W. Soccer: Optimism, tempered by four sad roster realities

The Quakers knew the injuries would come and that they wouldn't be pleasant. But for a team with no seniors, a disabled list that had grown three regulars deep by sunset on the first day of preseason has been a tricky hole to fill.

Women's soccer coach Darren Ambrose detailed on Tuesday the offseason ailments of Allison Rosenbloom (chronic illness, which caused her to retire) Allyson Gordon (anterior cruciate ligament), and Marisa Stock (second ACL) that meant they would be out for the forseeable future. The big blow came at the team's opening practice, when speedy junior Nicki White, a stalwart on the back line, was hurt and banished from the field for months as well.

"Losing Nicki on the first day is tough for us to deal with," Ambrose said. "Emotionally, you can't replace somebody like that."

"That's a killer right there, that we're losing Nicki; she was a huge part of the team," said junior Natalie Capuano, the team's durable All-Ivy midfielder. "Injuries, we knew it would be something that would come. We hope not, but it did."

The Quakers' first test is tomorrow against St. Louis, kicking off a fortuitous stretch of four home games. Getting themselves "a sense of rotation of players" was a task yet to be completed, Ambrose said, and it has been thrown a bit by the sudden loss of White.

Contingency planning, though, was never a focus.

"Coming into preseason that was one of the things we wanted to try and avoid," Capuano said. "We specifically talked about that. But now that it's come we've just been trying to deal with it and working around it."

At least one other rotation is about to get complicated as well.

The injury bug has bitten the goalkeeping corps, although the full extent of sophomore Sara Rose's recent setback - it could be a tweak or much more - is not yet clear.

Rose started seven games and logged 560 minutes in her rookie season. Classmate Cailly Carroll saw slightly more action. And the emergence this preseason of freshman Gina Winters means that Penn's two-headed platoon in goal could soon expand to three.

"In the last 48 hours, [Winters has] done a great job. She's actually now going to throw her hat in the ring," Ambrose said. "The difference is she is a freshman, and she's a little nervous and a little unsure of herself."

Rose and Carroll ranked second and fourth, respectively, in goals against average among Ivy keepers last season, and first and fourth in save percentage. The odds still favor those two getting nearly all of the minutes.

"It's not preordained that they split time, its that they earn it and they keep it until the other one takes it from them," Ambrose said.

Playing the optimist, he found a silver lining in his team's plight.

"Small numbers means that it allows the relationships to develop more easily," Ambrose said. "And also I think there are stronger relationships between players."

But right now, a further thinning of the ranks is the No. 1 fear both among the coach and his players.

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