After winning its first-ever SUNYAC playoff game and reaching the conference semifinals in 2015, the Oswego State women’s soccer team is heading into the 2016 season with high hopes.
The Lakers opened the new campaign with a promising 3-2 victory against Desales on the road, a team that made it to the NCAA Championships last season.
Head coach Brian McGrane, now in his 11th season with Oswego State, said his team looked strong in the win.
“I was very pleased with the way we played,” McGrane said. “[Desales] is not an easy team to beat and that is not an easy place to play.”
Battling an accomplished opponent on the road and getting the victory was no easy task. That has McGrane feeling highly optimistic.
“I think getting up early in the morning and driving four hours to play a game isn’t easy, but I loved how we started out,” McGrane said. “We faced adversity giving up two goals in the second half and I loved the way that we battled back. It showed me a lot.”
The Lakers’ head coach attributed his team’s strong start to the upperclassmen, saying that having strong leadership qualities up and down the roster will make a big difference.
The Lakers head into the 2016 campaign with eight seniors, as opposed to last year when they only had two on the roster.
McGrane said his team’s surplus in veteran leadership will give them an advantage that he has never experienced before.
“We’re certainly a veteran team, no doubt about it,” McGrane said. “In the ten years that I’ve been here this is probably the best team we’ve had top to bottom. The veterans really round out the group.”
One of these veterans, senior defender Mary Morrison, spoke on the experience of the team and how the chemistry among the upperclassman will help the team in 2016.
“We’re definitely an experienced group,” Morrison said. “[The seniors] have all been here all four years, so we all have good chemistry off the field. I think that chemistry will definitely carry over on to the field.”
Morrison also credited last year’s senior captain, Bailey Waterbury, saying that despite losing her to graduation, her leadership qualities have influenced the seniors this season.
“She was definitely a big loss,” Morrison said. “She was a great leader and helped keep us composed, but I think all of our experience will make up for it and we will try to lead like she did.”
Aside from the upperclassmen on the roster, the energy from the underclassmen are also contributing to the optimism in the locker room.
The duo of Nicole Perniciaro, who’s a senior and Emma Geyer, a junior, will lead the Lakers on offense having scored eight of the team’s 29 goals last year. Perniciaro and Geyer were also recognized for their play, being named to SUNYAC First-Team and SUNYAC Second-Team, respectively.
In addition to the Lakers’ eight seniors, there are eight freshmen. Morrison touched on the impact she thinks the newcomers will have on the season and beyond.
“I think we have a really good shot this year,” Morrison said. “We have a lot of good freshmen and our offense looks a lot better. The freshmen are just as much a part of this team as we are and they’re going to have a huge impact this season and into the future.”
This team is no stranger to having freshman step in and succeed, as Chloe Lonergan won SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and was named to the SUNYAC Third-Team in her efforts on defense.
The goalie Longergan was protecting, senior goalie Melissa Siegfried, preached the importance of the veterans mentoring the freshmen and preparing them for the collegiate level.
“We definitely want to push them in the right direction,” Siegfried said. “We want to prepare them and push them hard in practice just as if it were a game because teams are not going to go easy on you at this level.”
McGrane and the 2016 Oswego State Lakers are feeling excited about this season with an abundance of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers.
“I love these [girls],” McGrane said. “It’s been really fun thus far and they’re just going to keep getting better. This is going to be a fun year and we’re ready.”
