By Taylor McGinnis
Transcript Correspondent
Despite not making the playoffs, the Ohio Wesleyan women’s soccer team knows the season was not a complete loss and the team is already getting ready for their next season.
During their fall season, according to the Ohio Wesleyan Athletics page, the team posted a 6-11-1 with key conference losses to Otterbein, Depauw, Wittenberg, Wooster and Allegheny. Although their home record was positive at 5-3-0, road games didn’t work in their favor, as they were 1-7-1.
Freshman defensive midfielder Danielle Kaylor said the team’s record does not reflect how well they played.
“Our season didn’t go as planned,” Kaylor said. “We had our ups and downs but we stuck together as a team. The whole season we played well, but when it came down to it we didn’t really shoot that much, and obviously you need to shoot to score. Most games we just couldn’t get the job done at the end.”
The final game of the season for the lady Bishops came last Saturday when they played at Wooster.
Freshman goalie Makenzie Howell said the Bishops made a strong comeback against the Scots but it was too late in the game.
“We were down the whole game,” Howell said. “By the time there was only 10 minutes left we were losing by three, but we had a spurt of energy, and we scored two goals before it was over,” Howell said the lack of scoring is what hurt the team all season. She said one of the problems is no one took the lead on the field to be the one to score.
“I wish my team would have been a little more selfish when wanting to score, especially when the game was on the line,” Howell said.
Howell said a highlight during the season came when the team played Denison at home.
“It was the best game we played together all year,” Howell said. “We really finished strong, and won the game 1-0 in the second overtime.”
Kaylor agreed with Howell and said some of the team members had stand-out performances during the game.
“Although we all contributed, some of our players that really did well were Jessie Huschart, Hannah Zacharias and Sarah Stachowiak,” Kaylor said.
According to the Ohio Wesleyan Athletics page, Huschart accumulated the most points on the team with 14, Stachowiak added 4 points and Zacharias had a team high .792 save percentage.
Unfortunately for seniors Devon Bradley, Jessie Huschart and Ally Miess this was their last season, but the underclassmen are very optimistic about the future.
Kaylor said the team members who will return next season plan to learn from this season to build into next year.
“I think we will work hard in the off season, and do much better next fall,” Kaylor said. “I think we will use our motivation from this fall to help us succeed next year.”
Howell also had high hopes for the future of the team.
“We need everyone to come in ready to go, be able to score, and win games,” Howell said.
Similar to most division three sports, the woman’s soccer team will get an opportunity this coming Spring to have a short month long season that will consist of around four practices a week, and one or two scrimmages at the end of the season.