COLUMN: Senior leadership, experience make CMU team to beat this season

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Many college sports teams rely on senior leadership to help guide them through the season.

That won’t necessarily be the case this year for the CMU women’s soccer team. The 2010 team only boasts three seniors on a roster that is almost fully complete of underclassmen.

However, whatever the team lacks in the number of senior leaders, it more than makes up for it in character and talent.

Goalkeeper Shay Mannino and midfielders Jenna Hill and Valerie Prause started every game last season for the Chippewas and are poised to make another run at an NCAA tournament birth.

Mannino, who has started every game for CMU since she was a sophomore, returns for her senior season looking for more accolades after being named MAC defensive player of the year.

With Mannino in goal, this team has a chance to compete with any team in the country. It doesn’t really matter how many goals you score if you’re not giving any up.

But Mannino isn’t the only senior star on the team. Along with Hill and Prause, the senior corps has started 139 games collectively. Their leadership more than makes up for the lack of experience from the underclassmen.

Prause tallied two goals and five assists last season, while Hill was more of a defensive specialist helping Mannino keep the ball out of the net on the other end of the field.

Hill said she doesn’t think there is added pressure this season after their success last year because they have the same mindset that they did last year. She said the team doesn’t want to talk about last season any more going forwar, and want to take this year one game at a time.

Hill and Mannino said the freshmen have responded well to their tutelage and will be ready to contribute to help the team as a whole.

“I don’t think we’ve missed a step this year,” Hill said about the youth on the team. “Talent wise, they’re so much better than we’ve seen.”

Although most players and coaches say last year is in the past and want to focus on this season, it’s hard to ignore the numbers. The team went 1,134 minutes without allowing a goal. It tallied 13 consecutive shutouts and 17 overall.

It won its first-ever NCAA tournament game and the fourth win for Mid-American Conference team ever. The team also finished the only undefeated MAC season in the conferences history.

This team learned how to win last season.

Head coach Tom Anagnost said the group of seniors know each other very well and are all on the same page. He said they are tireless workers and play the game the right way.

With the young talent mixed with those that have gotten significant playing time, the Chippewas will be the team to beat in the MAC this year.

Watch out, because they should make some more noise nationally.