Soccer hosts media day
Aug. 21, 2008
On Thursday, Aug. 21, the eighth-ranked Texas Soccer team hosted a preseason meet-and-greet with local television and newspaper outlets at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Head coach Chris Petrucelli and senior captains Stephanie Logterman, Kasey Moore and Dianna Pfenninger were in attendance and took a minute to talk with the media about the upcoming season. Texas kicks off the 2008 campaign Friday, Aug. 22 as it hosts Samford at 7 p.m. The Horns are the preseason Big 12 favorite and have already garnered two top-15 preseason nods. Read on to see what the Horns have to say about this season. Head coach Chris Petrucelli On the heightened expectations that have been created in recent years: The expectations are high here, but it's that way in every sport here. You want the expectations to be high, you want to be at a place where you're expected to win because that means you have a pretty good team. On what is going to get this season's squad past the Sweet 16: The thing that this team has that I think no other team here has really had is a large group of talented, experienced seniors. There is a group here that, really they've started every game since they were freshmen, and they've had a good run over the course of four years. They're experienced, and beyond that they're just outstanding players. When you have good senior leadership, you always have a chance.
On what the team is looking to improve on this season: I think the biggest for us is we know that we've got a strong group defensively, and we feel like with such a strong group, we should give up less goals than we've given up in the past. So I think that's the first thing is really be solid defensively. Then, with the loss of Kelsey Carpenter, we now have to get some production out of some of the other players up front and some help to those other players up front. So that's sort of the things that we've been working on. On the importance of having a healthy Stephanie Logterman back with the team: She makes a huge difference on our team because she's the smartest player that we have. She gets the game on a high level, and defensively she's really good. As she goes forward, she creates goals for her and she can goals herself. And we're going to give her a lot of freedom this year and the role to go forward, the role to come back and help in defense in the past, we've sat her out sort of in the back and out wide. She's going to have a lot more freedom this year. On the importance of a good defense: I think we've felt all along if we can shut people down, we'll be talented enough to get a goal or two. Fortunately, with Diane [Pfenninger] in goal and Kasey [Moore] in front of her, we're pretty strong back there. Senior defender Stephanie Logterman On the strengths of this year's squad: Starting with Di [Diane Pfenninger] in goal, she's just been great for us every year I've been here playing with her. The back line is terrific, and then moving into the midfield, we have probably one of the best midfields as a threesome that I've seen since my freshman year. And then up top, we have people that are capable of scoring. Last weekend, we had three different people score, which is awesome. You like to have diversity in that sense. I think we have a complete team, we have strength in every position, and that's really what you need. On getting past the Sweet 16 this season: That's our ultimate goal is to come home and light the tower burnt orange with a big number one down the middle of it. I think anything short is disappointing. That's not to say that we had a horrible season because we didn't win, but it would definitely be really disappointing in that we were capable of it. Senior goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger On taking it to the next level as far as results are concerned: I think it has a lot to do with consistency and just dedication, coming in every day for practice and working hard, treating practice as a time where we can really get better as a team and individually. But it also comes down to performing in the games. So we've got to come in and treat every game like a championship game and get better with every game. Senior defender and two-time All-American Kasey Moore On the team's defensive strength and experience: Defensively, we've always been pretty strong, but I think we have a lot more on attack this year, so think we're going to be surprising people with where all the goals are going to be coming from. I think we're just as strong defensively as we have been in the past, and we're hoping to set more records this year for shutouts, just continue that and surprise people up top with the attack. On the heightened expectations that have been created in recent years: We've set the bar high, but I think everyone on this team is willing to meet the challenge. We want to do things that have never been done in this program, which is hard to do because there's been lots of things done. We want to continue the tradition, and I think we have some really talented freshmen that can make a big difference. Throughout all the classes, we have talent everywhere, and we have really good people coming off the bench, too. I think overall we just have a more solid team, and I think we can do some really good things this season. On the importance of having a healthy Stephanie Logterman back with the team: It's extremely different. She can attack and she's dangerous from any position you put her in. She can stop goals and she'll score goals. There's no one else like Stephanie Logterman, basically. On the eight freshmen: I think they add in a new dynamic. There's eight new freshmen, all strong freshmen, and they have a chance to make a big difference on this team. I think we'll surprise some people with the freshmen that we have because we have small, quick freshmen and we have tall, strong freshmen. We have a little bit of everything in our freshmen class. Even though they're freshmen, they're experienced and they're confident, so I think they can make a big difference this year. |
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