A Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team with aspirations of being a national title contender continued its preparations in the twilight Thursday.
The Skyhawks are hoping the twilight of their season is sometime far, far away.
The second-seeded Skyhawks will watch as No. 3 seed St. Edward’s and No. 6 seed Texas A&M-Commerce do battle at 2 p.m. Friday for the right to face them at 1 p.m. Sunday at Dirks Field with a trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 on the line.
“Two out of the last three training sessions have been pretty sharp, and that’s always, you know, exciting going into obviously a huge game,” FLC head coach Damian Clarke said Thursday.
The numbers suggest that goals in the South Central Region should be at a premium the next two weekends. Of the teams in Durango this weekend, St. Edward’s is eighth, FLC 16th and Texas A&M-Commerce 43rd nationally in goals-against average. On the other half of the bracket, Colorado Mines is fourth, Midwestern State 40th and Metro State 52nd in the same category.
The onus will be on the Skyhawks (16-5-0) to both continue to pepper the opposing net with shots and to cash in on a few more opportunities. In their last five games, the Skyhawks have fired 15, 14, 16, 15 and 14 shots for a total of 74, an average of just less than 15 shots a game.
FLC, however, has tallied just once each in all five of those games, going 3-2-0, with both of those losses coming to the unbeaten Orediggers.
“It’s even more important that we put even more shots on because it seems as though we have one goal per 10 shots, so hopefully it will keep getting better,” said midfielder Therese Romero, who was named a captain Thursday alongside fellow seniors Lauren Riley and Megan Striedel.
But, for FLC, one often is enough. FLC has allowed just 12 total goals this season and has 13 shutouts in 21 games. That’s a shutout percentage of .619, good for 13th in the nation. And the Skyhawks defend from the front on back, pressuring the ball with forwards and midfielders in hopes of keeping it out of their half, though the back four is more than difficult to deal with on their own.
“I think it’s a mindset that I think these kids have a lot of experience to have the correct mindset going into this knowing that we defend as a unit first,” Clarke said.
The Skyhawks appear to be as healthy as can be expected after the rigors of a full season. Starting central midfielder Jordan Hix, who missed the last two games of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament with a sprained ankle, practiced in full Thursday and looks to be ready for action come Sunday.
A majority of the senior class is looking to take their journey full circle. They came in as members of the FLC team that advanced to the Elite Eight in 2010, and they’ll be trying to end their careers by going every bit as deep as seniors.
“It’s the most important goal we have,” Romero said. “I think our class of seniors is extremely determined to make it just as far if not farther. ... I don’t think Sunday will be our last game. It won’t be; our hearts and our minds won’t let it be.”
rowens@durangoherald.com
