armchair
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The UT soccer teams starts its season on Friday, believe it or not, with a game against Navy, followed by a Sunday game against George Mason in Fairfax, Virginia. This is Coach Brian Pensky's 6th season as head of the program, and I think it is an important one if he expects to get the Vols back to the top of the conference and, crucially, back into the NCAA Tournament, which we haven't made in a while.
Pensky can recruit. Our previous coach, Angela Kelly, who has been struggling at Texas and lucky to still have her job, left a pretty bare cupboard in terms of talent. Pensky has rebuilt the talent base, and this year's team looks to be his deepest yet. There are some good players, but many are young, and it remains to be seen whether the coach can turn a skilled group into a cohesive, powerful whole. Last year's team had a miserable start and then came on strong in the second half of the year, but didn't have the RPI ranking or key victories needed to get into the NCAA.
Will this team fare better? It's hard to say. Led by sophomore Katie Cousins, who started for the U.S. Women's Under 20 National Team in the last year's World Cup, the Vols have got lot of good midfielders, which is nice, but with the departure of New Zealand international Hannah Wilkinson the team lacks an established scorer up front. That's not a good thing. To help, Pensky has brought in a Jamaican international named Khadija ("Bunny") Shaw. She was a first-team JUCO All America last year at a school in Florida, and she has has the same size (5'11") and athleticism of Wilkinson, and will be counted on, perhaps heavily, to put the ball in the net for the Vols. After Shaw we have half a dozen players who are capable of scoring--and they need to if the Vols aim to compete with South Carolina and Auburn and Florida--the three best teams in the conference last year. (South Carolina lost a bunch of its best players and won't be as good this year, and neither will Auburn; Florida lost its best player and scorer as well, so this is a year when the Vols could make some hay if they play well and get results--a tie, or better, a win--in at least two of the three games against the above SEC teams.) Senior Ariel Kupritz will probably play at lot at one of the other forward positions. Pensky obviously likes Kupritz's work rate and speed, but she's not been very productive the last couple of years and needs to player better and smarter and help generate goals.
Defensively, there is talk that we'll be better than last year, which is interesting given that our most experienced centerback, Kathryn Culhane, a 5th year senior, decided to quit the sport to concentrate on her academics. That's kind of the way it has gone for Pensky--one step forward and then there are player departures for one reason or another and its one step back. Culhane wasn't the strongest or most athletic player on the team, certainly, but she played a key position and knew what she was doing. I don't know who will start in her spot this Friday; nor do I know who will start at left back, replacing the graduated Emily Morrow. It's possible that the new players at those positions will be upgrades--we'll have to wait and see.
Tennessee's out-of-conference opponents are relatively weak, which will hurt our RPI. We play Bucknell, George Mason and Virginia Tech (from the ACC), all of whom had a better RPI than the Vols did last year, but SC and Auburn are both playing North Carolina and Clemson, from the ACC, and Florida is playing powerhouses Stanford and Florida State--so we are ALREADY behind in RPI to those three SEC schools before playing a freakin' game. What this means is that we pretty much have to win all or nearly all of our out-of-conference games, and have a good SEC season as well if we want to get in the NCAA tourney--and we want to get into the NCAA tourney. The three games I mentioned above--Bucknell, Va. Tech and George Mason--will be particularly important.
Much will depend on Pensky's personnel and position decisions. I think he'll play a lot of kids, at least early, and see who produces. There are only two seniors on the team, but there are a number of sophs and juniors with talent, athleticism and experience, along with some skilled freshmen, and if the team can develop some chemistry and play solid possession soccer, this could be a dynamic team. Those are big ifs--but excited to get this season underway and see this group of Vols perform.
Pensky can recruit. Our previous coach, Angela Kelly, who has been struggling at Texas and lucky to still have her job, left a pretty bare cupboard in terms of talent. Pensky has rebuilt the talent base, and this year's team looks to be his deepest yet. There are some good players, but many are young, and it remains to be seen whether the coach can turn a skilled group into a cohesive, powerful whole. Last year's team had a miserable start and then came on strong in the second half of the year, but didn't have the RPI ranking or key victories needed to get into the NCAA.
Will this team fare better? It's hard to say. Led by sophomore Katie Cousins, who started for the U.S. Women's Under 20 National Team in the last year's World Cup, the Vols have got lot of good midfielders, which is nice, but with the departure of New Zealand international Hannah Wilkinson the team lacks an established scorer up front. That's not a good thing. To help, Pensky has brought in a Jamaican international named Khadija ("Bunny") Shaw. She was a first-team JUCO All America last year at a school in Florida, and she has has the same size (5'11") and athleticism of Wilkinson, and will be counted on, perhaps heavily, to put the ball in the net for the Vols. After Shaw we have half a dozen players who are capable of scoring--and they need to if the Vols aim to compete with South Carolina and Auburn and Florida--the three best teams in the conference last year. (South Carolina lost a bunch of its best players and won't be as good this year, and neither will Auburn; Florida lost its best player and scorer as well, so this is a year when the Vols could make some hay if they play well and get results--a tie, or better, a win--in at least two of the three games against the above SEC teams.) Senior Ariel Kupritz will probably play at lot at one of the other forward positions. Pensky obviously likes Kupritz's work rate and speed, but she's not been very productive the last couple of years and needs to player better and smarter and help generate goals.
Defensively, there is talk that we'll be better than last year, which is interesting given that our most experienced centerback, Kathryn Culhane, a 5th year senior, decided to quit the sport to concentrate on her academics. That's kind of the way it has gone for Pensky--one step forward and then there are player departures for one reason or another and its one step back. Culhane wasn't the strongest or most athletic player on the team, certainly, but she played a key position and knew what she was doing. I don't know who will start in her spot this Friday; nor do I know who will start at left back, replacing the graduated Emily Morrow. It's possible that the new players at those positions will be upgrades--we'll have to wait and see.
Tennessee's out-of-conference opponents are relatively weak, which will hurt our RPI. We play Bucknell, George Mason and Virginia Tech (from the ACC), all of whom had a better RPI than the Vols did last year, but SC and Auburn are both playing North Carolina and Clemson, from the ACC, and Florida is playing powerhouses Stanford and Florida State--so we are ALREADY behind in RPI to those three SEC schools before playing a freakin' game. What this means is that we pretty much have to win all or nearly all of our out-of-conference games, and have a good SEC season as well if we want to get in the NCAA tourney--and we want to get into the NCAA tourney. The three games I mentioned above--Bucknell, Va. Tech and George Mason--will be particularly important.
Much will depend on Pensky's personnel and position decisions. I think he'll play a lot of kids, at least early, and see who produces. There are only two seniors on the team, but there are a number of sophs and juniors with talent, athleticism and experience, along with some skilled freshmen, and if the team can develop some chemistry and play solid possession soccer, this could be a dynamic team. Those are big ifs--but excited to get this season underway and see this group of Vols perform.
