Season Preview: Sea Gulls aim for third consecutive NCAA bid

SALISBURY, Md. - The Salisbury University women's soccer team enters the 2008 season with high expectations as the Sea Gulls aim for a third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. SU finished last year with a 14-4-1 mark, were runners-up in the Capital Athletic Conference championship and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.  The 14 wins were the most in a season since 2001.

Salisbury returns two all-conference performers from last year's team, the entire starting defense and the starting goalie. The Sea Gulls will need to fill some holes on offense at attack and at midfield. SU will lean on its defense to carry the load this season.

"The defense should be an anchor for us, one of our stronger points," said SU coach Jim Nestor who enters his eighth season at the helm. "We have to play good, strong team defense and not put our defense in bad situations."

OFFENSE
With the graduation of such names as Kate Weaver, Sarah Schmidt, Robyn Bishop, and Erin Casey, the Sea Gulls will be losing over 50 percent of its point production from 2007.  Senior forward Dana Passucci (Denville, N.J.) and junior midfielder Christina Eury (Germantown, Md.) will return as the most experienced members of the Gulls offense in 2008. The offense is also expected to be paced by junior forward Samantha Asch (Marlton, N.J.).

Passucci was among the team leaders last season in points (11) and goals (four). She was third among starters with a .652 shots on goal percentage.

Eury started in all 19 games last season and was among the team leaders in points (11), assists (five) and goals (three). She is one of the three co-captains this season. Eury along with Passucci were tied for third on the team last year with two game-winning goals apiece. 

DEFENSE
The Sea Gull defense ranked 26th in the nation last year with a 0.632 goals against average. They are coming off of a campaign in which they gave up an amazing 12 goals all of last season. This core had a conference best 0.59 goals against average.  SU will return the nucleus from last year's team.

Junior Hillary Grove (Hagerstown, Md.) was an All-CAC first team selection last year on defense. Grove and senior Kelli Salter (Marlton, N.J.) are the two other co-captains for the Gulls in '08 and will lead the defense. Junior Colleen Galligan (North Salem, N.Y.) along with senior Katie Marshall (Middleton, Del.) will help add depth on defense for the maroon and gold.

Marshall started in all 19 games last season. Over the course of her career, she has started in 33 of 49 games, and sits as the most experienced of the group. Galligan also started in all 19 games for the Sea Gulls last season. Grove and Salter started in 18 and 16 contests, respectively.

GOALIES
Salisbury senior stalwart and All-CAC second team performer Gena Goodson (Lexington Park, Md.) will return in goal. The success of last year's team was largely in part to the outstanding year by Goodson. Her 88 percent saves percentage ranks 20th in the nation and her 0.71 goals against average were second in the conference. She finished the year with a 10-3-1 record and 0.76 goals against average.  The Salisbury starting goalie had 68 saves on the year in 1,070 minutes. She also put together a save percentage of 0.883, which ranked 17th in the nation. The team save percentage of 0.886 was 13th best in the country. Freshman Sydnie Soyka (Charlottesville, Va.) will back up Goodson this fall.

SCHEDULE
The Sea Gulls begin the season with two back-to-back weekend tournaments in Virginia. Salisbury participates in the Orthopedic Associates of Virginia Classic hosted by Virginia Wesleyan College on August 30-31 where the maroon and gold will face Carnegie Mellon and Nazareth College. The following weekend Salisbury travels to Lynchburg, Va., to take on two Old Dominion Athletic Conference foes in Guilford College and the host Hornets of Lynchburg (ranked No. 8 in the preseason). SU will then travel back to the Commonwealth of Virginia to go up against the VWC Marlins, who were ranked No. 17 in the preseason, on September 10. SU will open its '08 home schedule on September 13 against Ursinus College. The home game begins a four-game home stand for the Gulls. SU will play three straight CAC games which ends with a showdown with No. 16 York (Pa.) College.

"Those first four games are going to be tough. It is going to be a real test," said Nestor.

The month of October brings more road games as the Sea Gulls begin the month with three straight contests away from home. SU starts with a showdown with Christopher Newport University (October 1) followed by a game against CAC rival University of Mary Washington (October 4) and then up to New Jersey to face Richard Stockton (October 8) for a night game. A quick home game on October 14 against Marymount (Va.) University breaks up the road trip but the Gulls head back on the road for two more road contests before ending the regular-season at home against St. Mary's (October 25). The CAC tournament will run from November 1st until the 8th

SUMMARY
If Salisbury is able to navigate through the tough opening half of its schedule the Sea Gulls should be able to concentrate on the CAC half of the schedule with an eye on another conference title and a NCAA bid.

"We look forward to getting things going," said Nestor.