The Long Beach State women’s soccer team will take the field for the first time on Friday, and it will do so as the 18th-ranked team in the country and the top-ranked team in the Big West Conference.
The 49ers will face San Diego State in a scrimmage Friday night at George Allen Field before beginning their regular season on Aug. 17 with a match against Arizona. After reaching the elite eight of the 2011 NCAA tournament, expectations are higher than ever.
“Obviously the expectations rise when you have the season like we did last year,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “We’re always trying to contend for the Big West championship and we always shoot to make the NCAA tournament.”
Leading the team will be senior forward Nadia Link and senior defender Alex Balcer, each of whom earned first team All-Big West honors in 2011. Link won Big West Offensive Player of the Year and was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-American team as well.
“Alex has been a four-year starter and as the center defender she’ll pretty much run the team from a structural standpoint,” Ingrassia said. “Nadia is our charismatic leader and she’s ready to take more on and has already stepped up in the preseason.”
Seven of 11 starters are returning from last year’s elite eight squad, with the key losses being first team All-Big West midfielder Shawna Gordon and second team All-Big West goalkeeper Kaitlyn Gustaves. Ingrassia, however, isn’t worried about those departures.
“That’s a fun part for me as a coach is watching that reinvention,” he said. “When that season ends and the seniors leave, there’s a void. Then little by little, team reinvents itself and the leadership comes through. Pretty soon you aren’t thinking much about who left.”
The schedule is highlighted by the annual game against the University of San Diego and a matchup with No. 14 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The team will try to improve upon its 2011 record of 18-6-1 and in what will be Ingrassia’s ninth year as head coach.
“I think they know what they were able to do last year and they know what it took,” Ingrassia said. “They have lofty dreams and they’ve been there before and those dreams will energize them every day.”