With 6 games remaining in the regular season, the Womens Soccer division at Adelphi University is determined to get back to the Northeast-10 Championship Finals and fight for an NCAA spot.
Last season, Adelphi’s Lady Panthers finished the season with an overall record of 14-3-4. Nine of those wins were in conference play. After finishing as runner ups in the NE-10 tournament and bowing out in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Saint Rose, Adelphi looks to build on last year’s run and push even further this year.
So far this season, the Lady Panthers from Garden City, Long Island are 7-3-1 overall and 4-3-1 in conference matchups. The team remains largely intact and features a plethora of familiar faces from last year’s squad guided by fourth year coach Chris Armas. The team is led by sophomore forward/midfielder Victoria Antonio and junior forward Olivia Czavar up front, with senior goalkeeper Sam Whitney in the net. Czavar and Antonio led the team last season with 21 points and finished first and second in goals scored respectively. Antonio has nine points and four goals this year. Her goals are second behind the team leader, sophomore forward Laura Gomez, who leads the Panthers with five goals and 12 points. Czavar has three goals and six points so far this year as these three lead the attack up front.
In the net, Whitney continues to be a rock and gives the team a chance to win every game. Last season, she started in all 21 games and logged in a whopping 1950:16 minutes played while posting an impressive 0.74 goals against average with 97 saves and six shutouts! Expect this season to be the same with Whitney. She played in all 11 games with 956:17 of playing time; four of those matches were shutouts. Whitney only allowed six goals with a microscopic 0.56 goals against average and blocked 34 shots, which is good for a .850 save percentage. “I believe our roster is very deep and we are waiting to see who grabs the opportunities given to make differences in games” said Coach Armas.
Despite the Panthers dropping their last three games before winning on Saturday 4-0 against Bentley, Armas is confident in the team’s ability to play at a high level. However, to continue their winning ways, they need to get the job done. “In the end, we need to be cleaner around the goal and take our chances better” stated Armas. “We are creating scoring opportunities but need to finish them. We also need to defend better on the few chances we are giving up.” At this point in the season, the Panthers have outscored their opponents by a 29-6 margin and outshot the opposition by a staggering 181-83 edge.
One area of the game the Panthers excel at this season is moving and driving the ball up the field and playing with a stellar backend in front of Whitney, who keeps the games close. “We are moving the ball well and we generally have given ourselves chances to win every game” said Armas. “In order to go far though, we need to improve the quality of everything we are doing such as passing, shooting, defending, and communicating.”
If the Panthers stick to what has made them successful in the past and continue to build on the team’s strength, they will be competing for a NE-10 Conference Championship once again, and possibly earning another spot in the NCAA tournament. “We have much work to do but I feel we have the pieces in place to achieve our goals” said Armas.
The Adelphi Lady Panthers will head to Connecticut on Wednesday to take on the University of New Haven for their next game. The team’s next home game at Motamed Field in Garden City will be next Saturday October 18th against Saint Anselm College at 3pm. To follow Adelphi University Women’s Soccer and all Panther Athletics, log on to www.aupanthers.com
