April 1, 2003

EVANSTON, Ill. - In spite of a 2002 season that fell short of expectations, Northwestern women's soccer coach Jenny Haigh enters the 2003 spring season with heightened optimism.

Of course, there are numerous reasons to be. For one thing, a quick rundown of the roster shows that almost all the starters from last year are back, including a pair of All-Big Ten players in Aileen Guiney and Molly Greene. More impressively, every point scorer from last season figures to be in uniform again in 2003.

"We are in a good position in that we return so many starters," said Haigh. "We can really focus on getting better as a team instead of working on developing skills or doing tactical stuff; we are training with players who have already played a lot of college soccer.

"Our winter training went really well, and we finished off with a day of competition with some high-caliber local clubs and fared well," she continued. "We hope to extend that level into the spring training."

Though Northwestern only returned from spring break on March 30, the Wildcat women will jump right into spring competition: they host Western Michigan Saturday at 1 p.m., then participate in the Purdue Spring Tournament Sunday afternoon.

Those are the first two of four intercollegiate events NU will compete in this spring. The 'Cats will also take part in the Illinois Spring Tourney on Saturday, April 12, before hosting Wisconsin and DePaul for a round-robin day at Lakeside Field two weeks later.

The spring will conclude with a "Play Day" clinic the morning of Saturday, May 3 on Long Field, followed by the annual Alumni Game pitting the current NU team against former Wildcat stars that afternoon on Lakeside Field.

A complete spring schedule is listed below.

"Our goal is to go through the spring and be undefeated," said Haigh. "We are playing a lot of mini-games and doubleheaders, so we'll be able to get a lot of people to see a lot of time. We will see a lot of regional opponents, and even some other Big Ten teams, but I think we'll see many different levels in the caliber of our various opponents."

After fielding a relatively inexperienced squad in 2002, Haigh is eager to get her group back outside on the pitch. She senses that the players are also anxious to get started.

"The seniors, especially, have a sense of how important the spring is," she said. "They are ready to compete right now; they will be our backbone in the coming months. We want to increase our expectations for the 2003 season, we are trying to focus on being better athletes, better competitors, and better leaders. We want the spring to feel like it's the real thing to our players."

NU WOMEN'S SOCCER SPRING 2003 SCHEDULE

Saturday, April 5
Western Michigan @ NU, 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 6 -- Purdue Spring Tourney (West Lafayette, Ind.)
Miami (Ohio) vs. NU, 1:00 p.m.
NU vs. Purdue, 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 12 -- Illinois Spring Tourney (Champaign, Ill.)
Indiana State vs. NU, 11 a.m.
NU vs. St. Louis, 3:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 26 -- NU Spring Friendlies (Evanston)
NU vs. DePaul, noon
Wisconsin vs. DePaul, 1:15 p.m.
Wisconsin vs. NU, 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 3
"Play Day" (clinic) @ Long Field, 9-11 a.m.
Alumni Game @ Lakeside Field -- current NU vs. Alumni, 1 p.m.