The Suffolk University women’s soccer team tied a hard fought, scoreless game against conference opponent Endicott College on Saturday.
The Rams were led by starting freshman goalie, Sophia Barker, who racked up 16 saves on net. Barker was named Defensive Player & Rookie of the Week at the start of their regular season and has been living up to the accolades.
At the half, the Rams had one shot against the Gulls and nine saves against Endicott’s 20 shots on net. The game ended with three shots against Endicott and 16 saves to their 32 shots.
Barker spoke about how she changed her preparation for this game.
“Something that I’ve been working on was coming out for the ball and playing higher off my line and I knew that was something I really had to focus on. We do individual meetings with our coach which is super helpful, so we can really hear about how we have to get better,” said Barker.
Barker said her coach’s advice helps her keep her head in the game.
“A quote Coach gave me to help me come and get the ball [is]: ‘That’s my ball.’ I kept saying that to really stay focused in the game. I also know I need to communicate with my team, which has been something I’ve had to work on in the past to help stay focused,” she said.
Barker said the most important part of the game came down to pressure, and how she was able to tackle it with ease.
“With 1v1 it can be so much pressure, but there’s two ways to look at pressure. The first way is to be scared and shy away from it, the second way is to just go for it and try your hardest and take it as an opportunity and just embrace it,” said Barker. “Once I made that save, I knew it was a critical save because it could’ve been a goal, so after that I knew we couldn’t afford to let anything in.”
This 1v1 was a turning point, as there had been lots of great passes back and forth between both teams.
Barker also spoke of her reaction to the 32 shots she faced from Endicott.
“It was a lot, they kept coming in, but I just kept my composure. I took it one step at a time,” she said.
Barker also won CCC Defensive Player & Rookie of the Week this week based on her performance Saturday.
Suffolk’s new coach Ellie McDougall knew the battle against Endicott was going to be rigorous.
“We knew Endicott was going to be a tough and competitive opponent. We talked about our system and how we wanted to play. If everyone did their jobs, we’d be successful and we got a result out of it, which is a huge point for us,” McDougall said.
The Rams lost against the Gulls last year, so to be able to tie them this year was a step up.
“We’re really excited about stealing a point from them in the tough CCC league,” said McDougall.
McDougall also spoke to offensive and defensive tactics that were used.
“We actually did something a little different today, we pushed some people a little more into the midfield, then moved another person up front so we could have a little bit more of an attacking presence,” said McDougall. “We also talked about who can shift back and play defense. It’s the first time we’ve played a system like that and the fact that we had one or two practices with that and pulled it off pretty well against a team like Endicott, I couldn’t ask for more.”
McDougall said that her team has come a long way since the beginning of the season.
“We’re much more resilient and put together. It’s starting to become more “team-oriented wins” with individual effort from everyone collectively. I thought today we played one of our best in terms of complete performance,” she said.
Follow Tracy on Twitter @tracylacara4
