The University of Akron Athletics
Women's Soccer Headed in Right Direction
November 19 | Women's Soccer
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Final Stats (PDF) | Team & Individual Firsts/Accolades
AKRON, Ohio – In a season with few expectations, the Akron women's soccer team came together, worked hard, played every game with the heart of a Zip and defied all the odds to have a 2015 season to remember.
A new season came with a new head coach, Noreen Herlihy, and 11 new faces to the 2015 roster. In the Mid-American Conference pre-season poll voted on by each respective MAC coach, the Zips were chosen to finish in last-place in the MAC East.
Coach Herlihy did not worry about the preseason poll, but was more focused on preparing her team to go out each game and give them an opportunity to win.
"Going into the season, all that was certain was that we were bottom of the MAC, so the primary thing was to see what type of squad we had to work with and evaluate the group as quickly as possible," said Herlihy. "We knew how we wanted the team to play, but we also had to have realistic expectations, so in essence, it was an evaluation process right from the start, while trying to get the players to compete to the best of their abilities."
The Zips (6-12-1, 3-8 MAC) guided by Herlihy, opened up the year with a 3-0-1 mark through the first four games. Akron began the season with victories over Bryant (4-0), Cleveland State (4-2) and St. Bonaventure (2-1) and played to a draw with Niagara (0-0). The teams record through the first four games was the best start to the season for the women's soccer program since 2008.
"We started well enough trying to instill the style of soccer right away. It's always a balancing act, wanting to implement a certain way we want to play, but also making sure we were remaining competitive," said Herlihy "It was always about putting things in place right from the start and planting the seeds for the future, and we were willing to take some risks in order to put those things in place."
In the first four games of the season, the Zips saw senior Katie George (Middleburgh Heights, Ohio) flourish both in the midfield and as a leader. After being moved up from the defensive backline where she played in her first three years on the team, George scored her first career goal against Bryant. She continued her success in the midfield and scored four goals in the initial four games.
A tough finish to the non-conference portion of the schedule saw the Zips play through a rough patch. Akron dropped four in a row with three of the four losses coming on the road to Cornell, Lipscomb and UT Martin, along with a home loss to Pittsburgh.
"We did have some key injuries that really affected the number of players we had available for the last month of the season, but regardless, we were always competing against quality teams," said Herlihy "What we did show, however, was that we never quit, and kept competing right to the end, and that was reflected in making the tournament."
Heading into MAC play, Akron put the non-conference games behind them and set their sights on its league slate. The Zips played 11 conference games and the eight teams with the best record in the MAC continued their season into the MAC tournament.
When the regular season was over, the Zips found themselves in a four-way tie for the eighth and final spot of the MAC tournament. The Zips, Ohio and Bowling Green each finished the season with nine points.
A tiebreaker rule was put into affect to determine who came out with the final spot. The four teams were grouped together to see which teams had the most head-to-head wins. Akron had six points with a win over Ohio and Northern Illinois. Ohio also had six points with wins over Bowling Green and Northern Illinois.
The tie between the Zips and the Bobcats was broken with Akron's head-to-head 2-0 win over Ohio on Sept. 27, and the Zips advanced to the MAC tournament for the first time since 2011.
"It was an unusual situation, but head-to-head is a strong tie-breaker and we beat the right teams when it mattered, so we earned that right to be the number eighth seed and qualify for the tournament," said Herlihy.
The Zips traveled to Muncie, Ind. as major underdogs against the No. 1 seed Ball State in the first round of the MAC tournament. The Cardinals had lost just one game in MAC play in the regular season. Akron was determined to play the game to its strengths to set itself up for success.
Akron and Ball State played 110 minutes of hard-fought scoreless soccer. The game was decided by penalty kicks and the Zips upset the Cardinals, 4-3, to advance to the MAC tournament semifinals for the first time in program history.
"It's always exciting to beat the Number 1 Seed, and to do it at their place where they were undefeated at home and 10-1 in MAC play. It is something our players can remember for a long time," said Herlihy.
Akron went on to face the fifth-seeded Miami (Ohio) in the semifinal round, the winner would advance to the MAC Championship. Again, the Zips knew it was underdogs going into the match, but it did not faze them. Akron played aggressively offensively and played well defensively throughout the contest. The lone score for the RedHawks came off a penalty kick following a foul in the box. The Zips competed until the final whistle but could not find the equalizer.
The Zips 2015 journey was a kick-start in positively changing the culture of the program and was the first step in what will be a bright future for Akron women's soccer.
"I know we made lots of positive strides this season, and there were a lot of 'firsts' for these players personally and collectively. Coming to Akron and taking over the team, our primary goal for the season were to get us off the bottom of the MAC, and to make sure the players had a positive year overall," said Herlihy. "It was, most importantly, that the senior players had something to look back on over the careers here and we wanted to give them a nice send-off, and so we accomplished that. To make it to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament was the icing on the cake. We won't get carried away, as there is still lots of work that needs to be done, but we made baby steps in the right direction for sure."
