 player last year, started at left back as a freshman but moved to stopper in 2002 to fill in for DiGuardi’s absence. As good as she was as an outside marking back, she ended up a better stopper by year-end and became the primary ball winner in the defensive half of the field. Her physical style of play combined with foot skills good enough to earn most players time in the offense made her very dangerous as a player who could win a defensive tackle and start an attack all in the same play. She’s probably the team’s most important player and sets the tone for everyone else. It will be her job to lead by example and chew out those who are on the field to simply go through the motions. Depending on DiGuardi’s status, fans won’t know where Simonetti will end up in the lineup. If DiGuardi returns at stopper, she’ll probably return to left back, pushing Luehrs out of the lineup. Or perhaps the coaches will get creative and make her a defensive-minded midfielder. Unlikely.

At right back is junior Leah Phelps, perhaps the team’s most improved player a year ago after little more than spot duty as a freshman. Phelps acquitted herself very well in 2002 and turned into a solid defender despite giving up several inches to most of her marks. Cut out of the same mold as former Flyer defender Sarah Walker, Phelps uses a continuous work-rate to grind out balls to prevent opposing forwards from striking a ball on goal. In many ways, Phelps continues the tradition of recent Flyer defenders – undersized but strong-minded players with good speed and instincts who do more with less.

Goalkeeper Amanda Kuntz was the only other player besides Weisenfeld to see action in the nets a year ago. The 5-9 Vandalia Butler product played in two games for a total of 36 minutes and will battle for goalkeeping supremacy along with DeLuca and West.

Stacy Palumbo, a 5-4 sophomore walk-on from Fairfield, returns and rounds out the Flyer defense. She appeared in six matches a year ago.

The returning midfielders include Katie Lowstuter, Laura Boland, Tesia Kozlowski, and Alicija Bredlo. Lowstuter, a sophomore, possesses some of the best foot skills on the team and was in the starting lineup often last year. What Lowstuter possessed in ability she might have lacked in confidence however and her improvement as a sophomore will hinge upon her assertiveness and ability to trust her skills more often. A more attack-oriented Lowstuter bodes well for the Flyer offense and gives Dayton another scoring threat from the midfield. She lacked upper-body strength a year ago and got pushed around like many freshmen do. If she’s hit the weight room and packed on some muscle, she’ll be twice the player.

Sophomore Laura Boland has all the tools to be a breakout player in 2003 – if she shoots the ball. Boland started all but one game in 2002 as a central midfielder yet took just 14 shots. By comparison, defender Jacqueline Luehrs took 12 shots and Judi Aschenbrener started just six games and took 27. There’s no two ways about it: Laura Boland must start pulling the trigger. And she’s good enough to be a top goal scorer in the Flyer program. Boland has size, strength, good instincts, strong ball-winning abilities, and sets up her teammates very well. She had no goals and just one assist a year ago but played better than those numbers indicate. On many occasions, Boland ended up being the player who set up the assist maker – which isn’t easy to do and all too often a thankless, forgotten job in its own right. With the loss of Dayton’s leader scorer, Boland must be counted on to produce five goals and five assists this year — well within her abilities.

Junior Tesia Kozlowski remains a vital link to the Flyer offense. The 1st Team A-10 performer a year ago and former A-10 Rookie of the Year finished second on the team in points with eight goals and nine assists. At times Kozlowski looks downright unstoppable, using her incredible foot skills to pull off magic tricks with the ball at her feet. At other times, she appeared a step off her game however. More consistency from Kozlowski is paramount for Dayton. More often than not, when Kozlowski plays well and has an extremely high work rate, the Flyers win. She’ll remain one of the Flyer offense’s go-to players in 2003 and may be asked to carry the largest scoring responsibility.

Alicija Bredlo saw little action as a freshman a year ago but has another chance to earn playing time as a sophomore. The Canadian was highly-regarded out of high school and has the size to be a physical presence. She appeared in nine games last season and took four shots.

At striker, Dayton has several options and returns several players who saw major playing time in 2002 including Jessica Melvin, Reba Sedlacek, and Megan Borysiak. Melvin, a junior, is a slender 5-3 forward who has nice speed and quickness, and at times has shown to be very opportunistic. She had a more productive season as a freshman but only saw action in six matches last year and failed to register a shot on goal. As the talent and depth on the team continues to improve, playing time gets tougher to come by, but Melvin may find herself on the pitch more often this year if other players fail to produce or injuries creep in.

Reba Sedlacek had a great freshmen year, earning A-10 All Rookie honors after finishing fourth on the team in points with six goals and four assists. Sedlacek is a big, physical presence at forward and shields off defenders better than anyone on the team. She played much of the year with a cast on her arm, but with that gone, Sedlacek should play an even bigger role as a sophomore. Along with Kuhl, Kozlowski, Boland, Aschenbrener, and McHugh, Sedlacek should remain at the top of the Flyer leaderboard in points for the second straight year.

Meghan Borysiak saw action in 19 matches as a freshman, getting off 10 shots as a left striker. Borysiak has excellent speed and a knack for getting behind defenders, but must anticipate better as a sophomore and play more physical. If Borysiak demands the ball rather than simply runs it down, she’ll put herself in better position to score and make opposing defenders work much harder to keep her in check. An ability to win balls kicked in her direction will ultimately determine playing time. The tools are there and she put them on display in the lone exhibition against Wright State. She looked like twice the player from a year ago and should be a player to watch.

