In the last four years, the women’s soccer Sun Belt Conference tournament has been dominated by one team—the Denver Pioneers.
This year, the team plans to go for its fifth consecutive conference title and its eighth overall in the past 10 years, according to head coach Jeff Hooker.
However, the team, which has jumped out to a 6-2 start, isn’t looking too far ahead.
“We’re not there yet,” Hooker said. “But have played well against some PAC-10 schools [Washington State] and Big 12 [Nebraska and Colorado].”
Hooker enters his 19th season as coach of the Pioneers, and since his arrival in 1992, the soccer program has produced at least eight wins in all of his 18 seasons.
Over the last four years, the Pioneers have recorded a 68-17-8 record, a little below .775 winning percentage.
The teams’ dominance against SBC competition has been blantant under Hooker—the Pioneers have a 38-5-3 conference record during the last four seasons.
Despite losing four key seniors to graduation last year, the Pioneers have been able to win six of their first eight games.
“It’s the way college athletics works,” Hooker said. “Each year, we have to solve different problems, but this team gets along really well with one another.”
A main key to the team’s success this season has been the underclassmen; seven of whom are starters.
Kaitlin Bast, forward, is a homegrown Colorado sophomore and an up and coming leader of the team.
“The seniors are the one’s responsible for our success so far this season,” Bast said. “They show the rest of us great leadership. The seniors set the example for the rest of us.”
Bast was awarded Most Outstanding Player of the SBC Conference tournament last season. She also was placed on the the All-Tournament Team
Jessie Rogers, also from Colorado, said players fit well with one another.
“It has been rare all four years,” Rogers said. “It’s always been a close-knitted team.”
Rogers, the senior captain of the Pioneers, has been on the team all four years and has her own expectations for the rest of the season, especially when Denver starts its conference schedule on the road Friday evening against Middle Tennessee.
“We are a young, but talented team and have the ability to go deep in the season,” Rogers said. “We need to be good in the SBC and then go farther into the NCAA tournament [than last year’s team].”
So far, goaltending has been crucial for the Pioneers as sophomore Lara Campbell has been stellar between the posts, according to Hooker.
“She made big saves this past weekend to keep us in the game. She’s been big and active.”
Campbell, an Alaskan native, has recorded a shutout already this season against the University of Buffalo on August 29.
She also grabbed 26 saves, while only letting up 11 total goals so far this season.
Campbell’s play has obviously had an impact on the outcome of the season thus far, however the Pioneers have dominated their opponents in the categories of shots on goal, assists and corner kicks.
Last weekend, the Pioneers split a pair of games in the Colorado Soccer Classic, which took place in Boulder.
The team was defeated on Friday for the second time this season by UCLA, Hooker’s alma mater. However, they rebounded with a 2-1 win against Big Ten opponent Purdue in Sunday’s matchup.
With the team approaching a part of the season they have had a lot of success with in recent years, the Pioneers are concentrated on their opponents for the upcoming week.
“We have not talked about conference play,” Hooker said. “We are just taking it one week at a time. We have different goals we set each week.”
Steve Coulter contributed to this report.
