If the first games are any indication, it's going to be a banner year for the Virginia women's soccer team. Outscoring its two regular season opponents with a combined score of 10-0 so far and beating No. 4 Notre Dame team in the preseason 4-1 has left the Cavaliers looking up.
That wasn't necessarily the case after the end of the regular season last year. At points during the season, the Cavaliers didn't even know if they would qualify for the NCAA Tournament. But Virginia finished strong, and advanced to the Round of 16 in the tournament after scoring six goals in 20 minutes to come back and beat then-No. 9 Penn State 6-2. That inspiring finish gave the team a good base to work on going into the current year.
"I think it shows our team coming back from a really tough situation last year," senior forward Meghan Lenczyk said. "It just shows how much we can fight through things and we have that mentality to ... come back and that's something you need if you're going to win, so I think that's going to help us out a lot."
Indeed, the team may have faced an uphill battle overall last year, coach Steve Swanson said.
"We had a young team last year and we had a lot of inexperience at the back, and I think just kind of coming together was - you know it's always hard to bring teams together in such a short period of time before the regular season," Swanson said. "I actually thought our team played very well last season - we just unfortunately didn't finish consistently, and that hurt us in some of our results."
This year, Virginia returns 10 out of their 11 starters from last year's squad, while at the same time adding seven freshmen to the mix. Anchoring the starting lineup will be Lencyzk. A prolific scorer, she has already been named ACC Women's Soccer Player of the Week and TopDrawerSoccer.com's National Player of the Week.
"I think Meghan deserves a lot of credit - every year she's been at Virginia she's improved," Swanson said. "She's always been a great goal scorer, but I think the thing that has been great for all of us to see with her is her experience is really showing through, her maturity."
Besides Lencyzk, the focus for the Cavaliers is on their experience.
"Our seniors are a big part of our team," Swanson said. "Sinead Farrelly, Colleen Flanagan, [junior] Katie Carr, Lindsey Miller, Kika Toulouse, and Meghan obviously and [junior] Chantel Jones. Those guys really are our leaders, and they've done a great job so far and I think they know what's to be expected in the ACC and the nonconference. They know how important every game is and I think they also know how every training camp, every chance we get together is important."
With that experience, the Cavaliers hope to accomplish their goals: winning the ACC and NCAA championships. But the coaches emphasized the team's focus on the "day to day," rather than the end result. "I just try to focus on getting the most out of the team that we have at this time, and I think we have some exceptional talent," Swanson said.
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