After a slow start to the season, the WVWC women’s soccer team seem to have turned a corner, registering back to back wins in the MEC over two fierce competitors in Concord and Glenville.

With the Fall semester falling back upon us, we welcome a brand new season of soccer. This year, our Lady Bobcats are hoping to go one better, after narrowly missing out on playoffs last season in the final game.

To help me understand more about the progression of the women’s soccer program here at Wesleyan, I interviewed forward Mia Rodriguez to find out how pre-season and the opening few games have gone for them.

“We’ve been doing a lot of running and fitness tests which I think has shown so far as we haven’t looked too tired during games, so that’s been beneficial” Rodriguez said when referring to their preparation to the upcoming season. This has shown during Wesleyan’s opening couple of games, managing to shut out a strong side in Concord and return home with a 2-0 victory. This was followed by another shut out in a 1-0 victory against Glenville, another tough opponent.

The Bobcats’ ability to go through entire games without conceding really reflects the hard work they put in during the first few weeks back here on campus, just as Rodriguez said.

Another element which was always going to play a role for the team this season was the large number of new recruits coach Holden Talton had signed. “I think it’s taken a bit of time but now you can really see us starting to click during games and the results are beginning to show” Rodriguez said when asked about the new additions to the squad.

The Bobcats did have a slightly slow start to the season, failing to win in their opening 3 matches, but a good run in form and first consecutive wins of the season have shown a vast improvement, and maybe that’s down to the whole squad finally getting a feel for each other.

“We’ve shown now that we can compete and win against some of the top teams in this conference so we all have the belief that we can beat anyone now” Rodriguez said when asked about how she feels ahead of the remainder of the season.

The confidence from Rodriguez here will be something I’m sure Coach Talton will want all of his players to have, and with this new found belief maybe this will be the year that the Lady Bobcats can go one further.