Women's soccer looks to fresh faces to climb Big West ladder

Although the Cal Poly women’s soccer team will have to make up for the losses of several departed stars from last year, those absences haven’t dimmed the Mustangs’ hopes heading into this season.

“Of course losing seniors is always hard, but we had a strong team in the past, and we have integrated a lot of people,” senior defender Cara O’Hagan said. “There will be a lot of new changes, but we’re all determined and driven.”

Cal Poly, tabbed to finish third in the Big West Conference in its preseason coaches poll released Tuesday, lost five seniors from last year’s 8-9-3 squad, including two all-conference second team selections (goalkeeper Alli Tramel and forward Sharon Day) and one all-conference honorable mention (midfielder Erica Zumbahlen).

“I don’t see it as a void,” senior forward Ashley Vallis said. “We’re not going to focus on what we did back then. We want to come together as a unit. We want to win conference and we want to go to the (national) tournament.”

Last season, the Mustangs came up just short of that, falling 4-3 on penalty kicks to Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Tournament championship.

The conclusion halted a late-season surge in which the Mustangs went 5-2-1 in Big West play and went 7-1-2 in their final 10 outings.

Vallis suggested this year’s leaders have something of a chip on their shoulders.

“There is an urgency for the older players to prove that we’re better than what has been said,” she said.

Atop the preseason poll was UC Santa Barbara, which received four first-place votes and finished with 74 points.

Long Beach State garnered three No. 1 ballots and tallied 73 points, ahead of Cal Poly’s two first-place votes and 62 points.

O’Hagan stressed the importance of setting the tone early in games by playing with an extra tenacity that may have been lacking in the past.

“We want to be No. 1 in our conference,” she said. “I think in the past we have come out not as intense.”

Mustangs head coach Alex Crozier, who said his team is focusing on igniting an attacking rhythm with its defense, echoed the confidence of Vallis and O’Hagan.

“They have this great chemistry together – I think it is going to take us very far,” he said of the team as a whole. “We want to win the conference, and get into the NCAA Tournament, and get as deep into there as we can.”

Cal Poly opens its season by hosting BYU at 7 p.m. Aug. 22.