Women's soccer vs. Florida State

[dbmill]

1-0 Florida State leading at half time, the Huskies are lucky it is only a one goal game. I'm listening to the game, and it sounds like the Seminoles are totally dominating the game. UConn has two shots, and the Seminoles had 7 corner kicks in the first half. I said it before, but from what I've seen and heard so far, this Huskies team is definitely down from last year.

 

[huskymedic]

Tumbling down hill from there...

UConn Women's Soccer ‏@UConnWSOC 15m 15 minutes ago
66' - Florida State gets another one past Armstrong from 20 yards out. Seminoles lead 2-0.

UConn Women's Soccer ‏@UConnWSOC 11m 11 minutes ago
69' - Less than three minutes later, the Noles find the back of the net again to take a 3-0 lead. Still 20 minutes to play

 

[ASweet3781]

Have the best player returning from a Sweet 16 team (and the best player Len T has had in a long time) and it appears they are a worse team this year. Not sure why Len T is hanging around. The fire in the belly just was never there to get the UConn women to legitimately compete with the top teams in this sport or get a natty.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Have the best player returning from a Sweet 16 team (and the best player Len T has had in a long time) and it appears they are a worse team this year. Not sure why Len T is hanging around. The fire in the belly just was never there to get the UConn women to legitimately compete with the top teams in this sport or get a natty.

Spoke to a friend who played on the women's team in the '90's. There is still a lot of support for Len. The problem has been injuries and the recruiting landscape in soccer has changed a lot in the last 20 years with as football heavy college programs have pumped in a lot of money into women's soccer to address Title IX and that has been hard to adjust to. When UConn was making its run annual NCAA run into semi-finals or finals before losing to UNC each year, neither the XII or SEC sponsored women's soccer. Florida St and U Florida ere just getting off the ground. I don't even think West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arkansas, and South Carolina (all currently ranked) had teams.

 

[dbmill]

Have the best player returning from a Sweet 16 team (and the best player Len T has had in a long time) and it appears they are a worse team this year. Not sure why Len T is hanging around. The fire in the belly just was never there to get the UConn women to legitimately compete with the top teams in this sport or get a natty.

After the end of last season I heard speculation that with Rachel Hill, Ribeiro, and Armstrong all being seniors that UConn women’s soccer would be primed for big things this season. My thought was that this could indeed be true, but I also had a nagging feeling at the time that the Huskies had lost several talented and experienced players though graduation, and that the women’s team might very well not be as good this season, particularly if the incoming freshmen did not make an immediate splash. Sam Maguire had an excellent career at UConn, while players like Andrea Plucenik and Liana Hinds also contributed to the offense. Other significant losses included Brianna Butler, Gabby Cuevas, Megan Hunsberger, Annie Wickett, and Ruby Fee, all of whom spent some time as starting players for the team. Well, all these players are gone, and the team is certainly missing them. And while several of the incoming freshmen have gotten quite a bit of playing time, I would hardly say that any of them of made what could be called an immediate splash of significant contributions. This is in contrast to what I’ve seen the last few years, when there always seemed to be a few freshmen or transfers making immediate and significant contributions to what was going on in the field of play.

Rachel Hill is certainly the best player the women’s soccer team has had in several years, but it is quite clear that at this point in the season the supporting cast around her does not have the talent or depth of last year’s team. In order for this team to match preseason expectations, the freshmen need to show improvement and grow up fast, and that is something I’m not sure will happen from this group of newcomers. We’ll see. From what I’ve seen, freshman Kristin Vinciguerra has been starting and it looks like she could become a nice contributing player, and I would like to see highly touted redshirt freshman Annika Schmidt get more playing time as well. Sophomore Kim Urbanek, who showed a lot of ball handling and distribution skills last season, needs to get more playing time as well.

