Putting history behind them

Last season, the University of South Dakota women’s soccer team won two games. This season, the team is almost a month into play and has already doubled their wins to four games.

There clearly is something different about last year’s 2-13-3 team to this year’s 4-2-2 Coyotes.

Right off the bat the Coyotes’ soccer team has a different vibe this season, with the team winning more games than they did last year by Sept. 1. The team graduated only two seniors, but seven others left for personal reasons, leaving this year’s team in what appears to be better shape.

“Our attitude has gotten much better this year,” head coach Mandy Green said. “We lost seven players who didn’t return. We lost their bad attitudes and negativity, making this group more positive.”

With attitudes up according to Green, the team’s performance has benefited she said. They have already taken out two big time Division-I schools in Wyoming and Colorado State.

“Everybody has gotten better this year,” Green said. “We’re stressing better defense, and keeping possession. This year, we’re connecting passes and working on finishing in the final third of the field.”

Defense has been a big portion of the recipe for success in this year’s team. Through seven games so far, the Coyotes have only given up 11 goals, keeping the team close with each opponent.

“(During the offseason) a lot of what we worked on was defense, especially in the spring,” sophomore Brenna Bills said. “Through working on defense, we’re building toward a better offense.”

Offense has also been up for this year’s Coyotes team. Goal production has been up thanks to better possessions and passing.  The Coyotes have also outscored opponents 17-11 this season through nine games.

“This year, we’re just a lot more intense,” sophomore Rebecca Sparkman said. “We all want to be here this year and have one goal. We’re more of a family.”

While team success has been evident in their winning record, individually, three Coyotes have been named to the all-tournament team at the South Dakota State’s Jackrabbit Invitational. Sparkman got a nod for the all-tournament team, as well as junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Viktor and sophomore defender Kasha Meyer.

“Mackenzie has been a big factor in the goal this season,” Green said. “She’s made a lot of great saves, and it’s led to more opportunities on the offensive end.”

Green said the experience the upperclassmen bring with them is important.

“We have a lot more juniors this season,” Green said. “They have two full years getting invaluable experience, and it’s starting to come out in these games.”

Experience was at a minimum last year for the Coyotes with only two seniors on the roster. While this year they again have only two seniors, the Coyotes have 11 returning juniors, as well as seven sophomores.

The experience has definitely shown for the team, as last year saw a lot of the playing time went to first-years like Sparkman and Bills, but now with maturity, the chemistry has seemed to improve.

“Last year’s record doesn’t really show what kind of team we were,” Sparkman said. “We weren’t as focused last year and messed up late in games.”

Experience is key in a conference like the Summit League. Six of the eight teams are above .500 before conference play opens, meaning the Coyotes need to continue to mature to keep up.

“It’s a pretty even conference,” Bills said. “We’re just as strong and fast, have as good of ball skills as well. We just need to put it all together to get the wins.”

With conference play looming at the beginning of October, the Coyotes continue to work toward getting better before games start having postseason implications. This year’s team has a good chance of making the top four in the conference, which gives them a spot in the playoffs.

“(Our goals) are to continue winning games and try to shut out every team we play,” Sparkman said.