1. Looking at your roster, you have two freshmen forwards. How would you describe their performance so far? Jenna Fodor and Megan Woods have been awesome...We rotate about six different girls up front and all of them, including the freshmen are doing great. They both are very quick, are natural goal-scorers and make immediate impacts every time they enter the game!
2. You guys have an incredible non-conference record. What has been the secret to your success?
In all honesty, we try not to differentiate between non-conference and conference games. We approach every game with the same mentality and that is that this game is an NCAA Tournament game. When you consider the strength of our conference, we realize that to win the WCC is pretty much equivalent to winning a National Championship. Therefore, although it is our goal to win the WCC every year, if we don't we must give the NCAA selection committee good enough reason to put us in the tourney as an at large team. Therefore, we place a huge emphasis on every game as we know that is what the selection committee is looking at...
3. What does it feel like to know you turned the Pepperdine women's soccer program into a national power?
It really is not an "I" thing when it comes to turning the program around...It is more of a "we" mentality...We have turned the program into a legitimate contender by taking a look at what we can do collectively...from my assistant coaches, to our trainer, to our players whether they are starters, subs or training players..we have decided that every player/person has a different yet uniquely important role on this squad...And only by embracing that role, can the program represent the University to the best of it's ability. Therefore, I think that "we" have done a good job to sticking to our principles and in doing so, the results have naturally followed!:)
4. Who do you think is going to give you the most problems from here on out?
I think for any program the key is to keep your squad from getting complacent, bored, tired, unimaginative, etc....Keeping people healthy, enjoying each day, holding each other accountable in training, those are going to be our biggest challenges. So we try to keep training focused, short and sometimes very light hearted. Because let's be honest, win or lose, at the end of the day, it is just a game and the players need to enjoy it!
5. Who has been the early season team MVP so far?
I couldn't pick an early season MVP because are play and our team is so balanced...All of our forwards are scoring, all of our midfielders are doing "the business" and we have rotated about six different defenders as well as our two keepers. A colleague said it was tough to scout us because no one really stood out...I take that as a huge compliment as we stress teamwork and we have a bunch of what we like to call "game breakers"...ie..girls that at any moment can break a game wide open with something special and magical. Having said all that, if I were to recognize a group, it would be our seniors as I think a team goes as its seniors go. Without good senior leadership, a team will never reach its potential...And let's just say our seniors are incredibly hungry this year:)
6. Playing in a conference with two top ten nationally ranked teams, do you feel Pepperdine gets overshadowed?
No...I don't feel we are overshadowed at all. Portland and Santa Clara have paid huge dues to be where they are at and until someone in our conference can have the kind of success they have had and have it on a regular basis, they deserve to be the flagships of our conference. We don't mind being the "underdog" and we don't mind being a "ranked" team with a target on our collective backs. We just really enjoy challenges and the next challenge for us is to excel in the WCC and not only make the NCAA's, but go as far as possible into the tourney.