By Matthew Odle
The BYU women''s soccer team overcame adversity during the 2007 season to win the Mountain West Conference tournament and hopes to improve upon that success in years to come.
The season started out promising, with the team going undefeated in non-conference play. But things took a bad turn when the Cougars dropped two games in a row, the first to in-state rival Utah and the other to San Diego State.
BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said those two games were the low point of the season because they emphasized the team''s inability to score. But she said she was pleased with the performance of players like junior forward Katie Larkin during that rough period.
'As we struggled to score some goals, Katie really took the team on her back and got some key wins for us,' Rockwood said.
Larkin was a big part of the Cougars'' offense all year. She scored 15 goals on the season, more than half of the goals for the entire team.
As the season progressed, Rockwood said teams started to focus on stopping Larkin. This spawned a change in offensive strategy for the Cougars, allowing others more opportunities to score. Rockwood said she was impressed by freshman forward Kassidy Christensen and junior forward Katie Fellows, who both came on strong to end the season.
'I''m not ashamed to say that Kassidy should have been voted freshman conference player of the year for her performance, especially down the stretch,' Rockwood said.
Christensen accounted for seven of the Cougars'' 29 goals, four of which came in the final four games of the regular season. She was the second-leading goal scorer behind Larkin.
Fellows said she had a very disappointing beginning to the season and was relieved to end so strong.
'Coming into fall I expected to score a lot, having scored 11 goals during the short spring season,' she said. 'But then I went the first 12 games and didn''t score a goal, which was really discouraging.'
Fellows finished the season strong, scoring four goals in the last part of the season. Two goals came in the MWC tournament championship game to give BYU the tournament trophy. Those scores also helped her earn a trophy of her own. Fellows was named MWC tournament MVP.
Fellows said she attributes much of the team''s success to the chemistry the team had. She said everyone pulled for one another to do well and really put the team before themselves.
She said much of this attitude on the team came from great leadership from the seniors, especially senior team captain Jessica Aquino-Greenfield.
Aquino-Greenfield said that when she was a younger player she remembered there was a division between the seniors and the underclassmen. As a senior she said she wanted everyone to feel like they were of equal importance to the team. She said she didn''t mind stepping aside while a younger player got the start.
'Most of my career I have been in and out of starting,' Aquino-Greenfield said. 'Not starting some games during my senior didn''t bother me at all, and I think that attitude helped the younger players.'
The Cougars get a short break until January when they will meet without the coaches to lift weights and do drills. In February the coaches will be able to again work with the team and prepare for the spring exhibition season. The spring season will end with the team traveling to France and Italy where the Cougars will have the opportunity to work with those countries'' national teams.
Rockwood said with the experience and success many of her younger players have had, combined with the strength of the incoming freshman class, she expects even more success in years to come. Specifically, she said she hopes to take the team much further in the NCAA tournament.
'I''ve never been so excited to get back out there to compete,' she said. 'I know what we have coming back and what we have joining the team and we have everything to look forward to.'