Soccer looks to be more aggressive against West Virginia

Central Michigan women’s soccer head coach Tom Anagnost was all smiles after practice Wednesday morning, a far cry from his reaction after a pair of wins two weeks ago.

Although his team suffered its first loss of the season against Iowa Sunday, Anagnost later said he thought CMU was the better team for most of the game.

CMU gave up its first goal of the season in the 1-0 loss against the Hawkeyes, but look to rebound at 7 p.m. Saturday when it travels to Morgantown, W.V., to play the Mountaineers in its third of five consecutive road games.

Anagnost said he still wants to see his team to be more aggressive on offense, despite out-shooting opponents 81-26 in four games this season.

“We had no aggression (against Iowa),” he said. “Our forwards played like midfielders. We settled for a lot of shots outside the box.”

Anagnost said his team worked on its aggressiveness this week in practice and hopes it translates to the field against WVU.

“(I expect we”ll) compete real hard and play smart,” he said. “(We need) to be a smarter, more mature team then we were at the end of Sunday’s game.”

Senior goalkeeper Shay Mannino said she agreed that the team needs to be more aggressive in order to take advantage of out-shooting opponents.

“This week we focused on being aggressive in practice so it will be different in the game on Saturday,” she said. “We’re really just breaking things down what we need to do to beat West Virginia.”

Mannino has been splitting time in goal with Sophomore Stefanie Turner; something she wasn’t accustomed to after boasting 17 solo shutouts last season. But Mannino said she wants to do what’s best for the team and won’t let the lack of playing time affect her.

“I think it doesn’t really matter how many minutes I get on the field,“ she said. “I’m doing my best, leading my team and helping us get a win.”

Mannino said being on the road is harder for the team, but said she’s not worried about playing a Big East team.

“We always do the best we can,” she said. “They’re a great team but I think we can easily beat them. We just have to do what we do best.”

Earlier this week Mannino was named the 2010 recipient of the school’s Dick Enberg Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. The award is presented annually to a junior student-athlete who excels at the highest levels both athletically and academically. Mannino is the fourth recipient in the award’s history. She will be formally recognized at halftime of the Homecoming football game Oct. 16.

Mannino said the award is a great accomplishment especially to start out the year. She said she strives to do as well in the classroom as she does on the field, but said she doesn’t want to focus on individual awards, and wants to focus on WVU.