USF Women's Soccer Takes on FGCU in the First Exhibition Game of 2012

For Green and Gold we stand united!

Soccer is back, well at least in exhibition form!  The 2012 USF women's soccer season begins this afternoon with an exhibition match against Florida Gulf Coast University at 1PM today at Corbett Stadium.

The Bulls played FGCU last season in another exhibition match where they led 1 to 0 before the game was called due to bad weather.  FGCU is the defending Atlantic Sun champions, coming off of a 14-5-2 (7-1-1) season.  Both sides will be looking to answer questions at certain positions as the season begins, but let's see who the top players are for the Falcons and what the Bulls will be working on in this first game.

The first question the Falcons, like the Bulls, will be facing this season is finding a new goalkeeper for the season.  Last year, FGCU was anchored by Stephanie Powers who allowed just 17 goals all season (.78 a game) and made 82 saves.  With her gone, the team will be looking at sophomore Danielle Leroy (5-5) who is a Tampa native, freshman Emily Dolan (5-8), and fellow freshman Brittany Brown (5-9) to take over the job.  With a few green goalkeepers, this will give the USF offense a chance to get on the same page early.  Stars such as Demi Stokes, Kayla Bala, Sharla Passariello, and Taylor Patterson will be able to get some good looks at the net early before the season starts.  It will also be a great chance for the younger players to get a chance to rotate in and get their first minutes as a Bull as well.

On the flip side, the Bulls will be working to sure up their back defensive line with star Molly Stack and others gone.  However, the biggest question the Bulls will be answering and using this exhibition game to help is the goalkeeper position.  Like FGCU, the Bulls lost their key starter from last season in Nicole McClure, and have several names to consider in net.  Summer Ikeda is the most experienced player, but Hannah Jasurda has also played in some games before.  Incoming freshman Sydney Drinkwater is another name to watch, but the position is wide open and the Falcons will be on the attack early and often. FGCU lost top scorers Gina Ptracco (8 goals from last season) and Olivia Elias (6 goals) but return a solid corps of players. Senior defender Ashley Ciesielczyk (5-6) recorded 3 goals and 12 assists last season, so look for her to be the center of the offense.  Sophomore Melisa Arnold (5-7) scored 4 goals and added 3 assists last season.  Sophomore forward Shannen Wacker (5-6) had 3 goals and 4 assists along with Kayley Clay (5-6) who added 3 goals and 1 assist, the Bulls backline and new goalkeeper will have  a lot of early challenges in this first exhibiton, but they will help season the team for the regular season.

This will be a real good first test for the Bulls as they sort out the rotation of players, goalkeeper and see what the incoming freshman class can do.  After this game, the Bulls will have one more exhibition match against Jacksonville on Friday, August 10th at 6:30PM at Corbett Stadium.