 

[dbmill]

Spoke to a friend who played on the women's team in the '90's. There is still a lot of support for Len. The problem has been injuries and the recruiting landscape in soccer has changed a lot in the last 20 years with as football heavy college programs have pumped in a lot of money into women's soccer to address Title IX and that has been hard to adjust to. When UConn was making its run annual NCAA run into semi-finals or finals before losing to UNC each year, neither the XII or SEC sponsored women's soccer. Florida St and U Florida ere just getting off the ground. I don't even think West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arkansas, and South Carolina (all currently ranked) had teams.

In addition to the above, there is no question in my mind that one of the problems UConn women’s soccer has in recruiting these days is tied in with UConn athletics being so slow to upgrade its athletic facilities. Aside from basketball and football, UConn lags very badly in the sports facility arms race that all athletic programs engage in. To put it kindly, Morrone Stadium is very much an antiquated facility that inhibits recruiting for the women’s soccer team. I’m sure many of the relatively new women’s soccer programs that Mr. Conehead refers to in his post are playing in recently built soccer facilities that contain all sorts of bells and whistles that have creature comforts that attract talented players, with Florida State being a prime example. The planned new soccer facility will be a big help to UConn women’s soccer on the recruiting trail once it is finally built.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

In addition to the above, there is no question in my mind that one of the problems UConn women’s soccer has in recruiting these days is tied in with UConn athletics being so slow to upgrade its athletic facilities. Aside from basketball and football, UConn lags very badly in the sports facility arms race that all athletic programs engage in. To put it kindly, Morrone Stadium is very much an antiquated facility that inhibits recruiting for the women’s soccer team. I’m sure many of the relatively new women’s soccer programs that Mr. Conehead refers to in his post are playing in recently built soccer facilities that contain all sorts of bells and whistles that have creature comforts that attract talented players, with Florida State being a prime example. The planned new soccer facility will be a big help to UConn women’s soccer on the recruiting trail once it is finally built.

Very true, that's where a lot of the money has gone too.

One trend that is not often talked about is that women's sports took off in the Northeast and California back in the 1970's. Thus, it is not really a surprise that schools like UConn, UMass (was really good in the 90's especially with Briana Scurry [who happened to be from Minnesota] in net), Hartford, UCLA, Santa Clara, Portland, etc. along with schools that recruited heavily from the northeast, like UNC [Kristine Lilly was from CT] and ND dominated NCAA women's soccer. As girl's sports, especially soccer and basketball, developed in the South and Midwest, the newly well funded teams took advantage of the expansion in recruiting territories.

PS - Just looked up the 2015 NCAA women's soccer attendance records. I remember going to games in the '90's and there was almost always a good crowed at a UConn women's game. Not seeing UConn in the top 25 in 2014 was a surprise. Do people still go to games or does UConn simply not report attendance figures?

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_soccer_RB/2015/attendance.pdf

 

[dbmill]

PS - Just looked up the 2015 NCAA women's soccer attendance records. I remember going to games in the '90's and there was almost always a good crowed at a UConn women's game. Not seeing UConn in the top 25 in 2014 was a surprise. Do people still go to games or does UConn simply not report attendance figures?

I've been going to UConn women's soccer games consistently for the last ten years or so. I make it to most of the Sunday games, plus maybe one or two others. When I started going, attendance averaged a bit over a 1,000 a game. This year they are averaging 690 a game, so attendance has been in decline since I started going.

UConn attendance figures for women's soccer are always listed on the game box score. You can find the attendance figures in the stat section for any given year on the UConn athletics website in the women's soccer archive.

