It’s going to be a tough road for the Binghamton University women’s soccer team this year. The Bearcats began their long schedule of away matches this weekend with losses at University of Delaware, 3-0, and St. Joseph’s University, 1-0.
“Delaware was a good team,” said Bearcats’ head coach Sarah McClellan. “They were able to kind of lock us into our end, which is why they got the goals that they did.”
The Bearcats were outshot 18-10 in the contest. Freshman forward Kerry Sullivan had a team-high three shots, while fellow freshman Carly Kirschner and sophomore Taylor Kucharski each had two shots, but none found the back of the net.
But McClellan expressed the value in the learning experience that the game was for the team as a whole. “What we were lacking in that game was just the effort and the drive to compete,” she explained, “And we were participants in the game rather than competitors. That’s the biggest thing that we learned from that game. First game this season, it’s hard for the players to fully understand what they were in for in that first game.”
Two days after being emphatically shut out, the Bearcats played much more competitively at St. Joseph’s. “We definitely grew from Delaware to St. Joe’s,” McClellan said. “We put out a better fight, a better work rate. We weren’t able to finish and get as many attacking opportunities as we would like. It was a much better team effort. It takes a little while for it to all come together, and that’s why we have these non-conference games.”
The Bearcats were outshot 21-6 by St. Joseph’s. Once again, the team was led in shots by a freshman forward. This time it was Jamie Holliday, who had two shots.
In both matches, McClellan played senior goalkeeper Jen McEachron for half of the game and junior goalkeeper Erin Iman for the other half.
“We have two tremendous goalkeepers that are both more than capable,” McClellan said of her decision to use both players. “We’re taking advantage of having that luxury of having two very strong goalkeepers, and we’ll continue to get them both into the games because we need them both to be playing well for us to win our games.”
The young Bearcats’ roster got a good deal of experience in the first two matches, as eight of the freshmen on the roster made their collegiate debuts in the game against Delaware.
“As expected, there’s some immaturity in our play,” McClellan said. “But overall, I felt like we’re heading in the right direction. We got the experience that we needed for our first weekend out, and we have a fairly large roster filled with half returners, half newcomers and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the players and are looking for more from a lot of other players.”
But you have to score in order to win, and despite the improved play, the Bearcats have yet to score a goal following the two shutouts. “One thing that our players will take into our next game is that we have to do anything and everything in order to get the ball in the back of the net and take advantage of our chances,” McClellan explained. “Once we get that first goal, we’re going to be fine. We’re looking to finish that first goal and then I think that we’ll all take a breath and relax a little bit and just play.”
McClellan is optimistic heading into the next game against Cornell University that the team has learned the right lessons from the first two matches. “Cornell’s going to be a big game for us,” she said. “We’re looking to have that combativeness and competitiveness that we were lacking a little bit in our first weekend, and we’re looking to come out with the experience of knowing what it takes to perform.”
The Bearcats will travel to take on the Big Red on Friday before the team’s home showdown against Syracuse University on Sunday.
“It’s our first home game of the season, so why not play our first home game against Syracuse, a Big East [Conference] power?” McClellan said. “Hopefully we’ll get a bunch of the students and the community for that game to watch and have them cheer us on, but it’s nice to have a home game.”
Despite the game being the first of only six home games this season, McClellan mentioned that the game plan is still the same as it always has been.
“We want to do the same things that we’ve wanted to do in every single game: to come out prepared, ready and willing to compete, and to get the job done. We’ve got a long season ahead of us and we’re just going to keep getting after it each day in practice in preparation to finally put things together, and once we do put everything together, we’re gonna be real good.”