By Jillian Saftel, News Staff
With the start of their season right around the corner, head coach Tracey Leone and the women’s soccer team are itching to get on the field. A large and promising recruiting class has Leone and her players excited to see the added depth freshmen players will bring to a team ready to prove itself.
“We’re all very excited about the incoming class, they’re a great group of girls,” said senior forward and new co-captain Veronica Napoli.
Players in the incoming class will be coming from all over the country to play for the Huskies. Lahaina Zoller is the most distant recruit, crossing the country from her home state of Hawaii where she led the Interscholastic League of Hawaii in scoring her junior year. Her high school won three state titles during her tenure, and she was MVP of the 2011 championship game. She will play as an attacker in Boston.
“She’s a very fast, very technical front runner,” Leone said of Zoller.
While not on the pitch, Zoller led her high school’s track team to three consecutive state championships as well, personally taking titles in the 400-meter dash and 4×100 meter relay.
Joining Zoller in this year’s recruiting class are Paige Burnett (Placentia, Calif.), Bianca Calderone (Wellesley), Maria Lanyi (North Huntington, Penn.) and Allison Wilson (Exeter, N.H.).
“This big incoming class is going to add some really good depth to the team,” Leone said. “We want to increase the number of players that play, keeping fresh legs on the field as much as we can.”
Still, Napoli said one of the team’s biggest challenges will be for herself and other returning members to adjust to playing without the seniors that graduated after the 2010 season.
“It’s still surreal that they’re not coming back,” Napoli said. “We’re like family and they were great players – it’ll be difficult to replace them.”
Returning forward Hanna Terry said that despite the loss of last year’s talented and motivating seniors, she has high hopes for this year’s leadership – co-captains Napoli, Kelly Matthews and Kirby Anderson.
“We have great new captains, they balance each other out so well and each brings something to the table,” Terry said.
The rest of the team have been keeping each other in check when it comes to training using a Facebook group to connect before they report back to Northeastern in the fall.
“We definitely keep in touch with everyone and talk about how workouts are going,” Napoli said. “We’ve been playing pickup games with the Harvard women’s soccer team and everyone’s playing in Massachusetts leagues and working out with trainers.”
While the players have been staying fit, Leone has focused on the improvements that can be made to the team in her second season as their head coach.
“The good thing is now that we’ve been here for a year and a half we have something we can build on. The most important thing is playing in sync as quickly as we can,” Leone said. “We certainly want to make sure we’re really tight as a team and really take care of the defensive side of the ball as well as the attacking side.”
With just about a week between their first practice and the start of the exhibition season against Providence Aug. 12, Leone said getting the group culture settled, embracing newcomers and figuring out what system works best for the team will be the keys to their success.
The Huskies finished last season 4-6-1 in conference play and in seventh place of the 12 teams in the Colonial Athletic Association.
“We’re ready for a fresh start,” Napoli said. “We didn’t have the best season last year but with a great group of new girls coming in and a great coaching staff we’re excited to prove ourselves this year.”
