2012 Charlotte 49ers Fall Sports Preview - Women's Soccer

Welcome back inside our Broadcast Communications studios inside the Library in the center of the campus
of UNC Charlotte. I'm Ryan Rose with you as we
take a closer look now at women's soccer Coach John Cullen back for a fourth year
he's a senior now
after graduating now four years as a head coach here
and I didn't realize that
Lacey McGowan
was one of your recruits before you got hired on and you brought her here she is a
senior sitting with us here and junior Sarah Ann Waugh so here
That's kind of a cool story you get some one you build a relationship with she
trusts you you trust her
I'm going somewhere else why don't you come play for me how how did that come
about
absolutely I agree with you I mean you know see when you're looking for
recruits in Division Two level you look at players who potentially you think in your
own mind can play Division One
and so when the opportunity arose for me at position here at UNC Charlotte
obviously I was excited
reached out to Lacey and her family I always thought of her as a very high
player good character good qualities and would
love for her to get on the Division One level so it worked out really well for
me and her. You get an offer from a D2 and all of a sudden you get an offer from a D1
from the same guy that's got to be a nice summer
It was
It was definitely a new direction that I thought I was going but
I'm very appreciative of it
and uh...
I know that
being in Charlotte is definitely where I'm supposed to be and I love it
loved every minute I'm here so. And being from Georiga that put you
thirty minutes closer to home than you would be if you were up in Salisbury.
that's true
Statesville is where Sarah Ann is from so you're we will consider you a local kid
and you've been here for now your third season. Now you two are defenders on the team and
there's a lot of experience back there, can you tell us about how
confident you guys are defensively coming into this season
uh... I'm very confident just uh... based on what I've seen so far in preseason
everyone seemed to be working together and
it's gonna strong year back there definitely
now up front we'll see some new faces you graduated a lot of players and and uh...
let's talk about some of the fresh faces coming in and some of the choices you're
going to have come up as a season gets going.
yeah like you said we graduated a lot of uh... experienced players up front so
that's probably the
part of the field that we've had the greatest turnover
so we brought in a lot of young players to contend for those positions upfront
we've also got a nice sophomore class
had a had a good spring break out so we're looking at some of our returners like
Sara Trexler, Dakota Olson and also another
senior Carrie Dail to contribute to the goals
or other young players upfront we're hopeful of big things Alex Meyers
uh... Tori Fubara we're looking at uh... Katie Thomas
There's probably about nine players competing for those three spots so that's one of those parts
of preseason that's real competitive everyday. Now as we look at the schedule
for this year
you weren't given any nod of favor on the schedule and we're going to see you
guys a lot in September virtually six of your seven matches in september will be
at Transamerica Field get your tickets now
get online and uh... find out when they're playing
but then October hits and then boom five straight matches on the road before
you two at home that is kind of one of these
you need to build some momentum at home before have to hit the road for quite a bit
Definitely yeah I mean like you said we have to get some momentum going into
conference play
and we put a very good non conference schedule together
um... bringing the likes of Wake Forest last year's Final Four, clemson ACC
um... you know those kind of games will get is prepared for the conference.
The conference is going to be a tough one this year. It's our last year in the A-10
and we definitely want to leave a good landmark and
good statement we're hoping to go out on a very positive note
but we're playing virtually all of the top teams besides ourselves in the conference and
many of those on the road so we've definitely got the challenge but uh... there is no better way
to finish our last year in the Atlantic Ten with
playing the best that there are out there and uh... We're excited I mean that road trip
will say a lot about our season but
we can come out there with a really positive string of results it sets us
up nicely
Lacey I know it's no fun to finish on the road thankfully you get your last two
matches your senior year at home including Butler
who we don't really know that much about we haven't played them so that's gotta be kind of
a neat thing
to be able to have senior day at home the last week of the regular season
It is and you know that you will always have
familiar faces at home at that moment and it just makes the whole day that
much more just emotionally
fulfilling for you it will be great and I know Sarah Ann wants to make sure this
the senior class gets sent off in style
can you talk just a quick second about some of the home crowds that have
come and supported you guys over the years. Yeah so far since I've been here
they've been great there's no better thing than playing at
home in front of your fans
hearing them cheer you on in the late minutes of the game when you're
exhausted just their energy that they bring is just what keeps you going and it's going to be
a phenomenal way for the seniors this to end their season here at home
and I know they're excited, we're excited for it too.
And a great place to play of course you've been around the conferences in the region
one of the nicer
facilities to play in we keep adding to it every year and it keeps getting
nicer and nicer it's gotta be a great place to recruit and also to play
matches. It's a fantastic place um... you know that the Transamerica Soccer
stadium
the new tennis facility football stadium I think I think UNC Charlotte could host the
Olympics it looks like
I think so too he's got a point I've been here seven years and there aren't a whole lot
of buildings that were here when I started so
new construction
lot of fun and we expect to see you out at Transamerica Field as uh... the ladies
hit the pitch here in just a few weeks and as I said lots of matches in September but
don't forget about that
those two at the end of
October as we send them out and then push them out to Rhode Island for the
Conference Tournament and hopefully maybe some more after that, hopefully that's the plan this year
John Cullen thank you so much for dropping by
looks like we grabbed them right off the pitch they're in full uniform
We've got Lacey McGowen and Sarah Ann Waugh thank you ladies good luck best of health have fun this last year
you can check out all of the sports at Charlotte49ers.com we will see you out
on the field or on the courts. Go Niners.