 

[ASweet3781]

The problem is UConn had a head start on a lot of these power schools and never really built the "program" it could have. They made the first 3 Final Fours in '82-'84 (when you only had to win one game to make it). From '85-'15-, 4 College Cups. None since '03. The Power 5 (ACC) schools really didn't start to dominate the sport until this decade. Yes UNC was dominate and that made ever winning one almost impossible but Santa Clara, Portland, Notre Dame all eventually broke through. UConn was usually beaten very badly whenever it faced these top teams suggesting they never really recruited the athlete or assembled the team that could get the job done despite some deep runs. Without a doubt the worst loss because it looked like it could FINALLY be their time was in 2007 to FSU. They had beaten BC and #1 Stanford all on the road in the tournament. They had leads at FSU of 1-0 and 2-1 with less than 10 mins to go yet couldn't hold them. UNC has already been eliminated and a very manageable path of Notre Dame and USC would remain. That was the time to get it yet they couldn't. Things really were never the same after that loss. It very well could have been Len's last chance because nothing suggests in the ten years that follow they can make another serious run.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

The problem is UConn had a head start on a lot of these power schools and never really built the "program" it could have. They made the first 3 Final Fours in '82-'84 (when you only had to win one game to make it). From '85-'15-, 4 College Cups. None since '03. The Power 5 (ACC) schools really didn't start to dominate the sport until this decade. Yes UNC was dominate and that made ever winning one almost impossible but Santa Clara, Portland, Notre Dame all eventually broke through. UConn was usually beaten very badly whenever it faced these top teams suggesting they never really recruited the athlete or assembled the team that could get the job done despite some deep runs. Without a doubt the worst loss because it looked like it could FINALLY be their time was in 2007 to FSU. They had beaten BC and #1 Stanford all on the road in the tournament. They had leads at FSU of 1-0 and 2-1 with less than 10 mins to go yet couldn't hold them. UNC has already been eliminated and a very manageable path of Notre Dame and USC would remain. That was the time to get it yet they couldn't. Things really were never the same after that loss. It very well could have been Len's last chance because nothing suggests in the ten years that follow they can make another serious run.

In my opinion, the closest UConn got was the '97 Championship that UConn lost to UNC 2-0. Sarah Whalen was the best player on the field by far. UNC was not as strong as it had been earlier in the decade after Hamm and Lilly graduated. Tight very physical game. I was not at the game; but, knew a few players and trust me, don't ask them about playing UNC in Greensboro NC with ACC referees.

 

[dbmill]

The problem is UConn had a head start on a lot of these power schools and never really built the "program" it could have. They made the first 3 Final Fours in '82-'84 (when you only had to win one game to make it). From '85-'15-, 4 College Cups. None since '03. The Power 5 (ACC) schools really didn't start to dominate the sport until this decade. Yes UNC was dominate and that made ever winning one almost impossible but Santa Clara, Portland, Notre Dame all eventually broke through. UConn was usually beaten very badly whenever it faced these top teams suggesting they never really recruited the athlete or assembled the team that could get the job done despite some deep runs. Without a doubt the worst loss because it looked like it could FINALLY be their time was in 2007 to FSU. They had beaten BC and #1 Stanford all on the road in the tournament. They had leads at FSU of 1-0 and 2-1 with less than 10 mins to go yet couldn't hold them. UNC has already been eliminated and a very manageable path of Notre Dame and USC would remain. That was the time to get it yet they couldn't. Things really were never the same after that loss. It very well could have been Len's last chance because nothing suggests in the ten years that follow they can make another serious run.

Like I said before, a new soccer stadium would definitely help the cause of UConn soccer, both men and women. Of course, Lenny T. could very well be retired by the time it is finally built.

 

[SubbaBub]

So you are all saying that the widening disparity in P5 vs G5 revenue is affecting the competitiveness of non-football sports? Someone better tell the basketball boards.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

In my opinion, the closest UConn got was the '97 Championship that UConn lost to UNC 2-0. Sarah Whalen was the best player on the field by far. UNC was not as strong as it had been earlier in the decade after Hamm and Lilly graduated. Tight very physical game. I was not at the game; but, knew a few players and trust me, don't ask them about playing UNC in Greensboro NC with ACC referees.

Had drinks with said friend. Surprisingly, she said the '95 team was the best team they had talent wise where UConn lost to ND in the quarterfinals. ND went on to surprise UNC in the semi-finals in Chapel Hill and then won the title over Portland that year.