Lady Vols Soccer ⚽️ Tennessee @ Virginia Tech 11/15 Friday 7PM Blacksburg VA ⚽️ NCAA TOURNAMENT First Round ESPN+

#6,127
#6,127
Programs would be wise to resist the 5th year covid player at this point. The presence of a Covid player is potentially toxic to team dynamics/growth: 1) hinders younger player development and thus roster depth, 2) creates locker room resentment - nonCovid players know the NCAA completely disregarded them.... I wouldn't be surprised if class act schools recognize these issues and are moving on with normal recruiting rotations.

Oh- my comment is not about the individual player. All great young women, I'm sure. Instead, my view is directed at the thoughtless decision making that resulted in the Covid eligibility policy.
 
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#6,128
#6,128
Stmichael said:
Despite not being a fan of international recruiting, I'm pulling for FSU. Plus, I like Pensky.
Click to expand...


I think it can be said that we did not come off well in the Pensky-Kirt tradeoff. That seems an understatement. Pensky strikes me a rather ruthless--you want him coaching your team but he and his staff might be engaging in player tampering with respect to transfer possibilities and players who've already committed to other schools. In fact, there's probably quite a bit of player tampering going on, and Stanford's highly respected women's basketball coach said as much recently. Said teams had illegally contacted one or two of her top players, trying to put bugs in their ears about transferring, and that the NCAA needs to crack down on it.
 
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#6,130
#6,130
𝐈𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞. 🏆

Two undefeated teams. Both programs looking to earn their fourth title.

@StanfordWSoccer
🆚
@FSUSoccer

⏰ 6 PM ET
📺 ESPNU

IMG_5077.jpeg
 
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#6,131
#6,131
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#6,134
#6,134
Wow--that field in North Carolina: It's immaculate.

Dudley should have gotten a card there for foul accumulation. She will get one if she fouls again, I'll bet.

Oh, wow: I can't believe Stanford conceded a PK--and now a second! Oh, my Stanford is done. They'll have to be very aggressive
now and that will just make the Cardinal more vulnerable in the back to FSU's great attackers.

As good as Stanford is defensively, you can't let an FSU forward make a long centering pass into Dudley, the 'Noles best scorer. The centerback or other defender should have been alert to that and intercepted the pass.
 
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#6,141
#6,141
brittannica said:
She’s tall! Is it too much to hope she’s quick too?
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Where did you see that we had signed her? I see nothing on Twitter/X or the Soccer News page.

She certainly seems to be a centerback, based on her height. It's clear that she was a starter for Purdue and played 90 minutes regularly.
Purdue was not a good team--it was 0-8-2 in the Big 10--and I believe the coach was sacked. However, the team played pretty good defense in most of its games. Offense seemed to be the Boilermaker's biggest problem. Mostly notably, Purdue earned a 0-0 tie with mighty Penn State, and only lost to a good Wisconsin team by a score of 2-1--and Cuneio scored Purdue's goal in that game. Purdue lost to high-scoring Nebraska 2-0, and lost to both Indiana and Rutgers by 1-0. That is solid team defensive play against some good teams--and given the importance of centerback to a defense, we might deduce/hope that she is a good player. Her bio material has been deleted from the Purdue roster page, unfortunately. That would have given us more to go on. Before college she was an ECNL All American playing for SLSG (Saint Louis Scott Gallager--strange name). (We signed a player from that same club three, maybe four years ago and she did not pan out and left.) Cuneio also took part in an USNT U15 training camp a few years ago. We got a good centerback from Oklahoma last year, and let's hope Cuneio is equally good--or better! This was a major need for us---and we also need another solid centerback prospect so that, if a starting CB gets a knock, we'll have someone who can come in and play at a solid level.
 
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#6,143
#6,143
MAD said:
Wonderful article on LVFL MA Vignola

www.knoxnews.com

M.A. Vignola's journey to USWNT debut wasn't easy. How it happened for former Tennessee star.

Former Tennessee soccer star M.A. Vignola made her USWNT debut this year, but it took a long time to believe she could get here.
www.knoxnews.com


Click to expand...


Did she have a hamstring problem that made her drop off the squad after being picked--or did I imagine that? She didn't play in the first
friendly against China, right?

RE Cunneio: Sounds like a very good player. Not sure if she's signed with us or not, but hope so.
 
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#6,145
#6,145
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#6,148
#6,148
I was very surprised when FSU offered its job to Pensky. He is experienced, a good recruiter, competitive, and he slowly made us
better year upon year, but it's not like he set the SEC on fire. We did have two very good teams, got to the NCAA quarters once and the
third round another year, and we won one SEC title--but I wouldn't have thought that was enough to follow Krikorian. But it proved a savvy hire. First, nearly all top coaches are already at strong programs and where they want to be, and so unlikely to change jobs unless they get a major pay-raise offer. Pensky did get a major pay-raise offer, took the job, which I thought would be risky--and is now on the collegiate soccer mountaintop. His team this year was demonstrably better than any of Krikorian's title-winning teams---mainly because he just had an all-star attacking group. Stanford hadn't given up 2 goals in 36 games, and FSU put 5 on them.

I'd be happy for Pensky except for the little fact that while he's been scaling Everest, we've slipped and are back in the foothills. I'll leave it at that and forego another rant.

I saw where Kansas has hired Nate Lie--the Xavier coach we've played twice in the NCAA. He surely got a big pay raise.
 
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