The soccer team is being transformed inside and out. After head coach Roberto Mazza to control of the program in January, the team began mending from its zero wins and 22 losses combined in conference play from the past two seasons. They are starting with the mind.
“We are just trying to get the girls to think the game out quicker,” said Mazza, who is in his first semester as head coach of women’s soccer. “We want to get their thought process better.”
This spring season, the main point Mazza has been stressing to his team is that when you think better, you play better.
“We have improved a lot on our speed of play and our thought process,” junior Alyssa Lopez said. “[Mazza’s] done a good job teaching us when to think, when to know where to play it and to think quicker on our feet, which is beneficial.”
Mazza organizes drills for the team to work on ball control and ball-eye coordination.
“’You can be a good player: fast, strong, have good ball work,” Mazza said. “But, at the end of the day, it’s all about executing at a different pace.”
It’s a learning curve for the team to adjust to Mazza’s new style, but it is responding well.
The team competed in a pair of seven versus seven tournaments in March and had positive results.
“This has definitely been different than last spring,” junior Kylie McIntyre said. “We’ve done a lot more conditioning, running. I see improvement in the things our coaches are doing and we are doing.”
The team will host Northwestern State on April 20 at the ULM Soccer Complex, concluding its spring season.
It will be an 11 versus 11 match, so the team will get a good gauge on where it stands moving towards the fall season.
“That game is going to tell us a lot,” Mazza said. “It will put the icing on the cake to help see where everybody is at.”
The players are confident.
Lopez added, “We’re going to beat them without a doubt.”