STARKVILLE — It’s all about the attitude for the Mississippi State women’s soccer team.
At first glance, a 6-10-3 finish and a 3-7-1 mark in the Southeastern Conference may not indicate a lot of progress. But when Neil MacDonald looks back at the 2001 season he sees a team that embraced a higher standard and banded together to demand more.
When you look inside the final overall and league ledgers, the progress is evident. MSU upset No. 11 University of Florida and No. 20 Auburn University en route to its most SEC wins since the 2004 season, when it finished 5-5-1 and advanced to the SEC tournament.
The Bulldogs also conjured memories of 2004 by scoring 11 goals and allowing only 20 in league play, their highest and lowest numbers since ’04, Macdonald’s first as the program’s head coach.
Buoyed by 14 returning letterwinners, including 10 starters, and 10 newcomers, it’s easy to see why confidence is percolating in Starkville. Today, MSU will see what needs to be added to the brew when it has its first preseason practice. The team will have less than three weeks to put it together before it plays host to Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. Aug. 17.
“We’re going to aim high,” Macdonald said. “I think that is really important. I think if we aim high we can do ourselves justice. The team wants to go to the NCAAs. That is what the goal is. That is a big step.”
The magnitude of MacDonald’s statement hits home when you consider MSU has reached the SEC tournament only twice. The road figures to get tougher this season with the addition of the University of Missouri and Texas A&M University from the Big 12 Conference. Texas A&M reached the NCAA tournament in 2011, while Missouri won 12 games, and both programs are on MSU’s schedule this season. Eight of the SEC’s 12 members in 2011 made the NCAA tournament.
Still, the fact that MSU never has advanced to the NCAA tournament isn’t stopping MacDonald or his players from dreaming. MacDonald believes his team can imagine the possibilities because it showed last season it could meet higher expectations and higher levels of fitness and performance. The next step, MacDonald said, is consistency.
“We feel we let ourselves down in the non-conference segment last year,” Macdonald said. “That is an area we need to fix going into this fall. If we can do that and continue to be consistent in the SEC and highly competitive in those games, we can perhaps give ourselves an opportunity to achieve the national tournament.”
MSU will look to eight seniors and junior forward Elisabeth Sullivan to lead the way. Goalkeeper Skylar Rosson started 18 games and led the SEC with 131 saves. Midfielder Jasmine Simmons (18 starts), midfielder Madison McKee (17), defender Julie Waddle (11), and midfielder Lauren Morgan (18) have the most experience in the senior class. Sullivan, who scored the fastest goal in program history to beat Florida, led the team with five goals and 13 points. Simmons was second on the team with five goals and 12 points.
Macdonald expects six of the class of 10 newcomers to make significant contributions to make the mix even more potent, which is why Rosson and Sullivan feel the Bulldogs have the potential to accomplish a lot this season. Last season, MSU still had a chance to make the SEC tournament entering its regular-season finale against the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss won that game 2-0, but the University of Alabama beat Auburn to claim the eighth and final tournament spot.
Rosson said MSU has that optimism because 2011 was a huge turnaround from 2010 and it was a season in which everyone learned how to play for each other.
“Last year was the turning point,” Rosson said. “We have had plenty of tremendous meetings to find a way to keep building off (last season). With the new freshmen coming in, we need to make sure they know how we play and how close we are. We just have to keep that momentum going from last fall and this spring.”
Said Sullivan, “Our attitude is really awesome. I think that is going to help us a lot. We have a lot of new freshmen who are going to help build us up and make us stronger all around the field.”
Maturation on offense will be another key. Macdonald said the Bulldogs focused on possession and speed of play in the spring in an attempt to generate more and better scoring chances. He feels there has been substantial individual improvement and that the excitement from 2011 remains. He hopes it will motivate his players throughout this season.
“We want to continue to improve and to continue to build momentum,” Macdonald said. “I think the returning class is really looking forward to getting started, and the freshmen coming in, we’re excited about what they’re going to bring.”
Junior Morganne Grimes hasn’t trained with all of the newcomers, but she feels there are four or five standouts in that group who will have a “huge impact” on the program. Grimes also is confident about the returning players and the lessons the Bulldogs learned last season by having a better attitude. That’s why she, too, has her sights set high for the 2012 season.
“Our attitude was so unselfish and everyone was so determined to make it happen (last season),” Grimes said. “We knew we were the underdog in so many ways and we had the drive to get better and to win.
“(This year), I think we’re going to make it to the (SEC) tournament. I am not sure number wise where we will finish, but we have so many home games (12 out of 20), and we have such a great atmosphere (at home), and we know we can compete with any team in the SEC. We have so much potential. It is just a matter of starting with the games that aren’t in the SEC. That is going to start all of the momentum for the season. If we put those games away and get some good wins under our belt we will have so much momentum and confidence that we can take on anybody and compete with every team in the SEC.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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