Willie Nelson couldn’t wait to get on the road again, but whether the Massachusetts women’s soccer team collectively feels the same way is up in the air.
The Minutewomen have, in fact, not been “on the road” during the regular season since a late October trip in 2000 that resulted in two overtime contests. UMass fell to Dayton in the first match up, 2-1, despite a strong showing by goalkeeper Julie Podhrasky. The Maroon and White tied Xavier, 1-1, in the second game of the road trip.
Overall, UMass was 2-4-1 on the road last season. Despite the recent troubles away from Totman Field, this trip isn’t as far as Ohio, New York or Philadelphia. A two-hour bus ride will get the Minutewomen to their destination this afternoon.
With a trip down the Mass. Pike, and a few turns thereafter, coach Jim Rudy’s players will find themselves in Crimson territory, on Harvard’s campus.
It isn’t the trip that worries Rudy. It is Harvard’s team size and abilities. After concentrating on New Hampshire’s size heading into last Friday’s game at Totman, Rudy is even more worried about the Crimson’s distinct height advantage.
“If we thought UNH was big,” Rudy said, “this team is bigger through more players. They are big all over the field.”
With a decisive 3-0 win over the Wildcats on Friday – the team’s first shutout – the team proved that giving up some height isn’t a problem, not that it makes Rudy feel much better.
“This will be our toughest game of the year to date,” Rudy said. “We hope it compares [to the UNH game] in that they were big. These kids can move a little bit. We didn’t find UNH to be that quick.”
Unfortunately for the Minutewomen, all-conference midfielder Brooke Bartlett has aggravated an ankle injury she originally suffered in the preseason. The decision to play Bartlett will be a tough game time decision for Rudy. This is, after all, a player that dramatically changes the way an opposing team plays defense against the Maroon and White.
“Without [Brooke] on the field, that takes a lot of the pressure we can put on the other team off the field,” Rudy said.
In the September 23 match against Rhode Island, Ram coach Geoff Bennett changed his entire scheme to focus on stopping Bartlett, resulting in a 3-1 UMass win with three different Massachusetts players scoring on the URI defense.
With a size advantage and a speed that UMass didn’t have to deal with against New Hampshire, along with a banged up superstar, everyone involved expects a very competitive match.
“It is going to be a case of who blinks first and who gets the last goal,” Rudy said.
