Photo by: Phil Ellsworth
2009 Women's Soccer Preview: Q&A With Head Coach Veronica O'Brien
8/19/2009 9:11:00 AM | Women's Soccer
With just a few days remaining in training camp before the Highlanders open the 2009 Women's Soccer Season on the road at CSU Bakersfield, Head Coach Veronica O'Brien (pictured) took some time to stop by the gohighlanders.com offices to give us her take on the upcoming season.
Q: The 2008 version of the Highlanders had seven seniors on the team including the team’s leading scorer in Tessa Lennala and starting goalkeeper in Brittany Goetz. This year’s version has just four – Ashley Parks, Lauren Leonard, Denise Thomas and Nicole Yumori. Which players do you expect to fill the roles vacated by last year’s seniors?
A: The majority of our players who played last year were sophomores and juniors so we really don’t have that many vacated spots to fill. You generally aren’t able to go out and just replace a player like Tessa Lennala. She was a natural goal scorer. What’s going to be different about us this year is that we’re going to be a lot more dynamic on the attack given the makeup of the payers we have.
Tessa was a player we could play around. Now we have several good players up front so we’re going to be more dynamic in terms of our athleticism, our speed and the number of players we have who can score. We have a great combination of the types of forwards we can utilize.
In terms of our goalkeeping, Brittany Goetz did a tremendous job for us last year, and we were fortunate to have Jessica White as a freshman serve as her back up. She improved tremendously during the season and in the offseason, and she will be able to step in right away for us. I don’t think we’ll lose anything with the transition from Brittany to Jessica. Consistency will be the key, and I believe Jess is going to elevate her game to the next leve this season.
Q: You mentioned Jessica White in goal. What can you tell us about the strengths of each of the other keepers on the roster, all of whom are new to the program?
A: We’ve got four keepers at this time including Jessica, but one of them, Jessica Bibby, could potentially redshirt the season due to an injury she had coming into the season.
With our three remaining keepers, I think we’re in really good shape. Emily Hart, in particular has been pushing Jess during training camp. They are similar in a number of areas: They’re both strong and have some height to them. In addition, Emily has two years of playing experience at the collegiate level having played the past two seasons at San Francisco State
[Reanna] “Ray” Gibbs is our other keeper and she played for two years at Saint Peter’s College in New Jersey, so we’ve got quite a bit of experienced depth at the position.
Q: Taking a look at the freshman class, which players can we expect to see on the pitch making immediate contributions to the cause?
A: We expect the entire class to make contributions at some point this year. We spent a lot of time in the recruiting process with this class, and we think all of them will play a role in our success this season and over the next four years.
Kristina Noriega will be fighting for a starting role along the back line. She’s very versatile and at 5-11 she’s strong in the air and reads the game well. She’s very fast to turn and go, and attacks well out of the back. She’s also going to make a contribution to our set pieces because she’s very powerful in the air.
Kayla Troesh is somebody who has done a very good job in camp and will add a lot to our attack. She has all the elements of being a great forward: plays well with her back to the goal, faces you up, goes one on one, can strike great balls, is very powerful in the air. She’s going to be a handful for opponents.
Over the last week or two of camp, Shelby Lewis and Lindsey Wilson both showed their versatility by playing effectively in the back and in the midfield, so I think those are two freshmen that will be in the picture fairly early.
And lastly, Ebie Harris is another freshmen with an opportunity to make a difference early on because of her breakaway speed. But as I mentioned earlier, with the talent this class has, we expect that all of them will make contributions to the team at some point during the season.
Q: What is your strategy when it comes to putting together a non-conference schedule, and what games stand out to you this year as potential “benchmark” games leading into Big West play?
A: You want to balance those teams where you think the game can go either way with the teams that maybe have a higher RPI and challenge you to improve your RPI and increase your chances of receiving an at-large bid.
I’ve always had a “one-game-at-a-time” attitude because they are all important, but an early game that is standing out for us right now is Oregon State. We went up to their place two years and didn’t fare too well losing 2-0, so we’re looking forward to hosting them.
Fresno State won their conference and played in the NCAAs a year ago. Texas State has been to the NCAA Tournament four times over the past 10 years, so those would be the benchmark games to look at heading into conference play.
Q: Last year was the first year for the Highlanders playing under the lights at the UCR Soccer Stadium. What was that experience like?
