Spencer Smith for Big South Coach of the Year

All of these political ads on TV have gotten me in the campaigning mood. Here is my campaign for Big South Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year…

OK, I realize I have a biased opinion and I realize that the Coach of the Year usually just goes to the team that finishes in first place which will most likely be Charleston Southern. However, I think the Coach of the Year should go to the coach that gets the most out of his team. I give you Spencer Smith.

Let’s take a look at that preseason poll. CSU was picked to finish second; they are in first place by three points over Coastal Carolina. Coastal was picked third, they are in second place. High Point picked fourth is tied for third place with WINTHROP, who was picked seventh. SEVENTH!!! and the Eagles are tied for third just one point out of second and four points out of first.

Winthrop was winless in its first eight matches (0-7-1), but showed improvement throughout. Since conference play began, the Eagles are 3-1-1 with still four matches left in the regular season. Even if the Eagles go 2-2 and finish 5-3-1 in the league it will be a lot better than seventh place.

No one expected anything from this team at the beginning of the year. Everyone said, “It’s going to take some time. Spencer will get them there but this year is going to be tough.” And it was in the beginning but let’s take a close look at those eight losses…umm, four of the losses came in overtime and five are by one goal. Only once has an opponent scored more than two goals in a match (Jacksonville got three).
Coach Smith has done a terrific job with this team and I know the voters for the award will give it to whoever wins the regular season. But is it really a surprise that Charleston Southern, who was picked second and has the best player in the league, is at the top or that Coastal Carolina, who won the league last year is right there. Is that good coaching or just doing what is expected?

If the Eagles finish in the top four, which they are in position to do, Coach Smith deserves this award for keeping the team together through the beginning of the year and making the moves to make this team competitive in the league. Remember, they finished eighth last season. For me this is easily the best coaching job in the league. I am going ahead and casting my vote now, even it slightly biased. Look at the facts and judge for yourself.

Tough Non-Conference Schedule Paying off for Eagles

The Winthrop Volleyball team began the season 3-9. The three wins were over Seton Hall, South Carolina, and South Alabama. Some of the losses included Wisconsin, Clemson, Kansas, Northern Iowa, and Georgia Southern. The players and coaches all knew they were better than their record. The thought was to play a tough non-conference and we would be battle tested heading into conference play.

It now looks like the plan is working. Since beginning conference play with a tough 3-2 loss to High Point, the Eagles have reeled off five straight wins and it’s not like Winthrop has played the bottom of the conference. The last three wins are against Liberty (winners of three of the last four BSC championships), Coastal Carolina (defending tournament champ and preseason top pick), and UNC Asheville (defending regular season champ). The really impressive part is the Eagles have only lost two sets in the last five matches. That is 15-2 people.

The Eagles are proving to be the most balanced team offensively in the league. Every team has a great outside hitter; some teams have two great outside hitters. But no one has the middles that Winthrop has. Becca Toor and Sara Felts have been dominating people. If you think about attack percentages the same way you think about batting averages in baseball (.300 being where you want to be, and .400 being a super star) Becca Toor in her last three matches is hitting .408, Sara Felts is hitting .281, combined they are hitting .346. That is against three of the top four teams in the conference.


A couple of people who are not getting headlines but are improving as the season goes along. Libero Kelsey Harrison (libero’s never get headlines) set a school record with 31 digs against Asheville on Oct. 6. Carolyn Weed set a new career-high with 15 kills and hit .324 in that same match. Weed is settling in as the second outside hitter and can really be a factor if she can average around 10 kills a match. Stephanie Palmer did a nice job of filling in at setter against Asheville and has also proven to be a factor on the right side when she is not setting.

It is still too early to hand the Eagles the trophy but right not the ladies are playing as well as anyone in the league. They have two more matches against Presbyterian and Gardner-Webb this weekend to close out the first trip around the league. The second trip around the league will be tough with High Point, Coastal, and Asheville all on the road but they are playing well now and hopefully will continue through the rest of the year.

