UNC-Chapel Hill’s four-goal drubbing in the quarter-finals of the ACC Tournament finally brought down the curtain to the soccer season at N.C. State in what has been a sub-par performance by the men’s and women’s teams.
The men’s team have had a mixed season, finishing with seven wins, three fewer than during the reign of George Tarantini last year. Coach Kelly Findley from Butler, ranked as high as No. 5 last year and one of the two teams in the nation that went undefeated in regular season, was brought in to rejuvenate the team. However, judging him based on his team’s performance in his first year at N.C. State would be far from fair. Patience is a word that all of Findley’s critics should learn and bestow upon him the same way they did with Tarantini, who coached the Pack for 24 years and guided the team to nine NCAA tournament appearances, including three in the last seven years.
Findley has to be applauded for a fearless attitude that has seen him bring in nine first-year players in the starting line-up. What his teams have lacked in experience, they have made up for in energy and enthusiasm. This is obviously a long-term strategy of having the players grow from strength to strength and season after season, finally being in a position where they can challenge for top honors.
Saying all that, Findley’s tenure as coach has, thus far, been far from pretty as his teams have failed to finish off games and take advantages after being in positions where they could have learned something from the game. Also the over-dependence of the team on sophomore midfielder Nazmi Albadawi, who finished the regular season as the third-highest scorer in the ACC, has been more bad than good as the team has failed to shine whenever the redshirt freshman has had an off day.
Albadawi, who snatched game winners against Virginia Tech in both the regular season and the ACC tournment, and who was named ACC player of the week in October, has been nothing short of a revelation. Scoring nine goals and three assists, Albadawi has emerged as one of the brightest prospects the team has seen in a long while. As even a layman would know, though, soccer is a team sport and a single player can only do so much. Statistics reveal that freshman forward Zabarle Kollie, the second highest goal scorer on the team, barely scored two goals, both in the 2-1 win over Boston College.
Such numbers indicate the lack of depth in the team, which is something Findley definitely needs to look into. A 7-11-2 season may not be what every Wolfpack fan expects. Still, few would take heart from the fact that Findley had an identical record in his first season at Butler but started a trend that saw the team finish once in second position and win the Horizon League twice, along with making two trips to the NCAA Tournament in the ensuing four years.
The women’s soccer team, which had its best season in its three years under coach Steve Springthorpe and finished in the top 45 in the country, has many thinking next year will see the team finally competing for top honors in the ACC.
But, as statistics reveal, maybe not. The team, despite winning 10 games, failed to beat a single team that was ranked above them, with most of its wins coming against smaller teams ranked in-between mid- and late-hundreds.
An important statistic to note would be the team being No.1 in the ACC in saves made and last in goals scored. The latter clearly implies a lack of poise in front of the goal by the forwards. Considering the team averaged 8.9 shots per game, being crowned the leader in saves is not something to be celebrated. What it means that the goalkeeper, senior Kim Kern, has been required to do more than what other players in similar positions in other teams have had to do, clearly implying the sorry state of the defense.
While on paper it has certainly been a big improvement from the seven-win season from last year, Springthorpe doesn’t enjoy the same luxury that Findley does. Three years is a good time to shape and build a team; with the team losing six seniors, next year may just be do or die. The seniors include Kern, defender Alex Berger and forward Tanya Cain, who have again been the star performers for the team this year. However, the emergence of freshman forward Stephanie Bronson, who led the team in points this season, has been one of the few bright spots, and Springthorpe will be looking to build the team around her to push the program in the right direction.
