Working back from a few early injuries, the Lady Cav’s soccer team have kept their spirits high. They worked through this burden together and are closer for this.
The loss of junior goalie Melissa Williams was one of the hardest hits to the team. She was MVP of the conference playoffs in 2004, when Cabrini came from the number four seed to win the title. In her stead, coach Ken Prothero, placed Lea Conti, who has had little experience, in goal, but she has done extremely well, despite such a burden resting on her shoulders. Conti was supposed to start as back in the beginning of the season but has made the transition well.
With their roster down to only 16 players, the Lady Cavs have dubbed themselves the “Sweet 16.” They recently have aquired warm up jerseys with “Sweet 16” inscribed on them.
This lack of healthy players has hurt the ladies. With opposing teams substituting players left and right, the Cavs are left with tired and worn players, who know that a break is a rarity. Even though this lack of players has hurt them earlier in the season, it should be a rewarding end of the season with players coming back slowly but surely.
In one of their more recent games, the Lady Cavs beat Immaculata 5-1. Three of these goals were in the first seven minutes of the game. The scorers included: Jess Cuffari, Nikki Dugan, Mandy Urquhart, Chris Kedra and Brittany Shields. Cabrini had 35 shots on goal, while Immaculata had an embarrasing four.
Their record as of Oct. 15 was 3-9, but coming off of the 5-1 victory over Immaculata, they plan to end the season in a blaze of glory. They have four games left in regular season and more than half of them will be played at home. The one game which is going to be played away is at Eastern, so the Lady Cavs should have a warm welcome for the rest of the season. And with healthy players coming back each day it looks to be a promising finish.
Along with their busy schedule, games every two or three days, the ladies made time to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They put together tricolored ribbons: purple, green and yellow. They were handmade and sold at the cafeteria, Jazzman’s and at the fourth annual Citizens Caring Volunteer Fair on Sept. 8. They were sold for a dollar a piece, but they were taking more generous donation. The girls raised more than $1,000 with this campaign.