Women's Soccer

It’s that time of the year again everyone! The Winthrop women’s soccer has begun its eighth overall season as a program with a new coach in Spencer Smith, who had spent the last 15 seasons at the helm of the Radford men’s soccer team. The 2010 season is currently eight games old, and the Eagles have posted a record of 0-7-1. Winthrop participated in two exhibition contests, on the road at Wofford and at home against The Citadel, before opening the regular season against Marshall in the 2010 Winthrop Invitational. The season was supposed to begin at Georgia Southern, but weather prevented that from happening. The Eagles kicked off the season with a 2-2 draw against the Thundering Herd before falling in the invitational finale to Appalachian State 2-1. Winthrop then dropped three more games on the road against Jacksonville, and Miami (OH) and East Tennessee State in the ETSU Soccer Invitational. Following the three straight losses on the road, the Eagles have lost to Georgia State (2-1 in double-overtime), Davidson (2-0) and South Carolina State (2-1 in overtime).

Despite opening their season without a win thus far, I can see improvement with the squad even though the results don’t show it. The team lost only two starts from last season and one part-time player. One of those players will be difficult to replace in Stevie Lucas because she was such a great defender and was always in the right position to prevent the opponent a scoring opportunity. Other than that, all of the players who earned valuable playing time in 2009 return with another year of experience under their belt.

Heading into the conference opening weekend, senior forward Tricia Vensel leads Winthrop in four offensive categories: goals, points, shots and shots on-goal. Vensel has continued from where she left off last season after earning Second Team All-Big South honors. She gives the Eagles a good offensive weapon, especially with the speed that she brings to the table. Sophomore midfielder Allie VandeWater currently has a team-high three assists on the season and recently picked up her first goal of the season against the Bulldogs on Sept. 29. VandeWater is one of the better ball-handlers on the squad and adds to that her crisp passing ability. The goalkeeper position has been split so far this season between redshirt-junior Kelsy Weavil and sophomore Sarah Schippers. Both players have started in four games each, while Schippers has allowed seven goals and grabbed 23 saves to lead those two categories.

With the Big South opener set for Saturday night, we’re going to take a look at every team in the conference and show how they shape up this season. One of the goals for each team is to make it to the Big South Tournament as only eight of the ten teams will make it to the postseason. The one thing I learned from the conference tournament last season is that anything can happen. For the first time in tournament history, the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds met in the championship match as the Eagles faced High Point. Another interesting point is that none of the higher seeds won a match heading in the final game. So as we enter the second season as some people like to call it, let’s examine the other nine teams in the Big South Conference. We will discuss each team in the order that they were predicted in the Big South Women’s Soccer Preseason Poll.

Liberty
The Flames are a dangerous team in 2010, which shows as they captured the Big South Regular Season title last year. Liberty entered the conference tournament as the top seed, but fell to Winthrop in penalty kicks. Liberty boasts perhaps two of the top players in the conference in Maria Owen and Silvia Betancourt. Owen is one of the top players in the conference, but Betancourt is probably just as good. I had a chance to see them play during the Winthrop Invitational several weeks ago and came away impressed with the team. Liberty’s offense was very organized and knew exactly where it wanted to go with the ball, while the defense never allowed many scoring chances for the opposing team. The one question that possibly lies with the Flames is do they have a senior leader on the squad? While it’s always important to have an upperclassman provide leadership, Liberty does have everyone back which allows it to retain that team chemistry from last season.

Charleston Southern
The Buccaneers have a player in who I believe, and probably a good number of people, is the top player in the conference in Marky Boyce. You could also consider Boyce as one of the best in the country as TopDrawerSoccer.com has her listed as the 89th best player in the nation. To go along with Boyce, Charleston Southern brought in a great recruiting class for this season and will add them to a team that returns a lot of players from 2009. The parts are in place for the Buccaneers to make 2010 their year in the Big South Conference.

