Women’s soccer finishes preseason 2-0, has high hopes for new season

(Western Herald file photo) WMU forward Stephanie Skowneski keeps the ball ahead of a Toledo defender during a regular season match at home last fall.

By Chris Willis

Western Herald

An unexpected coaching resignation may be a blessing in disguise for the Western Michigan University women’s soccer program.

Former head coach Mike Haines led the Broncos for the last 11 seasons before resigning this summer.

New interim head coach Suzie Grech has been an assistant for the program over the last two seasons and is confident about the upcoming season.

“I think we have a tremendous team,” Grech said. “Our backline is very solid, we returned three out of four starters and have a deep bench. So, I’m looking forward to not allowing a lot of goals this season.”

The team is also returning junior goalkeeper, Julie Francy. Francy posted five shutouts last season and finished the season with a respectable .780 save percentage.

The team looks to improve on last year’s 7-10-1 final record. The Brown and Gold started last season 2-9, but finished the season 5-1-1.

Sophomore Stephanie Skowneski, was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team, and was awarded MAC Player of the Week honors. Junior Kelsey Carmichael is also returning. The pair of starting forwards posted 11 points each.

WMU has signed 6 players to National Letters of Intent this off-season and that should help to improve an already up and coming team. The stand-out player of the group would have to be All-State defender, Stefana Ciraulo, of Shelby, Mich. Ciraulo started all four years on the Varsity team at Eisenhower High School, and was named Most Valuable Player of the 2007 Chicago Winter Classic.

Grech doesn’t want the team to get overconfident and remains level headed about the upcoming season.

“That No. 9 rank in the Mid-American Conference isn’t where we want to stay at, but it’s better to come from underneath than to try and stay at the top,” Grech said. “I think we’re going be a team to contend with.”

The team finished preseason play with a 2-0 mark and shutout both teams they faced.

“I’m really excited about the upcoming season,” senior midfielder Patrice Impelido said. “I know were going be really good this year, and I just can’t wait for the MAC [season] to start.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Aug 30 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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