By Kyle Kandetzki - SPORTS EDITOR
With the Hofstra women’s soccer season in full swing, and his team sitting at 8-3 so far, we caught up with head coach Simon Riddiough to look back and ahead on his 2015 campaign.
KYLE KANDETZKI: You start the season 0-2 against ranked national teams in Rutgers and Penn State, how have you gotten the team to stay consistent since? SIMON RIDDIOUGH: When you play those BCS schools, and when you look at the latest RPI rankings, Rutgers is two in the nation, and Penn State are four, we knew we were going to be challenged that first weekend, we knew it was going to be tough to get a good result. And at that stage of our season, we’re more concentrating on how we’re going to improve, how our system is going to be, who is going to show up. And that’s what these weekends are all about. So that first weekend, as much as it was tough, it allowed us to really evaluate what we needed to do moving forward, and that’s what we’ve done so far.
KK: For Jill Mulholland, as she has been oft-injured, how have you gotten her back into game shape and playing well recently?You allow players to do it SR: themselves. You don’t want to push them, because they know their bodies better than we do. And Jill came in in great shape, but probably not great soccer shape. But right now she’s starting to get her confidence high, she’s playing well. And we think she is going to continue to be a bright spot in our season.
KK: Stony Brook returned to your schedule for the first time since 2008, what did you think of the hype of winning that rivalry? SR: I’m always a big fan of playing local teams, especially something on Long Island like Stony Brook. It is a good rivalry, we get a good crowd, and it’s financially easy for us both to do. It just makes sense to play it, and it was exciting, it was a good game, and it is something we can continue to do.
KK: Sophomore Kristin Desmond has already almost statistically outdone her numbers from last season. Has her play been a surprise or expected? SR: We expect big things from Dezzy, she’s a great player, she is very versatile, and last year she was a brilliant center back for us. This year we’re looking to her to play as a forward and wreak havoc as a forward, and she’s doing both. We’ll keep fluctuating and using her as versatile as possible, depending on the game and the situation. We’re going to use her in different positions and that’s what is great about her, she’s an ultimate team player.
KK: Madeline Anderson and Jenn Buoncore have already gotten starting roles as freshmen, what have you seen from them? SR: Maddie has been brilliant. She’s a lockdown type defender; she gives us much needed speed and presence back there. She’s been a fantastic addition to the program, and we knew she was going to be that. Jenn has been more of a surprise. We expected to see quality minutes, we expected her to contribute, [but] what we didn’t expect as big of a contribution as she has been. She’s extremely effective, her height and size causes problems for everybody, it’s a bad matchup for a lot of people, and we hope to continue that to our strengths.
KK: Goalie Ashley Wilson returned last week and surrendered a goal in 15 minutes of play. What do you think of her play, and the goalie competition with Friederike Mehring as a whole? SR: Ashley’s been out for 18 months, from last year she had been injured, then she had surgery. She’s back, and when that happens, especially at the goalkeeper position, you’re going to lack a bit of confidence, and that’s what she did. She was very nervous, but she settled in, she got a couple of saves in, and ultimately we can use that as motivation to push her to get fitter and healthier. And hopefully in a couple of weeks we’ll be ready to have a proper competition between the goalkeepers. Freddi’s been good, but inconsistent. Good one game, and the next game, and she needs to get better mentally on that side as well.
KK: Every team in the CAA comes into the weekend above .500. What has it been like seeing the transformation of the conference over your years here? SR: It ebbs and flows. Some years we have great years and others we have average years. This year seems to be great, we’ve got seven teams in the top 101. Delaware being 101 and Drexel 99. When you’ve got seven teams in the top 101 RPI, that shows you the strength of our conference. And I don’t think there’s any other sport on campus that can boast that. I know it’s a great baseball conference, but when you look at last year’s RPI they weren’t even close to having seven teams in the top 100, same with basketball and men’s soccer. So it’s good for us, good for if you’re looking to get at-large bids, and this could be the year we get multiple bids, which we used to get quite consistently years ago.
KK: Are there any players that haven’t necessarily disappointed, but have expect more from this season? SR: There’s quite a few freshman that we feel have the tools to be immediate contributors, and the transition has been too much for them. We’ve got to work on that. And they’ll continue to improve, that’s basically the players we’ve expected more from. But we also expect freshman to have those problems as well. We’re pretty happy with everybody, I feel we’re going to have a pretty good team, this squad is very good, and I think that’s what we need when it comes conference time.