Irish hope four backs are key to ’99 Final Four
By MIKE CONNOLLY
An old adage says “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
If one followed conventional wisdom, a defense that finished second in the Big East in goals-against-average and first in shutouts would remained unchanged.
Women’s soccer coach Randy Waldrum, however, hopes that straying from conventional wisdom will result in an even better defense in 1999.
After playing with three defensive backs in 1998, Waldrum has instituted a four back system and moved star players around to accommodate the new defensive system.Waldrum said that the new four-back system will make Notre Dame stronger on defense.
“We felt more comfortable that it [the four-back system] was able to cover more ground defensively,” he said. “It’s a gives us a little bit more safety defensively.”
In order to accommodate the defensive switch, the Irish had to move one of the midfielders to the backline. Despite having fewer players in the midfield, Waldrum said he does not think the offense will suffer.
“We felt like the kind of players we put in the back four were also offensively-minded players and this system allows us some safety defensively,” he said.
“But also enables those players to get involved in the attack when we have the ball.”
The midfield features a trio of internationally experienced players.
Anne Makinen competed with the Finish national team while Jenny Streiffer and Jen Grubb both played for the U.S. under-21 national team that won the Nordic Cup this summer. Streiffer led the team in scoring while Grubb started every game.
Grubb moves to the midfield after playing three years on the backline where she was a three-time All-American. Moving Grubb to the midfield will give the Irish a stronger defensive presence in the middle without sacrificing any offense.
“That’s been the focus of our preseason — changing to a defensive posture,” Waldrum said but he also said that the new defensive posture will not hold back an offense that averaged 3.96 goals-per-game to lead the NCAA in scoring.
“We still have players like Anne, Jen Streiffer and Jen Grubb along with three forwards so I don’t think that it will slow us down at all,” he said.
While the midfield is filled with experienced players, the new defense has a mix of young and veteran players. The Irish will start two freshmen in Venesa Pruzinsky and Nancy Mikacenic but senior Kara Brown and junior captain Kelly Lindsey bring plenty of veteran leadership to the team.
Brown made the transition to defense last season after playing her first two years in the midfield.
Lindsey had surgery in the off-season and missed the spring drills but has looked strong so far in the preseason.
Brown and Lindsey’s leadership have made the transition to college an easy one for the freshmen, according to Pruzinsky.
“It’s kind of been easy because all the seniors and juniors helped out a lot,” she said.
All Sports Stories for Friday, August 27, 1999
