Week III: VCU Tournament

Beware of coaches who are very critical after wins and very positive after losses. The biggest part of my job is recruiting, selecting and preparing the team to play the games. But another very important part of coaching is interpreting the results for the players and keeping everything, both wins and losses, in perspective. My immediate goal is to do things today to become a better team a week from now, a month from now, a year from now-- than we are today.

Good News/Bad News: The good news is that we really are improving. Our defending has improved immeasurably. Where we were tentative, disorganized and reactive, we are now a team where players know their roles, anticipate, defend with confidence and trust each other. We have become more aggressive and confident. This is a really important step for a new team to take. Additionally, the quality of our possessions from the back 1/3 through the middle 1/3 is improving. We are now showing a bit more patience and are attempting to be more constructive and less hopeful or desperate in our passing up field. The bad news is we went 0-1-1 on the weekend and scored only one goal. These were both games we could have won, had we executed better from the middle 1/3 and in to the final 1/3. We were the victims of our own poor decisions and our lack of skillful play. While we showed good effort and "heart", we know a good team is able to create more dangerous chances than we have been able to create.

We will now commit the same effort to building the attack, as we made to developing the defense over the past three weeks. Our goal is simple: to produce more dangerous chances and take them well. I am confident we can get better.

We sit at 2-3-1 after 6 games: 1/3 of the way through the regular season. We have our work cut out for us: West Virginia, Virginia and VCU are our next three opponents. These are three NCAA tournament teams, three fine programs and three teams we have beaten in the past. These will be GREAT tests, and I know the team is looking forward to the challenges. Then the Conference games begin, and the road to the playoffs. We drew the toughest conference schedule in the A-10, and the toughest road schedule. It will not get any easier. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, however, last year showed it is not how you start, but how you finish. (Sorry Yankee and Cardinal fans). Hard work, patience and persistence are the keys.

This continues to be a great group of young women, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we are really enjoying our season and our time together. Some more victories would be nice, and we are working on it. Thanks for your continued support and interest. I hope to see you at a game soon. We have our home opener Friday night at 8 p.m. with nationally ranked WVU. This is a doubleheader with the men's team (VCU-UR at 5:30). It should be a great evening of college soccer. That's all for today.

From the touchline,

Coach Albright