WAVERLY, Iowa-- Third-year head women's soccer coach, Tiffany Pins, is excited about another great season as her players have been working really hard in the preseason. Wartburg aims to compete for an Iowa Conference championship and return for the third year in a row to the NCAA Tournament.
The entire backline returns for the Knights which helped record seven shutout wins last year.
The returners on defense include senior Lauren Bauer (La Porte City), sophomore Lisa Trizzino (Bettendorf) and junior Brinkly Werkman (Cedar Rapids).
"Lauren has started for us in the center and outside back positions and is an extremely vocal leader on the field and will also be one of our captains," said Pins.
"Trizzino is a sophomore and played left back for us last year and is an incredibly talented player in fitness and in talented," she continued. "Brinkly started every game last season and her confidence is at an all-time high."
While the program did graduate its three-year goal keeper in Monica Noti, Pins sees junior Katie Reinhardt (Waverly) as the leading contender for the starting spot with two young players also in contention.
"(Reinhardt) has been in the program the last two years and has stepped on the field in some tough games, has filled in when we needed her and is another vocal leader," commented Pins.
On the attack, she sees junior Ashley Frush (LaPorte City) and senior Rachel Torry (Urbandale) emerging as leading scorers. "Frush returns in the midfield and Torry is very quick on the ball and see them stepping into bigger scoring positions," said Pins.
Some others that Pins sees emerging this season are sophomore Keri Golinghorst (Dixon), junior Tia Hagy (Muscatine) and senior Taylor Shaw (Ely). "They have put in a ton of work in the off-season and it has shown in preseason," she said.
The team welcomes a number of newcomers to its roster and Pins has seen them step in right away. "Our freshman class all came from incredibly high-level club and high school teams and can see some of them earning opportunities to play," said Pins.
Some of those include Madison Astgen (Dubuque), Olivia Jansen (Johnsburg, Ill.) and Taylor Woods (Waukee). "They have all played up top in club and high school and are natural goal scorers," stated Pins.
No different than in years past, the Orange and Black will play a rigorous nonconference schedule. "This season, we got rid of games where we won 4 or 5 or 6-0 and replaced those with teams that will challenge us more," said Pins.
"We will play some of the top teams in the region in Wisconsin and Minnesota and it's going to be a schedule where we hit the ground running on Friday and it never really lets up until the end of the season," she continued. "This is by design and a good challenge as we need to play the really good teams if we want to be the best that we can be."
Wartburg was picked to finish second behind Loras in the Iowa Conference standings in the annual preseason coaches poll. "As always, the conference schedule is going to be incredibly tough," stated Pins. "I think a lot of teams feel that they have our number and this is the year to get us and it's fun to have that type of challenge. Loras always has a good squad and is going to be a talented group again. We need to stay disciplined as every team will play their best game against us."
The Knights will host St. Olaf to open the season Friday, Aug. 30 at 5 p.m.
