EWING – Set intermittent goals.
Keep expectations high.
That mantra seems to be how The College of New Jersey women’s soccer team has set itself up for success.
The Lions have roared out of the gate in their 2017 season with six-straight wins. They’ve played 543 minutes and 45 seconds of soccer this season, and perhaps the most impressive statistic isn’t their 6-0 record.
It’s that they’ve yet to allow a goal.
Continuing the shutout streak is one of the goals that TCNJ goalkeeper Nicole DiPasquale has established for herself.
“My goals are obviously not to let in a goal,” said Dipasquale, “Keep the shutout streak going as long as possible.”
Not letting any opponent score is an aspiration that any goalkeeper would love to achieve—one that would decidedly assist a team towards a winning season. So far over those six games, DiPasquale has needed to save just 11 shots on goal, another credit to the Lions’ defense.
While setting her goals high, DiPasquale sees the bigger picture in what her team altogether aspires to make happen this season.
“Team goals are definitely to win at NJAC and get far in the NCAA Tournament,’ said DiPasquale.
Winning the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) is something the Lions players are hungry for and then some. Though TCNJ women’s soccer last won the NJAC in 2013, this season’s team is aiming to win both its conference and to have further success in the NCAA national tournament.
Members of the coaching staff similarly set these challenging goals in place, placing their expectations high for the team they believe in.
“It’ll be nice to win the NJAC, but out biggest goals are the NCAA’s and going further,” said Katie Lindacher one of the assistant coaches to Joe Russo, head coach for the Lions.
Yet goals and expectations are nothing without hours of hard work, training and sweat that these players put into becoming the best athletes they possibly can be.
With physically giving their all from practices, to preseason and most importantly games, the Lions prioritize staying healthy and injury free throughout the season.
“We track our hydration level, how much we slept, if we are sore and where we are sore,” said DiPasquale. “Also our heart rate monitors, so we can make sure we aren’t over working ourselves.”
The coaches for the Lions use the heart rate monitors as a tool during practice and games to target the heart rate zones of the players, according to Lindacher. This indicator tells the coaches when their players are working themselves too hard and are in need of rest.
Keeping on track of their team health is a critical step among others to ensure the possibility for the TCNJ’s women’s soccer team to achieve the goals they have set in place. From taking the right precautions to maintain a healthy team, while putting in the time and hard work from the start of preseason, this season’s team is confident.
The TCNJ women’s soccer players are both confident in themselves, as individual players, as well as the team in striving for success this season. This confidence is apparent in the hot start to the season.
“I think we were pretty confident,” said DiPasquale referencing the team’s outlook this season. “We had captain’s practices in the summer and we were looking good and our preseason was good, too.”
Lindacher concurrently felt confident about entering this season. A feeling she recalls from being a former Lions’ player herself.
“Just from our history and our past we’ve always been a strong team so we always have high expectations for ourselves,” said Lindacher. “So it just about holding ourselves accountable to keep those expectations. We just got to keep on rolling, one game at a time and got to take care of business.”
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