Every team strives to have team togetherness, but it rings much more true for the soccer team, as it knows it will need it due it its upcoming schedule.
The women’s soccer team has started the season with a 4-2 record, with all of the games being played at home. But in order for State to continue its winning ways, it will need to show that they have synergy on the field.
While many teams show teamwork in a number of ways, the Pack decided that during the second game against Coastal Carolina, following a loss, it would write the number of another player on their arm. While this may not be a tattoo, it certainly is special to the players.
“When we write other players numbers on our arm, it shows that we are playing for them, not ourselves,” sophomore midfielder Kara Blosser said. “When you see your teammates’ number on your arm, you realize that as a team we have to play for each other.”
The team will need to play as a team when it begins to go on the road, because the first six games on the Pack’s schedule were all played at home. State will play East Carolina University on Friday in Greenville.
While playing as a team, Blosser has found a way to also stand out. She was named the No. 87 upperclassman to watch in the nation by topdrawersoccer.com for her outstanding play this season. But she is not focused on herself, rather the upcoming match against the Pirates.
“ECU is a huge match for us, and we know we have to be ready for them,” Blosser said.
But for Blosser and the team, the numbers aren’t their just as a visual statement, she believes that it helps give her that little extra burst of energy when she is starting to wear down.
“Looking down and seeing your teammates’ number on your arms keeps you going,” Blosser said. “If you feel tired, it helps you think of your teammates and what they may be going through.”
Senior midfielder Nadia Aboulhosn is another player who knows all about what it takes to play as a team. She has started in 47 games going into this upcoming weekend and has seen what teamwork can do for the Pack’s young team. She had a great individual game over the weekend, scoring 3 goals on Sunday against Loyola University, but she says that it could not have been accomplished without her teammates.
“I couldn’t have done what I did without everybody else around me,” Aboulhosn said. “Everybody set me up perfectly for all of my goals; it was really a team effort. It’s great that everybody is really contributing this year. Our intensity in games this year is a lot higher than before, but we need to keep working and not settle and keep going.”
The Pack has eleven total goal scorers on the season to this point, and outscored their opponents 22-4 over the six game homestand. But while it has enjoyed success at home, State needs to find ways to win on the road, where it had a record of 2-5-1 last season.
“We’re doing things better, and we are certainly more aggressive than we were in the past, and everyone is contributing,” coach Steve Springthorpe said. “The goal scoring is being spread out to many people, and it is a great thing to have many different goal scorers going into games.”
While going on the road for many of the seniors may be second nature, the freshmen for the Pack have not had the chance to play at another team’s stadium yet. Thus, the 11 freshmen on the team will have to make an adjustment playing in an atmosphere they are not familiar with.
“That’s the bad part about playing your first six games at home,” Springthorpe said. “Now you have to go on the road and you haven’t experienced that before. We have a lot of freshmen, and we’ll see how we handle it. It’ll be something new and different for a lot of the players on our team.”
