2011 Bulldog Soccer Season Wrap-Up

Charleston, S.C. – The Bulldogs entered the 2011 soccer season with great enthusiasm and energy, riding the momentum from their historic 2010 season where they took a 10^th place preseason prediction and turned it into a third place conference finish and their first Southern Conference tournament appearance and win.

The Citadel's 2011 roster garnered eight seniors, eight sophomores and five freshmen. The 21-player roster is the largest that the Bulldogs carried in program history and they used all 21 throughout the season. Behind the leadership of two-year captains Amy Loughran and Hannah Warne, the Bulldogs started off strong with a 2-1 record, outscoring their opponents 7-2 throughout the first three contests, but cooled off quickly as they finished out non-conference action with four losses and a tie.

The Citadel entered conference play at home against Western Carolina where they dropped a close, 2-1, decision to the Catamounts before rolling off two consecutive wins against Appalachian State (3-2) and Chattanooga (2-1). Unfortunately, the Bulldogs winning ways would come to a halt after the fast 2-1 conference start as they failed to record another win until the final contest of the season against College of Charleston. The Dogs' cold streak included five losses and two ties during the core of the conference schedule.

The continuing theme of the season for the Bulldogs was the inability to close out a game in the second half. The Citadel finished the first half tied or ahead in 16 of their 19 contests, but held just a 5-9-2 record in those matches.

"It was a frustrating and exhausting season only because we lacked consistency from game to game," said Bulldog Head Coach Bob Winch. "We did well in the first half, but we couldn't put together for a full 90 minutes."

The two matches of the season where the Bulldogs played well in the second half were against the two teams who competed for the SoCon Championship game, Samford and College of Charleston.

The Citadel held their ground against Samford on Oct. 2 to finish out a double overtime, 0-0, draw, becoming one of just two teams in the conference who were not downed by Samford.

In the season finale, the Bulldogs topped crosstown foe College of Charleston, 3-2, in a game where The Citadel recorded two goals in the final 12 minutes to top the Cougars for the first time in program history.

The win over the College of Charleston left The Citadel on the outside of the playoff picture. With a 3-6-2 mark in the conference, the Bulldogs had to rely on a Western Carolina loss to punch their ticket to the SoCon Tournament, but the 1-0 Catamount win eliminated the Cadets from the playoffs for the 10^th time in their 11 year history.

"It was one of those seasons where I thought we played better soccer than we did a year ago, but we didn't win as much. It's really frustrating at the end where we put ourselves in a situation to have an opportunity for the playoffs," said Winch. "We sat down with the team at the beginning of conference play and stressed the importance of a good start so we wouldn't need to rely on others. We ended up relying on others and that usually doesn't work out."

Sophomore leaders Vanessa Aponte and Mariana Garcia continued to etch their place in The Citadel Soccer's record book throughout the 2011 season. Aponte, who led the team in almost every statistical category at the end of the year, recorded a season and conference-high 83 shots to go along with her eight goals (13 career/6^th all-time), three assists (8 career/2^nd all-time) and team-leading 19 points (34 career). The Orlando, Fla., native also racked up two SoCon Player of the Week Awards and was named the ninth best player to watch in the conference by TopDrawerSoccer.com.

Garcia, who was coming off a 2010 season where she was tabbed with Freshman and SoCon Player of the Year honors, picked up right where she left off. The Bogota, Colombia native paced teammate Aponte with almost mirrored statistics, netting seven goals (17 career, 4^th all-time), four assists (6 career, 6^th all-time), 71 shots (124 career, 4^th all-time) and four game-winners (9 career, 1^st all-time). The sophomore also was named the top player to watch in the SoCon by TopDrawerSoccer.com.

"Garcia and Aponte are both great soccer players and two of the more exciting players in the league to watch," said Winch. "They came into the league last year as unknowns and became known and have handled the extra attention very well."

Senior captain Amy Loughran finished her final season with three goals, moving her into second place all-time in Citadel history with 21, while senior defenders Hannah Warne, Leah Hawkins and Shanna Couch rounded out their illustrious four year careers having competed in almost every game on the schedule. Freshmen Anastasia Mesa played all 19 contests, fielding the majority of the corner kicks, while Grace Raines started in 18 contests on the defensive side.

"I thought that [Grace] Raines and [Anastasia] Mesa were probably the most consistent players on the team. After each game we grade them out and they both continually received some of the highest scores," said Winch.

All four of the Bulldog goalkeepers landed adequate playing time this season with seniors Whitney Nave and Laura Serafino capturing the majority of the starts. Nave finished her career with 243 saves to place her second all-time in Citadel history, accumulating just a 2.03 goals against average, second all-time behind teammate Serafino, who recorded a four-year goals against average of 1.99 to lead all Bulldog keepers in the history of the program. Serafino accumulated 49 saves on the season to round out her career in fifth place all-time with 163.

"My decision with choosing a goalkeeper came from understanding the importance of the position. They were all about even from the physical and mental standpoint so I just asked that they give me 45 minutes of full mental and physical effort and I thought they did fantastic with that aspect," said Winch.

The big story for The Citadel that drew the attention of many teams around the Southern Conference was the physical play that led to a conference leading 216 fouls and 20 yellow cards.

"As far as the physical play, it is part of soccer; if you look at the best NCAA teams they all lead their conference in fouls. Auburn leads the SEC in fouls and the correlation continues between playing physical soccer and being successful. They keep that stat for a reason because it is part of the game, just like in basketball," said Winch. "I would hate to tell them not to be physical, and I would be very disappointed if someone were to say we were cheap or dirty, but if you say we are a physical team I would take that as a compliment."

Looking ahead to next season, Coach Winch, Stewart and Rodriguez will emphasize their recruiting on goal scorers, goalkeepers and leaders to prepare to rebuild the young Bulldogs after the loss of the eight seniors.

"We have been fortunate enough to avoid big injuries so we will be ok with 18-20 players on the roster," said Winch. "I always stress how important it is for the skill difference between your first and last players on the roster to be minimal."

For more information on Bulldog Soccer, find us on Twitter @CitadelWSoccer, Facebook, or visit the official website of The Citadel Athletics, www.citadelsports.com.