THE NEWCOMERS

Four freshmen join the ranks this year. The Flyer coaching staff looked for offense and found it, along with the addition of another goalkeeper in light of the departure of Weisenfeld.

Sarah West, whom some considered the state of Illinois’ top goalkeeper the last two seasons, should compete for playing time right away. About the same size as DeLuca, West brings an athletic attitude in the nets and comes highly-regarded. She was All Region twice and follows in the footsteps of DeLuca and Weisenfeld – two other Illinois natives who play goalkeeper and matriculated to the Gem City. Obviously, a goalkeeping pipeline has formed and the UD coaching staff continues to do a great job of keeping those lines of communication open during the recruiting season.

Jamie Yates, a 5-3 forward from Duncanville, TX, brings speed and quickness to the front line. A Region III ODP member, Yates should deepen the Flyer attack and use her strong club and ODP background to adapt fairly quickly to the college game. Hopefully Yates’ addition will open up more recruiting doors in the talent-rich state of Texas.

Midfielders Jaime Monahan and Janelle Freckman arrive to help bolster the middle third of the field. Monahan played for nearby Cincinnati Oak Hills while Freckman arrives from New Berlin, WI, as a two-time All-State player. Both will have plenty of competition as they fight for playing time considering the veterans in the midfield that return, but may find themselves playing quality minutes if Dayton decides to mass substitute and wear down opponents with fresh, talented newcomers eager to prove themselves at the collegiate level. And there always seems to be a freshman or two good enough to crack the starting lineup. Only time will tell.

The Flyers added a late addition to the roster in Anne Moore, a freshman from St. Louis. Moore, a 5-6 defender, played prep ball at St. Joseph’s Academy.

THE SCHEDULE

Brutal. The 2003 lineup reminds Flyer soccer fans of the 2001 schedule: full of NCAA contenders and heavyweights. The non-conference season consists of UW-Milwaukee, Marquette, Marshall, #11 Virginia, #16 Clemson, Furman, #14 Cal Berkeley, and St. Mary’s (CA). All but Marshall have a legit chance to do damage in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and even the Thundering Herd are an improving program that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Along with the Marshall home opener, ACC heavyweight Virginia is the only other non-conference match at Baujan Field – a rematch of last year’s 3-2 loss to the Cavaliers in the NCAA 1st Rd in Morgantown, WV. With so many non-conference road games, the Flyers will be under the gun to notch a few early wins or they’ll find themselves under .500 by the conference season. The A-10 schedule is much tougher than a year ago as well, with all of the conference contenders on the road including Rhode Island, UMass, and Richmond. Simply put, getting to 17 wins in 2003 will prove to be much harder than 2002. But consider this: in 2001 the Flyers faced UMass, Richmond, and Rhode Island on the road during the A-10 schedule and ended up going undefeated in league play. Do not underestimate a program used to being the top dog in the conference. That said, Dayton may prove to be a better team than a year ago and lose a few more games along the way. With a schedule like this, don’t get too caught up in just wins and losses.

STRENGTHS

Defense and experience. The Flyers once again sport the stingiest defense in the conference and a good defense gives any team a chance to pull off a few upsets against good non-league teams. Dayton must knock off a couple nationally respected programs this year and team defense will make it happen as long as the offense makes the opposing goalkeeper earn her pay. With nine of 11 starters returning, the Flyers have numbers. The bitter taste of last year’s A-10 semifinal loss on their home field may be a motivating factor this year to regain the top spot by every measurement. A strong core of midfielders and strikers give UD enough choices to find a good combination on any given night. When someone is off, chances are someone else will be on.

WEAKNESSES

Unproven goalkeepers and a stronger mindset against top opponents. Whoever ends up winning the job in the nets, a lack of experience could come into play. Spot duty here and there is never the same as jumping into the fire or learning to swim after someone throws you into the deep end of the pool. The learning curve must be quick. Dayton must also play with more attitude against the big dogs on the schedule. Last year, Dayton earned just two yellow cards over the course of the entire season – the fewest of any team in the Atlantic-10. By comparison, Richmond led the league with 13. Coach Tuckers’ squad must take a more active role in planting opposing players to the turf to remind them who the boss is. Playing extremely physical doesn’t mean one has to play dirty. Eleven Nina DiGuardis or Jen Simonettis must take the field night in and night out.

THE VERDICT

UDPride is optimistic. How can we not be. With nine of 11 starters returning, a strong bench, quality newcomers, and a newly renovated Baujan Field that would make Liverpool FC jealous, everyone around the program should be juiced. The question marks are small but significant. If Dayton finds a goalkeeper they can put their trust in and the offense finishes near the goalmouth, there’s no reason to believe the Flyers cannot win or share the A-10 season title for the sixth year in a row. The schedule is demanding. The non-conference portion should be a resume’ builder and a couple victories will go a long way to securing an NCAA at-large bid, especially since most non-con matches are away from home. Notching a few early wins will help team confidence and a .500 record or better in the non-league portion of the schedule will be extremely satisfying. The league schedule is tough and all the important matches are on the road as well. There’s no mistaking who everyone guns for however when A-10 play starts. It’s Dayton. It’s been that way since UD entered the league and shall remain so in 2003 despite some other quality opponents. It all looks good on paper, but that doesn’t mean much. The answers will come on the field and if the Flyers take each match one at a time, bust chops, and do not apologize for it, Coach Tucker’s squad will be in the NCAAs for the fourth time in five seasons.