Lady Lancers Headed To NCCAA Soccer Tournament
Anthony Gadson
Sports Writer
WINONA LAKE - After returning to campus from their Thanksgiving festivities, the Grace College Lady Lancers soccer team will prepare for a trip to the NCCAA National Tournament in Kissimmee, Fla.
The girls will load into vans Sunday, traveling to Atlanta, Ga., where they'll spend the night with friends and family.
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Monday, they'll get back into those vans and make their way to sunny Kissimmee.
"They're excited, but also focused," Grace head coach Michael Voss said. "They know there's a water slide at the hotel we're going to, but I've told them there's going to be a limit on that water slide. We're not going down there to play in the pool. We're going down there to represent the (Mid-Central College Conference) and Grace College. We want to give the glory to God and ball it up."
The tournament features eight teams, allowing the sixth-seeded Lancers to play four games in three days, getting started Dec. 2 at 2:30 p.m. against third-seeded Judson University.
The top-seeded Olivet Nazarene University enters the tournament as the favorite, having been ranked 18th in the final NAIA poll, but Voss is confident.
"Olivet's been in the NAIA top 25 all season and Judson is a good side," Voss said. "(No. 2) Master's (College) is very competent, coming out of the (Golden State Athletic Conference)."
"There is no one to sneeze at in the tournament," he added.
After going 36-67-4 between 2003 and 2008, getting into this year's national tournament may have come as a surprise, but Voss credits a change in philosophy for the turnaround in this year's 14-4-2 squad.
"The culture is different," he said. "The girls are willing to work in the preseason, in the offseason, and during the summer they're working at camps."
That work has paid off as Voss has instituted a new kind of offense to Grace, which is predicated on keeping possession of the ball, rather than just booting it around.
"They've really bought into the possession-attack futbol," Voss said. "It's the style we want to go with.
"You need technical players to run the offense," he added. "The players need to be able to see the entire field and get balance on the field. It's not about being able to play well individually, but collectively."
And the offense has also succeeded based on the mixture of veteran leadership and youthful exuberance.
"The new girls really love it and the older players have really bought into it," Voss said.
The offense has also allowed many girls to shine, as the statistics are spread pretty evenly.
"The offense doesn't have one girl with 25 goals, but you might have two or three with eight or nine (goals)," Voss said.
Grace's leading scorer is freshman Elizabeth Heuss, who has nine goals, followed by eight by junior Natalie Anderson and six from senior Sara Morgan. Senior Amy Abbitt holds the team lead with eight assists, while freshman Jocelyn Evans has seven and senior Laura Burns and Morgan each have five.
"All the players are very important to the system," the coach said.
An added bonus for the Grace squad will be the addition of junior Holly Tetro to the mix, who will make her return to the lineup after breaking her leg in a Sept. 19 win over Holy Cross.
"Hopefully we can get 15 to 20 minutes out of her," Voss said of Tetro, who had two goals and three assists in only eight games. "She adds another midfielder, along with (senior) Amy Kuhl and Amy Abbitt."
So with a full roster, Voss is optimistic his girls can make some noise in their first national tournament in over a decade.
"We're going down to win," he said.
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