Summer Session: WKU Soccer
We’ve hit the dead period of the college sports calendar, so starting today we have decided to run a series of pieces exploring what each program on the Hill can improve upon heading into the 2019–20 college sports calendar.
Most of Matt’s Stats are lengthy, wordy articles with tons of research. I’m always researching, trying to explain what the heck is going up on The Hill with facts.
However, this shortened summer version is just going to be some quick hits on what each sport immediately can do to get better. I’m going to go in order of which sports start throughout the year.
Up first, we’re going to focus on the Lady Topper Soccer team. WKU plays its first exhibition on August 14 against Murray State. The soccer program received a ton of attention when the men’s team was cut in 2008. They came really close to making the NCAA tournaments in 2011 with future ProTopper Libby Stout carrying them to the Sun Belt Title Game before losing in a 4–3 penalty kick shootout. From 2006 to 2016, head coach Jason Neidell reeled off 11 straight winning seasons but couldn’t get over the hump and make the NCAA tournament.
The niche program has since faded back into the background. Western Soccer was 5–8–4 last season. Honestly, they were a good offensive team, led by all-conference Forward, Ambere Barnett, the Tops scored 1.88 goals per game good enough for 4th in Conference USA. They put up significantly more shots on goal, averaging 15.1 per game (compared to 11.9 for their opponents). That kept them in games as 14 of 18 games were one possession or less (4 ties) but it wasn’t enough to put WKU in the top tier of CUSA as they finished 10th out of 14 teams.
However, what is the stat that needs improving?
Scoring Defense.
On the surface, WKU allowing fewer goals that it scored would normally be the indicator of a strong season but alas they allowed way too many goals to be successful. On the season WKU allowed 1.647 goals per game, bad enough for 12th in the league. How do you negate a top-four offense? you do that with a porous defense that ranks in the bottom tier of the league.
Here’s how many goals allowed per game the top 5 teams in CUSA finished with
- North Texas- 0.62 goals per game
- FAU- 1.24 goals per game
- UAB- 1.00 goals per game
- Louisiana Tech- 1.20 goals per game
- Old Dominion- 0.89 goals per game
While WKU doesn’t have to be elite defensively to be successful they do need to learn how to slow down the other teams in order to take advantage of their offense. Another defensive stat that shows WKU’s lack of aggression defensively is their foul numbers. WKU ranked last in Conference USA with 134 fouls on the season (7.4 fouls per game). CUSA champion North Texas totaled 252 fouls per game (12 fouls per game). That foul number directly corresponded with their dominant defense. Like in basketball, fouls can be a good indicator of defensive effort and WKU’s number sticks out immensely.
Luckily for WKU, they return several players from last year’s squad including Barnett, who will just be a sophomore. Goalkeeper Bailee Witt (sister of offensive lineman Tyler Witt) was just a freshman last season as well, so she should improve. Neidell also brought in Samford grad transfer Lucy Lyon to help the midfield. The team will have 11 upperclassmen on the roster as well. All that adds up to their first winning season since 2016 should they improve on defense.
Stay tuned for more in the summer session series. Next up Volleyball, who is looking to rebound from their worst season since 1999.
