Vernon Croft has the University of Akron women’s soccer program aiming for new heights. It is truly a program on the rise…..
1. Could you talk about some key returning players that are expected to be a major part of the squad?
Kelly DeNiro had the opportunity to play on a high-level club this summer, which was a fantastic opportunity for her prior to her senior year. She has really grown in the last year with her mentality and recognizing different ways of playing into the final third as opposed to the straight vertical attempt. We loo0k forward to her being the key catalyst to us through the midfield and for her to have a year where she can be recognized within the MAC. Brianna Kanz moved around a bit for us last year to help fill some holes, but this year will look to play in a more defensive role centrally and really help organize the young players around her while also helping us create better transition shape. Katie George had a freshmen year that was hampered by some nagging chronic injuries, but has come into camp this year basically injury-free and had a good preseason. She is going to be a big help in keeping our backs and goalkeeper organized, especially since we are very young in goal.
2. What newcomers could be expected to be contributors this season?
Knowing that we were going to struggle in the attack we were able to get out and find some attack-minded players who we felt could contribute straight away and thus far they have not disappointed. Transfer Lani Smith is one we will really try to play through in the final third as I believe she is going to draw some attention and thus allow some of our other attackers to also find some success. Local freshmen Sarah Sivic is expected to be a versatile attacker for us via the front three, but she is also capable of dropping down into an attacking midfield role too. We suspect that Karin Norman from Stockholm will be a late bloomer as she gets herself accustomed to the tradition from the games in Europe versus the games here in the States.
3. What are your goals and expectations for this season at Akron? What needs to happen for the season to be a success in your mind?
The goals and expectations for us every year is to put ourselves in a position to be successful in the postseason. I think more so this year because we failed in making postseason play last year. We changed the mentality here last season and we look forward to really getting in and coaching theses players to allow them to find more success on and off the ball as opposed to just grinding games out. If we can get to the last two weeks of the MAC season and be in a good position we have all the belief that postseason success can happen this year. For us to be successful this year the biggest thing that needs to happen is for us to stay injury-free. We are deeper than last year, but still not deep enough and especially in some key positions. I know everyone says they need to stay injury-free, but for us it really could not be more of the truth.
4. What matchups stand out as key games on your schedule? How competitive do you expect your conference to be?
For us every MAC game is a key game on our schedule, especially since all but one of our MAC losses were one-goal losses. We turn half of those around and then all of a sudden we are looking at a potential MAC East title. So we first look at our side of the MAC and what we can do to flip those games around, then we start to look at positioning within the postseason tournament. I suspect the conference will be even more competitive than last year with half of the conference programs having new coaches within the past year and a half. There is a lot of new energetic blood with high expectations and competitiveness. We got two teams in the NCAA tournament last season and there is no reason why we shouldn’t do that this year.
5. How big is the Akron-Kent State rivalry? What do you expect from them this year?
Having only been a part of it for one game, but hearing quite a bit about it, the experience I had was second to none in any rivalry I have been a part of wherever I have been. The atmosphere from the fans and the focus and mentality of our players last season against Kent State really showed the level that this rivalry possesses. I look forward to this year very much as I think everyone of us saw a game last year that could have gone either way as a penalty with :53 seconds left in regulation deflated a young team. An older, more experienced team this year is looking forward to the chance to maybe take one from Kent State on their field, like they did to us last season.
6. How would you describe the team’s playing style?
I think our alumni said it best the other day when they talked about how well we passed and possessed the ball. We are not a direct team, but a team that will keep it and look for opportunities to play forward to feet. We did a great job of that last year, but we tended to not go anywhere with it. We hope this year to be able to coach our players to recognize more quickly the chances to go forward to expose teams quicker.
7. A final thought from Coach Croft…..
We have a senior group that is much deeper than last year with a more competitive mentality that we look to them as the group that will continue to grow the culture here and begin to hold the younger players accountable for actions and levels of competitiveness. After last year everyone was extremely disappointed in the final result of not getting into the MAC tournament, but we all were pleased with the soccer growth. This year is going to be an interesting year as we have brought in a number of young attack-minded players, a higher level of expectations from the staff and the players themselves, and the desire of a MAC tournament bid first and then the first win in the program’s history in the MAC tournament. High, lofty goals and expectations…yes, but with the leadership of this group of seniors, out of the question…no.