A: It was a tremendous experience for so many different reasons. Playing at night is more fan friendly. It allows more of our fans to attend games giving us a home-field advantage with the crowd. We had a preseason match under the lights this year, and the stands were packed which wouldn’t have happened in previous years. It also helps you recover faster by not having to play in the heat of the day quite so much. The entire atmosphere was improved all around with the move to mostly night games.
Q: Tommy Tate joins the coaching staff as an assistant this season. What can you tell us about his background?
A: Tommy is a great addition to our staff. He’s a good fit for us. We want to position ourselves to return to the NCAA Tournament, and he’s been a part of programs that have consistently reached that level. He has the experience and background of working with that caliber of program. He’s also dabbled in the international scene, so he understands pursuing excellence at the highest level, and what it takes to achieve that.
Q: Last season Long Beach State went undefeated in regular season conference play, but every other team in the league had between two and five wins. Do you see the Big West continuing to be that balanced in 2009, or is there one team that stands above the rest heading into the year?
A: I think it is a conference that is always going to have that kind of balance. It has grown in that direction considerably over the past few years. The great thing about the competitiveness of our conference is it always seems to come down to the final weekend of the regular season to see which four teams are going to be playing in the Big West Conference Tournament, which is exciting for the fans.
If you look at the recent history of the league, say over the past four or five years, you’ll find that every team except for UC Davis has taken part in the conference tournament. And UC Davis has only been in the league for two years.
Top to bottom, the Big West should continue to be a competitive league, and the fight for a spot in the tournament should be up for grabs heading into late October and early November.
Q: UC Santa Barbara ended up besting Long Beach State in the Big West Tournament Finals a year ago, and both teams earned NCAA Tournament bids – only the second time in conference history that the Big West placed two teams in the tourney. Is the conference now at the point where two teams making the postseason will become the norm rather than the exception?
A: I definitely think it can become the norm. In fact, I think that we are positioning ourselves as a conference to where three teams in the tournament is a strong possibility. As long as teams continue to not just increase the difficulty of their schedules, but consistently win the majority of those matches against higher ranked opponents, the Big West will get its due come tournament selection time.
Q: When November rolls around, if the Highlanders are preparing for a first-round Big West Conference Tournament match, what will have been the keys to the team’s success?
A: We will have stayed healthy. We will have been consistent. We will have stuck to our game plan. For the better part of the past two seasons, we’ve battled some injuries, but we’re coming out of preseason camp healthy this year, and if we stay that way and remain consistent we’ll be in the mix come Big West Tournament time.
Q: The 2008 version of the Highlanders had seven seniors on the team including the team’s leading scorer in Tessa Lennala and starting goalkeeper in Brittany Goetz. This year’s version has just four – Ashley Parks, Lauren Leonard, Denise Thomas and Nicole Yumori. Which players do you expect to fill the roles vacated by last year’s seniors?
A: The majority of our players who played last year were sophomores and juniors so we really don’t have that many vacated spots to fill. You generally aren’t able to go out and just replace a player like Tessa Lennala. She was a natural goal scorer. What’s going to be different about us this year is that we’re going to be a lot more dynamic on the attack given the makeup of the payers we have.
Tessa was a player we could play around. Now we have several good players up front so we’re going to be more dynamic in terms of our athleticism, our speed and the number of players we have who can score. We have a great combination of the types of forwards we can utilize.
In terms of our goalkeeping, Brittany Goetz did a tremendous job for us last year, and we were fortunate to have Jessica White as a freshman serve as her back up. She improved tremendously during the season and in the offseason, and she will be able to step in right away for us. I don’t think we’ll lose anything with the transition from Brittany to Jessica. Consistency will be the key, and I believe Jess is going to elevate her game to the next leve this season.
Q: You mentioned Jessica White in goal. What can you tell us about the strengths of each of the other keepers on the roster, all of whom are new to the program?
A: We’ve got four keepers at this time including Jessica, but one of them, Jessica Bibby, could potentially redshirt the season due to an injury she had coming into the season.
With our three remaining keepers, I think we’re in really good shape. Emily Hart, in particular has been pushing Jess during training camp. They are similar in a number of areas: They’re both strong and have some height to them. In addition, Emily has two years of playing experience at the collegiate level having played the past two seasons at San Francisco State
[Reanna] “Ray” Gibbs is our other keeper and she played for two years at Saint Peter’s College in New Jersey, so we’ve got quite a bit of experienced depth at the position.
Q: Taking a look at the freshman class, which players can we expect to see on the pitch making immediate contributions to the cause?
