This is the final installment of WBR’s preview of the 2011 Creighton Bluejays women’s soccer team. The Bluejays being their regular season tonight at South Dakota State.
Defense wins championships, right? Creighton’s exceptional combination of great goalkeeping and solid defenders helped the Bluejays clinch regular season and tournament championships in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2010.
This year’s squad returns both goalkeepers and three of the team’s starting defenders from last season.
Senior Alicia Montgomery and junior Katie Jo Swanson combined for 10 shutouts in 2010, allowing opponents to just 0.83 goals per game. The only thing keeping Montgomery off the 2011 preseason All-MVC team is Missouri State’s Jessica Teahan, a two-time first-team All-Valley selection at goalkeeper. But the Bluejays’ two-pronged attack at keeper gives CU a depth advantage the rest of the league’s teams can’t replicate.
Alicia Montgomery returns in goal for Creighton
The defense will rely heavily on the leadership of seniors Macy Mauer, Kelly Connolly, and Kat Wright.
Mauer started 20 matches last season, missing one due to a red card. The senior from Minnesota has appeared in more than 50 matches in her Creighton career.
Creighton's Macy Mauer is part of a stout defense
Connolly joined Mauer on the honorable mention MVC scholar-athlete squad in 2010. She beat Cal-State Fullerton with a game-winner last year, her only goal of the season. She’s played in 42 matches over the past two seasons, and 59 for her career.
Kelly Connolly returns to the CU defense
Wright played in 12 matches as a transfer from Arizona in 2009, and then logged 17 appearances in 2010. She didn’t miss a minute of play during six straight matches in the middle of last season.
Sophomore Shonna Fraser started 11 matches last season and returns to help the defense. Freshman Madelyn Buckner looks to earn playing time among an experienced back of the Bluejays’ formation.