NCAA Loss Motivation For Worcester State Soccer Team
By Jen Toland, College Beat Writer
October 19, 2011
The end of the 2010 season was bittersweet for the Worcester State women's soccer team.
The Lancers won the MASCAC Tournament championship and advanced to the NCAAs for the fifth time — a terrific accomplishment — but WSU players and coaches left the field after a 1-0 first-round NCAA loss to Eastern Connecticut State believing it was a game they could have and should have won.
"We took a lot of things from last year," fourth-year Worcester State coach Kevin Cumberbatch said, "but we all felt like we came up a little bit short. I think it was motivation for this year's team."
The Lancers started this season 0-2-1, but have since won 10 of their last 11 and seem primed for a run at another conference title. WSU, ranked ninth in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America regional poll, has three regular-season games remaining, including an Oct. 29 showdown at Fitchburg State that could determine the regular-season champion.
"The first couple of games really hit home," senior back and two-year captain Nikki Scott of Berlin said. "We thought we had a lot of potential, and we weren't able to finish opportunities, and it really got to us. Then we started finishing some goals. We had a good offensive attack, we were getting out wide on the wings, we were playing solid defensively. It got our confidence up, and our team chemistry is great."
WSU returned its starting back four and is one of the top defensive teams in the MASCAC. The Lancers rank second to Fitchburg State in goals against average (0.84) and goals allowed (12).
Senior goalkeeper Angieszaka Sychtysz of Warren posted four straight shutouts during a six-game winning streak earlier this season.
"Our defense does such a great job of communicating with each other, I almost don't have to say anything to them at all," Sychtysz said. "We're all just working really well together. We started slow, but now we're into the right groove and right momentum."
Last year, Sychtysz battled through a serious elbow injury — suffered while diving for a ball during the preseason — and came up big for her team in the postseason. She made six saves in a MASCAC semifinal win over Westfield and shut out Bridgewater in the title game. She played admirably against Eastern Connecticut, making six saves and allowing the only goal, inside the bottom left post, in the 66th minute.
Sychtysz, who allowed six goals in WSU's first three games this season, believes the turning point for her team came in a 2-2 tie with nationally ranked Wheaton. The Lancers roared back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the 83rd minute — Alyssa Sawyer and Brianne Beckman scored 29 seconds apart — and the 2-2 draw seemed to jump-start the season.
"We showed so much heart," Sychtysz said. "That game showed us, 'Wow. We can do this.' "
Senior forward Danielle Clifford (5-3-13) and Beckman (4-5-13) lead the Lancers in scoring, but WSU's offensive attack has been balanced — 14 players have scored goals. "It makes it hard to defend against us," Cumberbatch said.
Cumberbatch was an assistant on the WSU staff when the Lancers advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2007.