Women’s soccer: Experience favors Lions

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - When Kerry McGrath Crooks took over for Scott Dameron

as head coach of the Vanguard University women’s soccer team, needless to

say, she wasn’t getting a lemon.

With nine starting players returning from last season’s 11-9 squad,

there is a lot of optimism on the Lions’ team.

“Experience is really going to work in our favor this year,” Crooks

said. “We’ve retuned most of forward lines and we only lost one senior

from last year. We’ve also picked up a couple of strong transfer players

so it should be exciting.”

Among those returning to the Lions’ den this year are All-Golden State

Athletic Conference and All-NAIA honorable mention selections Annelle

Jacobs (10 goals, three assists) and Jennifer Bird (seven goals, two

assists).

Crooks is also excited to see a healthy Betsy Nienhuis running around

on the field. The redshirt sophomore scored eight goals and had seven

assists for the Lions last year.

“She’s finally 100% healthy and she’ll be a major weapon for us,”

Crooks said.

On the defensive side, the Lions will miss the leadership of last

year’s captain Lori Collier, but with the acquisition of Cypress College

transfer Jennifer Shaver (Newport Harbor High) Crooks believes that game

experience is all that is needed.

“Our defense still needs to get more seasoned,” Crooks said. “But I

think that part of our game will be all right after a few games of

experience.”

While the defense is getting to know one another, it will be up to

returning goal keeper Robin Landauer to keep the ball out of the net. She

posted seven shutouts and a 1.47 GAA last season.

Despite having all the tools for a stellar season, Crooks is a firm

believer in not making too bold a prediction when it comes to playoff

aspirations.

“We’ll just take in one game at a time,” the ever-original Crooks

said. “There are still a bunch of games between now and the playoffs and

anything can happen in that time.”

VANGUARD UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S SOCCER

Robin Landauer Sr.

Brittany Braun Jr.

Robin Callahan Sr.

Erin Bongiorno Jr.

Rebekah Foster Sr.

Carrie DeCosta Sr.

Alexis Newbold So.

Sondra Cota So.

Betsy Nienhuis So.

Shelley Bage Sr.

Ganesa Cobb Sr.

Jennifer Bird Jr.

Annie Jacobs Jr.

Elisabeth McCary Sr.

Nicole Avila So.

Kari Bacome So.

Shirley Blassman Jr.

Kim Belcher So.

Jennifer Shaver So.