The women’s soccer team is headed into a new season with hopes to win an ACC championship and earn a return to the NCAA tournament. The team has been preparing for this season since last spring, according to coach Laura Kerrigan. Kerrigan expressed her thoughts about the team’s improvements from last season.
“Last spring, there was such a transformation from this team from the beginning of the spring to the end of the spring,” Kerrigan said. “That was huge to see our [returnees] really step up.”
The off-season this summer also benefited the team. A number of players, including senior forward Lindsay Vera, took the time to play soccer away from N.C. State. Vera played for the Carolina Railhawks in the United Soccer League, where she received player of the week honors.
Vera said the off-season play was very beneficial for her because she got a better sense at playing different positions.
“A lot of the girls on the team were from schools around the ACC,” Vera said. “It was a great experience. It kind of boosted me as far as my attitude about soccer and playing another season and playing after college.”
Sophomore Nadia Aboulhosn, who plays both forward and midfielder, spent the summer with Triangle FC, a club team that she has been a part of before she joined the Wolfpack. Not only did her team go on to win the championship in the Super-20 league, Aboulhosn said she was able to keep herself conditioned during the summer.
“It’s more of a laid back setting, but you still have that competitive edge,” Aboulhosn said. “It allows you to stay in shape and train with the ball. During practice, our mindset was just making it to the North American finals and winning the national championship. We kept that in our heads the whole time that we were training and playing in our regular season games.”
The team will play tonight against Wofford but will be without a number of players, including junior forward Briana Cunningham at forward and junior defender Katie Ruiz.
Kerrigan said Cunningham is out with a tear in her MCL, and they will be evaluating her status week by week. Ruiz is out with a displaced patella and is also suffering a fractured nose. Despite the injuries, Kerrigan is confident the team’s depth will help them overcome the loss of players.
“Thankfully we have a tremendous amount of depth,” Kerrigan said. “This is the most depth we’ve had since I’ve been here as a coach. It’s fortunate that we do have that depth because if we didn’t we would be in trouble right now. That was one of the things that we were missing last year.”
Another adjustment the team will have to make is playing in a new facility. The men’s and women’s soccer teams will be playing on an on campus stadium for the first time. Both teams spent many years playing at the Method Road soccer stadium, which wasn’t equipped for night games.
The new N.C. State Soccer Stadium will allow them to actually play night games not only away, but at home. Vera said that everyone is excited about the opening of the stadium.
“None of us can really describe it,” Vera said. “It’s a much bigger deal for the upperclassmen because we’ve been waiting for this new stadium to come up. It’s a better environment than playing at Method because it’s on campus.”
Kerrigan hopes the new stadium gets the student body more involved and helps with recruitment.
“We already have some alumni that are coming in this weekend,” Kerrigan said. “I’ve already had some of them say ‘why didn’t we have this when I was here?’ It makes such a difference playing under the lights.”
