2007 Season Preview
Players are graduated ever year. That's just the way it is supposed to be in intercollegiate athletics. "But tradition never graduates," said Randy Strawser, women's soccer coach at Cornerstone University. "Every player on every team that came before this one has helped to lay the foundation of our program. Our tradition is to work hard, to play hard and to play for Christ. It's the tradition that our seniors pass on to the next class of freshmen.”
"We want to win. But our ultimate goal is to play for Christ. That is the message that is passed down year after year." There will be a lot of passing down this fall.
Cornerstone returns only two players that started most of the season and must replace most of its defense. "Defense has been our cornerstone for a long time," Strawser said. "I feel like we have good players, but they will have to learn to play together. God has blessed us in recruiting; we have a very solid freshman class coming in this year. "That's a good news/bad news scenario for any coach. Freshmen need time to develop. But those who show they can play at this level will be around for a long time.
"I know we got some good players, and I expect we will find a couple who turn out to be even better than we expected," Strawser said. "But it is difficult coming in as a freshman, especially in adapting to the training demands.” "This is a big jump for some players coming from high school, and there's a lot to learn. And they have to be in shape to play college soccer."
The best news for the Golden Eagles is that honorable mention All-American goal keeper Mindy Erny returns "Mindy has certainly had a great career," Strawser said. "Last year we had such a strong defense that limited opponent's chances. This year we will have to find out just what we have, but we will definitely need outstanding play in goal."
Erny, All-WHAC, All-Region in 2006, had 10 shutouts a year ago, when Cornerstone went 16-2-2 over and 10-0-2 to win the WHAC regular-season title. "As good as Mindy has been, there will be competition for that goal keeper spot," Strawser said. "Krystyn Dyke and Julianne Bruining have closed the gap, and the more competition we have for that spot, the stronger the starter will be."
Senior midfielder/forward Mary Koscielniak started in 19 of 20 games and finished with five goals and seven assists. The only other returning starter that started in a majority of our games is defender/midfielder Jaren Soule, who started all 20 games a year ago and scored four goals and had five assists from midfield. "She has been real solid for us," Strawser said. "I'm not exactly sure where she's going to go this fall. I just know she'll be in the mix and that we will count on her."
Rebecca Reese played in 17 games a year ago, starting eight on defense. "She was in about 40 percent of the time, so we will expect her to go out and win a spot. But frankly, the rest of the lineup is still up in the air," Strawser said. Other returnees with playing experience include sophomore Jessica Brussee, senior Sarah Owens, sophomore Breana Brendsel, senior Chelsie McGraw and senior Jenny Van Laan.
There are 11 freshmen and 1 new sophomore in the mix. Defender Molly Brummel was an All-Stater on the Unity Christian team that has dominated Michigan soccer the past few seasons. Christina McAllister (West Michigan Christian), Betsy Witte (NorthPointe Christian) and Ashleigh Lund (Thornapple-Kellogg) earned All-State honors. Chelsea Baker from Whitehall, Liz Myers from Kalamazoo Christian, Helen Andrews from Rochester Adams and Toni Bobo from Gurnee, Ill will all be playing their first collegiate season. Lindsey Woodcock from Caledonia will be playing her first season after sitting out last season.
"We have improved year after year," Strawser said. "Third place became second place, then second place became first. That is also part of the tradition that's been established.
"We've bumped up the non-conference schedule and we open the WHAC season with Madonna, a very good team. But God keeps providing us with good kids, so we have high expectations once again."
