Women’s Soccer Looks to Improve Play on the Road

In addition to pushing his team on the field, Coach Tsantiris will encourage them to excel in class.

<p>All-Big East Rookie Linda Ruutu, the team's leading scorer last year, was an All-Big East pre-season selection. Photo by Steve Slade.</p>
Linda Ruutu, the team's leading scorer last year, was an All-Big East pre-season selection. Photo by Steven Slade

The women’s soccer team heads into the 2010 season hoping to stay healthy and improve its play on the road, two factors that had head coach Len Tsantiris feeling the Huskies could have had a deeper run into post-season play last year.

A 2-6-1 record on the road, a season-ending injury to leading scorer Annie Yi during the pre-season, and an injury during the Big East tournament to starting goalkeeper Jessica Dulski contributed to a premature end to the post-season run for the Huskies, who made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The senior leadership of All-American and Big East Defensive Player of the Year Brittany Taylor and starting center back Lauren Ebert were stabilizing factors during their final season.

“We were a Top 25 team last year. We were unlucky at the end because we lost our starting keeper for the last two games,” Tsantiris says. “But we still made the Big East and the NCAAs. We lost some impact players, but all the kids will be more mature, experienced and understanding of what we need to do. We hope that will help us on the road this year.”

The Huskies were picked third in the American Division of the 2010 Big East pre-season poll, and All-Big East Rookie Linda Ruutu, the team’s leading scorer last year, was an All-Big East pre-season selection. Ruutu is one of the 20 returning players who saw game action in 2009. With the return of redshirt senior Yi, now a graduate student, along with several new student-athletes, the Huskies will be a blend of experience and youth. As always the Huskies, who have reached the NCAA Tournament 27 times in the 28 years of tournament play, face a tough schedule that includes six Top 25 teams, including three in the Big East – Notre Dame, West Virginia, and Rutgers.

The team’s great strength for 2010 is its midfield players – led by Yi and Ruutu, who played for Finland’s National Team this summer – and including the experienced seniors Meghan Cunningham, Elise Fugowski, and Becky Gundling, a second team 2009 NEWISA All-New England selection.

<p>Midfielder Annie Yi is a redshirt Senior. Photo by Steve Slade</p>
Midfielder Annie Yi is a redshirt senior. Photo by Steven Slade

“Annie [Yi] is very skillful, can score goals and she sees the field well,” says Tsantiris. “Linda [Ruutu] understands the game, knows how to use her skills, and has great vision. She’s always going to be fit and be competitive all the time. With Annie’s leadership, athletic ability, and experience we should have a good midfield.”

With the return of a healthy Dulski, now a junior, along with sophomore Ally Mancino, who had a shutout and a 2-1-1 record, the goal will be well protected. Tsantiris also has an experienced international goalkeeper in a freshman – Leigh-Ann Jaggon, a member of the Jamaican National Team – among other newcomers to the team.

The coach says playing internationally is good experience: “It always helps and gives the kids confidence.”

He says the early part of the 2010 schedule will help determine how his team comes together on the field. Two games in a tournament at Penn State against William and Mary and then No. 17 Virginia, followed by a five-game home stand that includes a matchup against No. 13 Penn State, will set the stage for the opening of Big East play. The home stand includes games against in-state rivals Yale and Central Connecticut State University.

“We hope to get a rounded experience before we get into the Big East schedule,” he says. “I want them to be very competitive on the field and push each other so we become a strong team.”

Tsantiris says he is also pushing his team off the field to excel in the classroom and continue its record as one of the top academic teams in the nation. Last year the Huskies earned the NSCAA 3.0 Award for accumulating a collective GPA above 3.0.

“I challenge them that I won’t accept anyone below a 3.0,” he says. “We’re in the Top 25 in the country academically, including both public and private schools, which is an accomplishment. The balance of both makes a student-athlete. This is why they’re here. I want them to buy into it, have it as a culture on the team — a work ethic on both. The end result is going to help them later in life.”

For the women’s soccer 2010 schedule, go to the Athletics website.