By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
The Fort Hays State University women’s soccer team has a road/home split to open its season. The Tigers travel to Rockhurst today before opening their home seasonagainst Northwest Oklahoma State on Sunday.
Fort Hays is coming off a 7-8-4 record and a 4-6-2 mark in the MIAA and hope to make it back to the MIAA Tournament after a first-round loss to last season’s No. 1 seed Washburn.
Senior defender Megan Wiman says preparation for the season is not only on the field but off the field as well.
“We’ve done a lot of team bonding on and off the field, and a lot of mental things to get everybody ready and to be on the same page,” she said. “So I think if we continue that, I think we’ll be a very strong team going into the season.”
FHSU Head Coach Tyson John said he uses some freshmen early in the preseason practices to fill vacant spots from last year’s starting 11.
“We’ve had some really good performances,” John said. “Kennedy Hartzell really started to stand out as a freshman in the midfield. Maddy Spiers has done a really good job as a freshman. Ellie Damico and Anjaleena Gomez, both centerbacks, and Ella Edwards have done a good job as well. We’ve seen some promising stuff.”
In her first collegiate season, Hartzell believes she and her fellow freshman class is ready to compete, despite the pressure to be college-ready.
“We’ve been working really hard as a whole freshman class, as a team, and I think we’re all really excited to get the season rolling,” Hartzell said, “You work all summer in kind of preparation, but you don’t really know until you get here. It’s definitely a faster environment, more intense, and I feel like that was obviously a transition in the first week or so, but now that we’re being settled, and I think it’s a lot of fun, I think we all prepared well for it.”
Fort Hays’ season will start with a talented Rockhurst team. Last year, the Hawks were 12-6-1 and went 10-3-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
The game today serves as a return game after the teams played in Hays last season. Rockhurst defeated FHSU 2-1 in that game at FHSU Soccer Stadium.
On the back half of the opening weekend, the Tigers return home to take on the Rangers of Northwest Oklahoma State. Last year, the Rangers went 2-9-7 overall and 0-5-6 in the Great American Conference.
It is also a return game from last year. FHSU defeated the Rangers 1-0 a season ago in Alva, Oklahoma.
FHSU and Rockhurst play at 2 p.m. today in Kansas City, Missouri. First touch for FHSU and Northwest Oklahoma State is set for 3 p.m. on Sunday at FHSU Soccer Stadium.
“Right now, I think that we’ve only played three outside opponents, and we’ve only been together now for I think this is our training day, like 17, so we just haven’t been together long enough,” John said. “So we really don’t know what to expect when we play both of these teams, but every year we’re all different. We graduate, we add so don’t really know what, too much, what to expect of them, and just really, really hoping that we can fix what we need to fix before our games.”