With the Eckerd Tritons Women's Soccer season coming to an end, they are hoping to gain one last win this week as they face their final opponent, Palm Beach Atlantic (4-8). The last two games were a bit of a disappointment for the Tritons, as they fell to Lynn with a score of 0-5 and Florida Tech with a score of 0-8.
Looking back on the game against Florida Tech, the Tritons held a strong defensive stance in the first half, as they held the score at 1-0. However they were not able to carry that success over into the second half, as the Panthers scored seven second half goals to win 8-0. Not only did the Tritons encounter a devastating loss, but they have also had their share of bad luck in the past few weeks. A few of their key players have sustained multiple injuries or sicknesses, which can certainly cause problems in the outcome of the games. Prior to the game against Florida Tech, one of their goalkeepers had to leave the game after getting accidentally kicked in the head. During the Florida Tech game, the Tritons lost another goalkeeper to an ACL injury. The Tritons also lost one of their midfielders earlier in the season due to an ACL. Also during the Florida Tech game, another goalkeeper suffered a mild concussion. All of these injuries have certainly caused many problems for the team, yet Coach Joe McCauley continues to fully support them with the effort and confidence they still are able to maintain.
“Basically at this point in the year with the injuries and the sicknesses, we are sort of physically beaten down a bit and that just all kind of came to a head, and I think the players play very hard, and that's the one thing that I continue to be proud of with their efforts, they work so hard and its just difficult to sustain a whole season of that.”
McCauley and his team are trying not to let the loss of this game affect the upcoming competition this week. However with the loss of key players, it might be hard for them to do so. In earlier seasons, the Tritons have beaten Palm Beach Atlantic and vice versa. McCauley has had to prepare a little differently for this game due to the amount of players out. By shifting a few players around, he believes that there is a definite chance that they can gain a win.
“I think its going to be a good match up for us and it's definitely a match up we can win, but it's a matter of who's healthy right now, and I think if we had every single player healthy then we would definitely be able to win that game for sure.”
The Women's Soccer season has been a growing process for the Tritons as they were only able to obtain two wins. With such a young team like this, they have grown and will continue to grow as the year's progress. Regarding the season thus far, McCauley stated, “I think overall the season has kind of been a growing experience, and we've experienced some growing pains through it. We have started the season a very young team but at least now we have a group of players who have experienced playing at a very high level, collegiately, that will hopefully begin to grow with the game, understand what our strengths and weaknesses are, what we need to work on, and kind of be able to focus on what we need to start to build for the future.”