A: We expect the entire class to make contributions at some point this year. We spent a lot of time in the recruiting process with this class, and we think all of them will play a role in our success this season and over the next four years.
Kristina Noriega will be fighting for a starting role along the back line. She’s very versatile and at 5-11 she’s strong in the air and reads the game well. She’s very fast to turn and go, and attacks well out of the back. She’s also going to make a contribution to our set pieces because she’s very powerful in the air.
Kayla Troesh is somebody who has done a very good job in camp and will add a lot to our attack. She has all the elements of being a great forward: plays well with her back to the goal, faces you up, goes one on one, can strike great balls, is very powerful in the air. She’s going to be a handful for opponents.
Over the last week or two of camp, Shelby Lewis and Lindsey Wilson both showed their versatility by playing effectively in the back and in the midfield, so I think those are two freshmen that will be in the picture fairly early.
And lastly, Ebie Harris is another freshmen with an opportunity to make a difference early on because of her breakaway speed. But as I mentioned earlier, with the talent this class has, we expect that all of them will make contributions to the team at some point during the season.
Q: What is your strategy when it comes to putting together a non-conference schedule, and what games stand out to you this year as potential “benchmark” games leading into Big West play?
A: You want to balance those teams where you think the game can go either way with the teams that maybe have a higher RPI and challenge you to improve your RPI and increase your chances of receiving an at-large bid.
I’ve always had a “one-game-at-a-time” attitude because they are all important, but an early game that is standing out for us right now is Oregon State. We went up to their place two years and didn’t fare too well losing 2-0, so we’re looking forward to hosting them.
Fresno State won their conference and played in the NCAAs a year ago. Texas State has been to the NCAA Tournament four times over the past 10 years, so those would be the benchmark games to look at heading into conference play.
Q: Last year was the first year for the Highlanders playing under the lights at the UCR Soccer Stadium. What was that experience like?
A: It was a tremendous experience for so many different reasons. Playing at night is more fan friendly. It allows more of our fans to attend games giving us a home-field advantage with the crowd. We had a preseason match under the lights this year, and the stands were packed which wouldn’t have happened in previous years. It also helps you recover faster by not having to play in the heat of the day quite so much. The entire atmosphere was improved all around with the move to mostly night games.
Q: Tommy Tate joins the coaching staff as an assistant this season. What can you tell us about his background?
A: Tommy is a great addition to our staff. He’s a good fit for us. We want to position ourselves to return to the NCAA Tournament, and he’s been a part of programs that have consistently reached that level. He has the experience and background of working with that caliber of program. He’s also dabbled in the international scene, so he understands pursuing excellence at the highest level, and what it takes to achieve that.
Q: Last season Long Beach State went undefeated in regular season conference play, but every other team in the league had between two and five wins. Do you see the Big West continuing to be that balanced in 2009, or is there one team that stands above the rest heading into the year?
A: I think it is a conference that is always going to have that kind of balance. It has grown in that direction considerably over the past few years. The great thing about the competitiveness of our conference is it always seems to come down to the final weekend of the regular season to see which four teams are going to be playing in the Big West Conference Tournament, which is exciting for the fans.
If you look at the recent history of the league, say over the past four or five years, you’ll find that every team except for UC Davis has taken part in the conference tournament. And UC Davis has only been in the league for two years.
Top to bottom, the Big West should continue to be a competitive league, and the fight for a spot in the tournament should be up for grabs heading into late October and early November.
Q: UC Santa Barbara ended up besting Long Beach State in the Big West Tournament Finals a year ago, and both teams earned NCAA Tournament bids – only the second time in conference history that the Big West placed two teams in the tourney. Is the conference now at the point where two teams making the postseason will become the norm rather than the exception?
A: I definitely think it can become the norm. In fact, I think that we are positioning ourselves as a conference to where three teams in the tournament is a strong possibility. As long as teams continue to not just increase the difficulty of their schedules, but consistently win the majority of those matches against higher ranked opponents, the Big West will get its due come tournament selection time.
Q: When November rolls around, if the Highlanders are preparing for a first-round Big West Conference Tournament match, what will have been the keys to the team’s success?
A: We will have stayed healthy. We will have been consistent. We will have stuck to our game plan. For the better part of the past two seasons, we’ve battled some injuries, but we’re coming out of preseason camp healthy this year, and if we stay that way and remain consistent we’ll be in the mix come Big West Tournament time.
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