By Jonathan Gomez
gomezjon@grinnell.edu
Grinnell Women’s Soccer has been asserting their dominance over teams with recent blowouts ending in 7-0 against Buena Vista and 3-0 against Bethany Lutheran. These past scoring runs have brought much confidence and pride in an early start to a good season for the team. As Lauren Edwards ’20, Co-captain, explained, “I think that it is always really exciting to be able to score that many times because it really shows that we are capitalizing on the opportunities that we have and it gives us more practice in scoring for games that mean more later in conference.”
In addition, Simo Bambi ’20, co-captain, expressed her gratitude for how quickly the team is meshing together, “I also think that it’s starting to show our flow as a team and how we are starting to get connected and having this mind meld, which is really exciting to see especially this early in the season. So, I’m excited to see this progress.”
While the team has been feeling good about their performances, many players like Valencia Alvarez ’20, co-captain, are grounded in these wins and still see room for improvement. “I think it’s important to note that these teams are easier than some teams that we will be facing in conference. So, I think it’s good for our confidence levels to be able to out shoot and to be able to score on teams that we should be beating, but I think we also need to pick it up a bit in some senses to be able to beat teams like Knox and St. Norbert. So, I feel good but I think we could do better,” said Alvarez.
One of the most impressive aspects of the team’s wins was the amount of shots taken in each game. In the two games alone Grinnell out shot their opponents 60-4, shooting 38 of those shots against Buena Vista, 21 of which were on goal. Bambi elaborated on what this meant for the team as a whole. “For me, what’s even more exciting than the amount of shots is who is taking them. Right now, it’s coming from all four classes which is really exciting to see because we are feeding off of each other’s energy and the more shots that are taken, the more you get the confidence to take that shot when you have the chance,” said Bambi.
Alvarez continued to call for improvement, “I think at the same time, we have to focus on what types of shots we are taking because some of those shots were really bad. So, it’s really ambitious and I think being able to zero in on how these shots are working and what better options we do have before taking them is important. We have to make sure they are goals shots.”
While this type of excellent play is to be expected after Grinnell was ranked second overall in the Midwest Conference before the season started, Alvarez ’20 explained how the high ranking is not as beneficial as one would think. “I don’t really like that we were ranked second because we are used to being the underdog and it’s something that we have been used to in the past. We are used to being down and fighting to get our way to get up. So coming out on top first makes it a little harder for our game mentality because we have to be able to deal with having that sort of respect from other teams coming into the game whereas we are used to having no respect from teams and then gaining it through our style of play.”
The loss of underdog status still excites many of the players and gives them hope for winning the whole conference. “We typically are ranked in a certain position and then exceed that towards the end of the season. So the fact that we were ranked second hopefully means that we will actually end up getting first in the conference. We love playing on our home field and to be able to host a conference tournament has been a goal of the GWS [Grinnell Women’s Soccer] program for years. I think that we are really fueled by the support of all the people at Grinnell and it seems like something we can achieve this year,” said Edwards.
