By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
After a successful start to their MIAA season, The Fort Hays State University women’s soccer team will host their first home conference games this weekend, playing No. 7 University of Central Missouri and Emporia State University.
The Tigers (5-1-2, 2-0) are off to a terrific start to their season, with five straight wins and six games since their last loss. FHSU’s defense has been performing on an outstanding level, keeping a clean sheet over the last four games, including the MIAA season openers of last week, as the Tigers triumphed 2-0 against both Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State.
“We have been trying to establish ourselves as a blue-collar team this season,” said Head Coach Tyson John. “We have a new coach for the defense, Jacob Sauls, who has done some terrific things with the players, and a new goalkeeper who is very tall and good, so the players really connected well together.”
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Caldwell joined the team this year after playing for the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has been an important addition to the team, winning the MIAA Goalkeeper of the Week award twice in a row.
“She fit in from the first moment, she is very confident and has been great for us,” John said.
Looking ahead to this weekend, FHSU will face Central Missouri (5-2-1, 2-0), a team that has won 13 MIAA titles since 2007 and was the 2017 national champions. UCM also knocked FHSU out of last season’s MIAA tournament semi-finals. UCM is 15-2-1 overall against the Tigers and hasn’t lost a game versus Fort Hays since 2015.
“We have a lot of respect for them, and we know that they are a great team,” John said. “But much like every game, we are trying to win the game. I’m not sure if a loss would change a lot for us, but with a win or draw, we’d put ourselves in contention for the conference title.”
As tough as this task might be, the Tigers are looking very strong at the start of the season, especially on the defensive side, and this might be their chance to take over UCM for the first time in nine years.
Whatever the score is in this Friday game, the Tigers will have to gather themselves once more and find a way to recover in the day and a half before they take the field again to play Emporia State (3-3-1, 1-1). Emporia hasn’t won a game away from home so far this season, and even though they might not be as formidable as UCM, they will have the advantage of not playing on Friday and having fresh legs for the game on Sunday.
On the other hand, fatigue could play a factor for the Tigers; however, John said he is not thinking about minutes distribution at the moment, and he is keen on focusing on the UCM game before trying to think ahead for Sunday.
“We are taking it one game at a time,” he said. “We won’t think about Emporia until Saturday. It will be hard for the players to recover, but we have everything ready to help them do that as best as possible and be ready to play again on Sunday.”
The Tigers will take the field for the first conference home game of the season at 7 p.m. on Friday and will play again at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be at FHSU Soccer Stadium.