What happened?The team has a 3-1-2 record overall. The three wins were lopsided, outscoring the competition by nine goals combined. The ties against Old Dominion and High Point have been puzzling, and the one loss came to a ranked William & Mary squad.
In its last three games, State has one win and two ties.
The most recent game was a 3-1 over Maryland-Baltimore County.
“I was pretty psyched with some of the things we did in the last game,” coach Laura Kerrigan said. “We really need to carry that over to the next couple of games.”
Who’s hot?The Pack’s three upperclassmen have been pillars of support for the otherwise young squad.
Coach Laura Kerrigan singled out senior Jessica O’Rourke as being exceptional this year.
“Jess is almost always one of the best players on the field,” Kerrigan said. “We’re going to count on those guys every game as our leaders to carry us through no matter what.”
Another one of the upperclassmen, junior Lindsay Vera, leads the Wolfpack in goals with five.
Who’s not?The offense’s efficiency. In its last three games, State has found the net just four times, despite taking more than 15 shots in each contest. Scoring goals on a college with “county” in the title is one thing, while doing the same thing against ACC competition will be a much harder feat.
Thus far, putting away precious scoring opportunities has haunted the team.
“We’re creating some good opportunities now, it’s just a matter of our finishing percentage being a little higher,” Kerrigan said.
“[Scoring] is technical — which is skill — and it’s tactical — which is thinking and being in the right place at the right time. We’ve been unlucky at times because we’ve put more balls off the crossbar than probably the last two seasons combined. But that’s part of the game.”
What’s next?This weekend’s games with Elon and Virginia Commonwealth, respectively, will be the last matches before State gets into conference play.
“The last two games have been kind of scattered,” Vera said. “We have to find the consistent things that work for us.”
