SMC SOCCER: Belles look to overcome weather, Scots at home
By KATIE McVOY
Associate Sports Editor
The Belles will play come rain or shine. For the fifth consecutive home game, the Saint Mary's soccer team has to play under questionable weather, but this time they're ready.
"We're comfortable with our field," junior captain Heather Muth said. "It's no help that we've had rain every time we've had a home game, but I think we're starting to get the hang of it and starting to be able to overcome it."
The Belles will take on the Scots of Alma in a match that promises to be a fight to the finish, even if the predicted rain makes an appearance. The Scots have faced a similar MIAA schedule as the Belles, with similar results. They come into today's match 0-4 in the MIAA, just behind the Belles who are 0-3 in the conference.
"I think [Alma] is a little underestimated in our conference," Johnston said. "It's going to be a tough battle. They're playing really tough right now."
The past four home games the Belles have hosted have been marked by cold rain. The first three games against Hope, Calvin and Kalamazoo resulted in Saint Mary's losses, but the most recent game had different results.
Saint Mary's claimed its first win of the season, a 4-3 home victory against Rose-Hulman on Sunday.
Strong Saint Mary's play connected for four goals, but all three times Rose-Hulman scored, the ball found its way to the net because of Saint Mary's errors that were compounded by the weather.
"I think some of our mistakes [Sunday] came because we misjudged because of the weather," Lynn Taylor said.
Today they are looking to stop those errors.
"Keys to winning are minimizing mistakes and ball possession, [both of which are] playing to our strengths," Johnston said.
In addition to minimizing their mistakes, the Belles are hoping home field advantage helps with the win.
"That's a strength of ours [that] we're going to capitalize on and run them all over the field," Muth said.
Alma plays physical soccer, a kind of game the young Saint Mary's team has been working to improve on all season. The Belles' MIAA opener against a physical Hope team was a surprise to many of the first-year players, but Johnston believes his team is ready for physical play.
"They're fairly physical," he said. "We're used to that now. A lot of our freshmen are accustomed to the style of college play."
Action gets under way today at 4 p.m. on the Saint Mary's soccer fields.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, September 25, 2001