Coastal Carolina
Along with Winthrop, the Chanticleers are one of three teams in the conference to bring in a new head coach. Tammy DeCesare comes to the Coastal Carolina women’s soccer program after spending the last five seasons as head coach at Western Carolina University. The Chanticleers are a new team this year with DeCesare at the helm as she was a very successful coach with the Catamounts. She will bring that same mentality to Coastal Carolina. The team lost a lot of players from last season, but DeCesare was hired earlier enough that she hit the recruiting trail and had plenty of time to bring in a solid recruiting class. DeCesare was able to do that by signing a number of good players.

High Point
The Panthers are the defending Big South Conference Tournament champions after defeating the Eagles in penalty kicks last season. High Point would fall to North Carolina 1-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but it made a mark in the first year of the Marty Beall campaign. Beall came to the Panthers last year after spending 10 seasons at Francis Marion. High Point brings back a bulk of its roster from 2009 and will add to that will several good recruits. They play a tough schedule in non-conference, but will help them when conference play begins. The tough non-conference schedule has always paid off for the Panthers as they defeated the Clemson Tigers 4-3 on Sept. 12.

Radford
The Highlanders brought in probably one of the best recruiting classes in the Big South for this season. Radford currently holds a 6-4 overall record heading into conference play at UNC Asheville this weekend. The program is under the watch of head coach Ben Sohrabi who is in his 15th year with the Highlanders. Radford is a program, like many others in the conference, which brought in a number of great recruits which should benefit the team as it heads throughout the season. They also return the reigning Big South Freshman of the Year in Mary Wiley. The Highlanders are a very well-organized team both offensively and defensively, and it shows as they have scored 20 goals so far this season and have given up only six. The organization of the team is a credit to Sohrabi, as Radford has always been that type of team during his tenure.

Gardner-Webb
Winthrop will open its conference schedule Saturday with the Runnin’ Bulldogs, and it should be an evenly-matched contest as both teams were picked sixth and seventh, respectively, in the preseason poll. Gardner-Webb is another solid conference squad and returns a number of players from last season for head coach Kevin Mounce. Those returning players should blend nicely with several good recruits that Mounce brought in this off-season and will make them an organized unit. The Eagles are opening conference play against the Runnin’ Bulldogs for the second straight season as they fell in Boiling Springs, NC 2-0 last year.

VMI
The Keydets are an interesting team to figure out this season. VMI is looking to replace Chrissy Beach in 2010 after she led the team with five goals and 15 points last year. Some considered Beach to be one of the better players in the conference during the 2009 season. The program is under the helm of Bryan Williams, who is beginning his sixth year as head coach. The Keydets are a competitive squad with a bunch of returning players from last year, when their season ended at the hands of Winthrop in penalty kicks at the Big South Tournament. The main question for VMI this season is who will be its leader?

UNC Asheville
Perhaps the team in the Big South that has the most questions heading into the season were the Bulldogs. Who really knows what to expect from this team? The question is still out there on UNC Asheville. The Bulldogs are the other team in the Big South who will be harboring in a new head coach as Michelle Demko comes to the program after spending the last three seasons as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Nebraska. She replaces long-time coach Michelle Cornish, who is the Big South and UNC Asheville all-time leader in victories. The Bulldogs lost their goalkeeper from last season Veronica Lazar. Lazar was a solid goalie for UNC Asheville throughout her career, and kept them in numerous contests in 2009. They do return several players from last season’s 5-10-1 squad, and it will be interesting to see how the team fits in to the new system that Demko has installed.

Presbyterian
The Blue Hose are still in the transition phase of becoming a Division I school, so they will not be eligible to make the Big South Tournament this season. They are gearing up for conference play by scheduling a tough non-conference schedule, which a number of teams around the country do. It benefits the program that they have a veteran coach to lead the program through this transitional phase. Presbyterian is coached by Brian Purcell, who is currently in his 21st season with the Blue Hose. He has been with the program since its inception during the 1989 season. Purcell has been able to build solid teams over the years, and he should have another one this season as Presbyterian will be a good team with a toughness mentality attached to it.