Jackie Firenze sees both sides of the situation clearly.

The freshman midfielder is getting the chance to compete with players who have considerably more experience under their belts than she does. It’s a challenging task, but one that provides plenty of advantages.

“It’s both intimidating and fun but also really exciting,” said midfielder Jackie Firenze.

For the eight freshmen on the roster of this year’s women’s soccer team, competing against players four years older than they are is an everyday challenge. The Orange is a young team, but the inexperience hasn’t held the team back so far. The freshmen continue to prove they deserve playing time and will look to keep that up when Syracuse (1-1-1) begins a four-game road trip against St. Bonaventure (0-3-1) at 5 p.m. Friday.

“It’s pretty cool, it’s a different environment,” added forward Maya Pitts.

Firenze and Pitts are just two of the five freshmen who have contributed this year, and a few of them have even started.

The Orange has only played three games so far, but having a young lineup hasn’t hurt the team. Instead, perhaps the biggest struggle has nothing do to with age or experience at all.

The jump from high school to Division I athletics can be difficult, as the game’s speed, the players’ skills and the coaches’ quality can overwhelm some freshmen.

But the increase in level of play often makes players improve rapidly.

“All the freshmen have grown,” Wheddon said.

Both Pitts and Firenze said their game has already improved, but both know they still have work to do.

Firenze attributes much of her improvement to her coaches.  ‘

“Being around the quality players and staff I think a lot, and I’ve just been here for maybe a month now, so it’s great,” she said.

Both agree that having so many new players experience the difficulty and adjustment of a new level of play has allowed the group to become closer.

“We’re all very close. We’re getting closer also,” Firenze said.  “We kind of kept in touch throughout the summer, and when we heard someone was coming in we got together.”

Fortunately for Pitts, not everyone on the team was a stranger at first.

“I’ve known Alex (Sangiuliano) since we were in sixth grade, a couple are from (New) Jersey and we live near each other,” Pitts said.  “We went to camp together, we’ve known each other and been able to bond a lot.”

The strong play from Syracuse’s older players has made the transition easier for the freshmen. Sophomores Alexis Koval and Hanna Strong lead the team in points.

Koval, the Orange’s leading scorer, missed last season because of an injury, but she isn’t showing ill-effects of the time away from the field.

“Her contribution obviously has been fantastic,” Wheddon said. “She’s scoring goals, she’s difficult to mark, she makes intelligent runs. I couldn’t be happier with Alexis.”

Syracuse’s younger players continue to improve as the season progresses, and Wheddon said that will only continue. While experience might be limited, their dedication to improving is more than sufficient.

“There’s room to grow, and we’ve got a lot of raw talent that we can mold and develop,” Wheddon said. “So that obviously gives us more of an advantage. … But what they lack in experience they’re making up for in effort.”

 

Published on August 30, 2012 at 2:46 am

Contact Jack: jstruitt@syr.edu