MARCY, N.Y. – The 2012 SUNYIT Women's Soccer Team begins their season on the road at Alfred University next Saturday, September 1st. This year's team will have a whole different look from the 2011 version, and with an intriguing blend of experience and youth, the organization hopes "different" will include a NEAC Championship Banner. In 2011 the Wildcats lost 1-0 in the first round of the NEAC Tournament to Penn St.-Harrisburg.
Last year's team finished the season with a solid 6-4-1 record in the NEAC, but was just 8-9-1 overall. Leading the Wildcats in scoring was senior Nicole DiNitto (Oriskany, N.Y.). DiNitto, who set records for career goals and points while at SUNYIT, was tied for sixth in the NEAC with 10 goals last season. Her absence, along with that of senior defensive expert and fellow 2011 team captain Kelley Waskiewicz (Oriskany, N.Y.) will be challenges for this year's team.
"I really think they'll come from everywhere," said newly minted Wildcat Head Coach Erin Schurr regarding the goal deficit SUNYIT will have to fill this year, "I couldn't tell you who our top two scorers are going to be. Abbey [Hanehan] is back with a vengeance, and some of our transfers coming in from TC3 have a lot of goals under their belts, but all of our midfielders can really strike the ball".
Schurr takes the reins of the Wildcat-and-buggy after two years as the program's Assistant Coach. Currently Schurr plans to keep the team's 4-4-2 formation consistent from past years. There was talk early in the preseason of switching to a 4-3-3 formation, but the first-year coach has since ruled this out. Last year's team scored almost three times as many goals in the second half as it did in the first. Adding an extra striker under the 4-3-3 formation can help create more goal-scoring opportunities, but ultimately keeping a level of consistency was deemed more important.
Besides, the team will already be dealing with the major style changes associated with their new home. The turf field at the center of Wildcat Stadium, which was only completed in time for the Men's NEAC Championship last November, will be the ladies' full-time home field in 2012.
"Moving onto turf makes it a whole new game," said Schurr. "The field we had [last season] was basically a mud pit by the end of the year."
"The ball rolls a lot faster on turf, so our players will have to be faster," continued Schurr. "But our speed of play is also important – we need to take less time to make decisions, and our players need to keep their heads up and know where to put the ball before it even gets to them."
Ultimately the field will be a tremendous benefit. Being able to practice on their game field rain or shine will be a huge bonus for the players this year, but there's also an added element of excitement.
"Our returning girls that remember what we had last year, they absolutely love this [the turf]," said Schurr, "They're pumped to be out here, it's definitely added some excitement to our early season practices."
New field, coach, and players aside, the 2012 team will have to find some way to come up with the 12 goals disappearing along with last year's seniors. Coach Schurr hopes the addition of five transfer students, who enter with two years of junior college experience already under their belts, will help. But the team will also look to juniors Abbey Hanehan (Stillwater, N.Y. / Stillwater High School) and Stephanie Wurz (Whitesboro, N.Y. / Notre Dame High School) to continue their scoring from a year ago. Hanehan finished the year second on the team with seven goals, and Wurz was third with five.
Wildcat fans can also expect junior Jamie Elderbroom (Chittenango, N.Y. / Chittenango High School) and senior Veronica Metz (Morrisville, N.Y. / Morrisville-Eaton High School) to play big roles at midfield, while junior Aubrey Campbell (Auburn, N.Y. / Auburn High School) will most likely be the team's game one starter in goal. While SUNYIT used a handful of goalies at times last year, Campbell took the lion's share of playing time with over a thousand minutes in net. Campbell recorded 59 saves and 2 shutouts in 2011.
Campbell, Hanehan, Wurz, and Elderbroom are all part of a whopping 12-member junior class for the Wildcats this year.
"Our juniors are a huge part of our starting group," commented Schurr, adding with a laugh, "Which is scary for two years from now since we'll be losing 12 to graduation."
Hopefully for SUNYIT, though, the two seasons leading up to that will be even scarier for the team's NEAC opponents.
SUNYIT's home opener is September 5th at 7:00 pm, when the team plays host to Utica College.
Special thanks to Westmoreland High's Brandon Murphy, who contributed excellent research and reporting to this story.