Youthful Sea Gulls Look to Win First Conference Crown Since 2000
Coming off the first losing season in school history (6-10-1) Salisbury University women's soccer head coach Jim Nestor and company are very optimistic about the upcoming 2006 campaign. Returning 13 letterwinners and five starters, the Sea Gulls are poised and ready to make a run at their first Capital Athletic Conference championship since 2000.

"We want to get back to our winning ways," said Nestor, who is entering his sixth season at the helm. "We want to really focus on us playing as a group and a unit and playing with a little Sea Gull pride."

After graduating only four seniors from the 2005 team, the Sea Gulls opened up training camp with three seniors, five juniors, 13 sophomores, and 18 freshmen. The youthfulness of Salisbury will be tested early and often as they face a schedule featuring six NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago, including the defending NCAA Division III national champions and top-ranked Messiah College (Pa.) along with No. 14 Virginia Wesleyan College.

In addition, to the tough non-conference opponents, the Sea Gulls will have to take of their business in the tough CAC. Last season, the CAC had five teams finish league play .500 or better with two teams, Catholic and Mary Washington, who went unbeaten (6-0-1) in league play. SU opens up conference play with Catholic, the defending CAC champions, on September 16th in Washington D.C.

"Anyone can win on any given day," said Nestor, when asked about the balance of the CAC.  "When looking at the top six teams in the CAC anyone could come through as the conference champion."

OFFENSE
The Salisbury offense brings back 50 percent of its point production from a year ago. Sophomore forward Dana Passucci (Denville, N.J./Morris Knolls), led the Gulls in points (11) and goals (5) last season, and senior forward/midfielder Natalie Day (Beltsville, Md./Pallotti) will led the attack. Junior forward Kate Weaver (Abingdon, Md./Edgewood) looks to improve on her sophomore season where she tallied seven points on two goals and three assists. 

"She [Weaver] is a hard worker who has just been unlucky at times with her opportunities," said Nestor.

The Sea Gulls are also excited about two transfers, sophomore Robyn Bishop (Columbia, Md./River Hill) and junior Sara Schmidt (Glen Burnie, Md./Glen Burnie).

Bishop, a transfer from the University of New Hampshire (Division I), also plays on the SU women's lacrosse program. The former Wildcat tallied one assist in eight starts for UNH before transferring to SU in the 2005 spring semester.

Schmidt, joins the Sea Gulls from Catonsville Community College where she was a 2005 first team NJCAA Division I All-American in soccer. She was also named to the All-Maryland JUCO Conference first team and the NJCAA Division I All-Region XX team.

The addition of Bishop and Schmidt should help the Salisbury offense which struggled to score last year, finishing sixth in the conference in goals (26) and points (73).

"This year we are looking at a few new fronts," said Nestor. "We need to create more scoring opportunities as a group."

DEFENSE
The defense brings back only one starter from a season ago, but welcomes a proven transfer from the junior college level. Sophomore Katie Marshall (Middletown, Del./William Penn) will be called upon to lead the young defense, as she started 12 of the 13 games she appeared in last season for the Gulls. Her aid comes in the form of a transfer Kristin McLaughlin (Baltimore, Md./Seton Keough) from Catonsville Community College where she helped the Cardinals to a 13-2-1 record and a No. 4 NJCAA national ranking.

The defense ranked third in goals against average in the CAC last year, giving up only 22 goals. On six different occasions last season the defense held opponents scoreless and only gave up three or more goals four times. With Marshall returning from last year, and the addition of McLaughlin, Nestor feels the defense will continue to be stingy around the net.

GOALIE
For the first time in four years the Sea Gulls will not know who their starting goalie is at the beginning of the season. Salisbury will be without Katie Hendrickson, the all-time leading saves leader (365) in school history, who played nearly 87 percent of the minutes in net last year. The void in the goal will more than likely be filled by either senior Samantha Phipps (Pasadena, Md./Meade) or sophomore Kristin Greene (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) who totaled a combined five saves in 2005.

"Sam has been here and is going into her senior season. She is a solid player and knows what to do on the field," said Nestor. "The early season race for goalie is between her and Greene, who did a great job for us last year."

A dark horse in the goalie competition is sophomore Gena Goodson (Lexington Park, Md./Great Mills), who logged 10 minutes of game action last year.

"Goodson did a good job as well," said Nestor. "It was just that Katie was so good it was tough for her to get time."

The Gulls gave up 1.29 goals a game in 2005, ranking them third in the conference.

With the returning players, the transfer student-athletes, and the incoming freshmen, the 2006 Sea Gulls are young, but have valuable game experience putting Salisbury in great position to move forward from last year.

"We were a little disappointed with last season, but we look forward to this season," said Nestor. "With a nice influx of new talent coming in and a nice returning core, we are going to see what we can put together. Brad Nein did a great job of getting these players in here and we look forward to the challenge this year will bring."