Aug. 24, 2007

NEWARK, NJ - It became official this summer--women's soccer is the first NJIT women's sport to achieve full NCAA Division I championship eligibility.

The Highlanders also have a new conference for 2007 season, as NJIT is the sixth member of the women's soccer-only United Soccer Conference.

NJIT faces the new challenges in an atmosphere of change. Of the 21 players on the 2007 preseason roster, 10 are freshmen. Three 2006 injury redshirts are expected to stage comebacks and a fourth veteran, Aine O'Dwyer, is back after completing her four-year NJIT basketball career. She played 12 soccer games in 2005, but did not play the sport in 2006.

The result is a rarity, as the seven returning 2006 letterwinners make up a third of the 2007 preseason roster.

"I anticipate a balance between the incoming players and the returning players," said head coach Alyssa Radu, who enters her fourth year as head coach. "It's the best team we've ever had on paper."

NJIT began 2006 with 15 players, a count that was quickly reduced by season-ending injuries to Erika Taugher, Emma Vinski and Stephanie Macias. Walk-ons came to the rescue, but it was asking a lot for them to compete against Division I college players.

Radu and her team are clearly aware of the limitations they faced in 2006 and the opportunity they face now. "Tactically, we had to play a certain way (heavily focused on the defensive half) last year," she said. "Now we can play with more balance and use different combinations and encourage players to take risks in the offensive third, which was out of the question last year."

Another challenge will be to develop cohesion on and off the field and what soccer people call "understanding" on the field.

"Two weeks (of preseason practice) is a short time," said Radu. "But we worked really hard to connect everyone. Technology is a great thing--you can use the internet and cell phones to get to know people before you've actually met them face-to-face."

That networking brings together the newcomers and a group of veterans who went through a challenging first season of Division I competition, followed by a good spring practice.

"The players who played in Division I understand the pace at this level and you can see it now," Radu noted. "The freshmen come from winning programs and many them played at a high club level up until a couple of weeks before college began. The older people will teach a lot to the younger people. But the younger people have a chance to teach the older people, too."

This year's attack will be diverse, especially compared to 2006. The leading candidates on attack are: 2006 returnee Briana Morales; O'Dwyer, Taugher, the injury redshirt; and, freshman Xiomara Medina.

Morales scored two goals in 2006. "Bri is someone who, in her first game (in 2005) against Drexel (a Division I team when NJIT was still Division II) and you could say, 'she fits in Division I'. And she's gotten better since then."

Taugher, who represented Portugal at the full national level in the spring of 2006, played in just one college game last season before being sidelined. An all-conference player at the Division II level, she is on the brink of school records for most goals, assists and points.

Medina, from Florida, adds speed to the NJIT lineup. An all-area high school pick as a junior defensive midfielder, she moved to center forward midway through her senior season and notched three goals and an assist in her second contest at the new spot.

On the flanks are veterans Krista Cohen and Emma Vinski. Cohen, a regular, has appeared in 31 games in two seasons. Vinski scored a goal in 13 games before being sidelined with knee problems in 2005 and her injury trouble continued when she missed the whole 2006 season.

Radu identifies center midfield as the position with the most internal competition. Morales and Medina are in the fray here, too, joined by senior stalwarts Amanda Bayiokos and Katie Hepfinger and rookies Kyrsten Howell-Harries and Christi Taylor.

Bayiokos, voted MVP by her 2005 teammates, begins 2007 with 43 college appearances under her belt. Hepfinger, the 2004 MVP, has 44 career games entering 2007.

Howell-Harries, from London, Ontario, started for the strong London City Lightning adult team in 2006 and capped her high school career by helping AB Lucas to the 2007 Ontario Provincial gold medal in June. Taylor was all-Passaic County (NJ) playing at Hawthorne Christian.

In the back, 2006 starters Dena Baskous, the only captain named before the start of preseason training, and Katie DeRosa are pillars.

Baskous, who played her freshman season at national power UConn, was a Division II all-region honoree for NJIT in 2005. She was strong season in 2006, too. DeRosa, a quality defender, has shown the ability to score. As a freshman in 2005, she had two goals and an assist in 14 games. She started all 15 games in 2006, but was held back some by the injury-dictated defensive tactics.

Stephanie Macias is a veteran who missed all of 2006 due to injury. Freshmen Michelle Borth, Melissa Paul and Mary Munoz will be heard from. Sarah Rusciano, another freshman, can play midfield or forward, while classmate Kori Washington is another versatile athlete.

Borth, at 5-10, and Paul, at 5-9, bring height and talent to the defense. Washington played on four straight New Jersey prep school champions at the Pennington School. Munoz played in one of New Jersey's strongest scholastic leagues, the Shore Conference. Rusciano captained a high school team that won a New York state section title.

Noting the uncertainty of forecasting roles before the team has stepped on the field together, Radu advised: "Everything is open competition. We'll figure it out throughout preseason."

The team has two goalkeepers in camp. Grad student Angelica Sepulveda, who enters her third season, is the incumbent and Sadie Mele is an exciting freshman,

Sepulveda had never played competitive soccer when she tried out for the 2005 Highlanders. Circumstances thrust her between the posts for the 2005 opener, when then-Division II NJIT visited Division I Drexel and NJIT lost, 6-0. By season's end, she had played 164 minutes with a 4.93 goals against average in 164 minutes.

A year later, in 2006, she played in 11 games and posted a team-best 3.26 goals against average, including 110 minutes and 13 saves for NJIT's first-ever Division I shutout, a 0-0 tie vs. Saint Peter's.

Mele was New Mexico's District I Player of the Year and second team all-state with a 0.55 goals against average in a senior year that saw her make 104 saves while yielding only eight goals.

"It's Angelica's job to lose." said Radu. "But Sadie has the tools to be quick to impress. They're two different styles--Angelica is tall and strong and Sadie has a leaping, cat-like style."

Aside from the new United Soccer Conference matches, many of the 2007 games are return engagements from the 2006 schedule. "It's going to be exciting to use last year and this year as a measuring stick of how far we've come. Last year's experience (facing a Division I schedule for the first time) was different. But now were going in with a completely different look."