By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The Atlantic 10 portion of the season has arrived.
And while the St. Bonaventure women’s soccer team may have begun conference play with a 1-0 defeat to VCU, what the team gained in experience will be valuable for the remainder of the season, according to coach Melissa Sherwood.
This year’s Bonnies squad is made up of a number of transfers that had never experienced an A10 matchday before. This led to an early hesitancy, one that resulted in the concession of possession for a grand majority of the affair. But as the fixture progressed, Bona found a groove. It may not have been able to pull itself out from the clutches of defeat come full time, but now the players know what to expect moving forward.
“We have a lot of transfers, we have a lot of players who, this was their first time out in the A10,” Sherwood said. “With that comes a little bit of anticipation or surprise factor. They don’t quite know what they’re going to get or what to expect. And I think that they realized today that, ‘yeah, it’s the A10, but we’re capable.’ So, we hopefully got rid of that today, and now we know that we can compete because we had half chances. … Now we can look forward to the rest of the games in conference play, knowing that we’re more than capable of competing with everybody.”
The first half possessions numbers spoke to that hesitancy Sherwood recognized. The Rams controlled the ball for just shy of 80% over the first 45 minutes, pressing and probing the Bonnies’ penalty area, looking for the best window to strike.
The visitors eventually found a breakthrough in the 18th minute as Y-Van Nguyen picked out the well-timed run of Jensyn Lins with a through ball, leaving her with the lone job of passing into the back of the net.
VCU continued to apply pressure throughout the half, but was unable to double its advantage before a halftime interval that allowed Bona to recoup.
In the second half, it was clear the Bonnies had an interest in playing the spoiler as they went from seeing almost none of the ball in the first half to asking questions of their own of the Rams’ defensive line.
“We moved the press a little bit higher to respond to how they were building up and I think once we did that, they started giving the ball away more,” Sherwood said. “We knew we had to be defensive in the first half. Was it a little bit too much respect? Possibly. So, yeah, in the second half we were more aggressive, pressed them higher, and we got better chances.”
St. Bonaventure’s Nayelle Heredia (26) sends in a corner kick against VCU. (Spencer Bates)
Sherwood also took the time to credit the level of fitness her team displayed as they pushed for an equalizer down to the final whistle. Being a team that, not only is coming together for the first time, but came together later in the offseason, she noted that the work her players have put in to get to the level at which they are at now has been nothing short of admirable.
“In terms of turning up for the first day of preseason, the fitness levels weren’t at the level that you would want, and certainly not up to the level of our opponents in conference play,” Sherwood said. “But eight weeks in, and with conference play starting, the fitness levels have improved. In the professional game, you only get five (substitutions). At college, you can rotate in and out, it makes sense to use that to your advantage. If we’ve got people that are capable of coming in and giving us fresh legs, then we’re going to use them.”
It was a commendable effort by Bona, but no equalizer was in the cards as they moved to 0-1 in A10 play and 3-4-2 overall on the season. But, for Sherwood, at least her players will now be able to take away a sense of belief that they can compete in the league after gaining the experience they did against VCU.
“Sometimes when you go into the unknown, some players, depending on their character, will go into that fearless and ready for it, other players might be a little bit edgy, or the players may be a bit hesitant,” Sherwood said. “Everybody’s different. But now that everyone’s had that collective experience, they should have belief, know what to expect, and take confidence in knowing that we’re good enough to compete with everybody in the league.”
St. Bonaventure will look to get its first A10 win of the season in its next game, set for Sept. 25 at 7 p.m., at home against Davidson.
