Broncs return home after two MAAC wins on the road

By Steve Sica

After two recent MAAC victories, the women’s soccer team comes back to Ben Cohen Field to take on Loyola (MD) (7-4-3, 3-1 MAAC) on Saturday.

The Broncs defeated both Manhattan and St. Peter’s last weekend away from home. Senior goaltender Jennifer Nichols was proud that her team came out victorious twice last weekend.

“Our confidence is definitely higher this week coming off of two wins against MAAC teams,” Nichols said. “It was very important for us to come out and get two [wins] this [past] weekend to prove to ourselves that we can do it.”

Head Coach Drayson Hounsome has faith his team can pull out another win.

“We do well against Loyola [at home],” Hounsome said. “I’ve never lost to Loyola here. It should be a good game. We just need to focus on our game and deny them opportunities.”

The players are also looking forward to playing the Greyhounds Saturday as they believe they can make a statement against another conference foe.

“We are very excited about playing Loyola this weekend,” Nichols said. “We’d love to come out with a win and send a message to the whole conference. I think it would also boost our confidence for the rest of the season.”

Coach Hounsome is also excited to see his offense coming back to life after falling into a lull the past few weekends.

“Our passing has been brilliant,” Hounsome said. “Our shot selection was great and we have a lot of momentum building.”

Junior Jen Meier, who had two goals in the win against St. Peter’s last weekend, also feels that the offensive outburst is here to stay.

“I believe our offense can keep the momentum to carry us through the season,” Meier said. “We needed a change as we were having difficulty keeping position and this change has allowed us to go back to playing our style and being more dangerous in the final third.”

Meier credits the new strategy on the field, which so far has helped generate goals and wins.

“This new game plan has worked for us,” Meier said. “We have been successful both offensively and defensively so I do not think we plan on readjusting our game plan.”

When it comes to the Loyola game this weekend, the players and coach agree it will be a strong match between two good teams.

“Our strategy going into this weekend is to work hard at practice and perfect the changes that we made on the field last week,” Nichols said. “I believe we have gained back our confidence in knowing that we are a team that can score a lot of goals. That will carry us through the season.”