The Concordia Stingers women’s soccer program has not made the strides it wanted to in recent years, but head coach Jorge Sanchez expects that to change as his team gets ready to kick off the Quebec university season Friday night against the Laval Rouge et Or.
“We have a young team with 50 per cent turnover,” said Sanchez. “We have a new group and we are trying to change the culture around the team.”
Within the young group, there is a set of leaders that Sanchez will look to step up this season, including midfielders Elizabeth Allard, Andree Robbins, Molly Howes, and defender Shannon Travers.
They have to fill a void left by fifth-year defenders Alli Burgess and Natasha Sicondolfo as well as veteran Andrea Davidson who played several positions in her time at Concordia and was the team’s goalkeeper last year.
Concordia will see the return of forward Jennifer Duff to the fold after two years away from the team. The team is also expecting to get an boost from first-year players Kayla Myre, a defender out of Champlain College; Gabriela Padvaiskas, a forward from Dawson College, and Alex Dragan, a defender-midfielder from the Ottawa high school system.
The Stingers played three pre-season contests, losing to the defending national champion Queen’s Gaels 3-0 and having scoreless draws with the Cape Breton Capers and the Middlebury Panthers.
“We have seen some solid improvement in pre-season and there is definite potential,” Sanchez said. “The team has really adapted well to the system of play we are trying to put in place, but there is still work to do. For this team to be successful we need to be able to stick to our game plan and system. We are going to need everyone to really work together and in the best interest of the team.”
The Concordia soccer teams hold their home openers Friday with a double header. The men kick off at 6:30 p.m. while the women’s game is set to start at 8:30 p.m.
