UCI wants to build off breakout year

Second-year UC Irvine women’s soccer coach Scott Juniper said this year’s team is about three weeks ahead of where last year’s team was at the same point in the season. But based on the success the 2007 Anteaters achieved, an outsider’s perception of the program’s progress from last year to this might be better approximated in light years.

Coming off a 2006 campaign in which the Anteaters went 3-13-1, 0-7 in the Big West Conference and were outscored, 41-6, including 22-0 in conference, Juniper an assistant under 2006 coach April Heinrichs, guided UCI within one overtime goal of a trip to the conference tournament final.

UCI went 11-7-2, 5-2-1 last season, outscoring foes, 29-16, and posting 10 shutouts. The 16 goals allowed were the fewest in school history and a string of five straight shutouts also set a school single-season mark.

The ’Eaters tied Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for third place in the Big West and qualified for the four-team conference tournament for only the second time in 10 seasons. The 11 wins were one shy of the combined total produced by the program’s three previous seasons.

UCI fell, 2-1, in double overtime of the semifinals to eventual conference tournament champion Cal State Fullerton, leaving Juniper and his returners with both a hunger to go further and another unexpected consequence: expectations.

“One of our challenges this season is how we respond to expectations,” said Juniper, whose team plays host to Cal State San Bernardino, a Division II program, in an exhibition game Monday at 7 p.m. “But this is a completely different team.”

UCI lost its lone all-conference performer, then-senior Makenzie Beahm, as well as fellow captain Frankee Kelly, who shared the team scoring lead with five goals. Kim Horn, last year’s leading scorer with four goals and five assists, has also exhausted her eligibility.

But 17 returners have welcomed 11 newcomers, including 10 high school recruits, and Juniper believes the continuity of returning to a system already in place has helped this group enter this season on more stable ground than last year’s unit.

“Last year, I had two assistant coaches, but this year I have 19,” said Juniper, referring to the help the 17 returners have consistently provided the newcomers in practice. “We have a system in place and the returning players already know what is expected. With their help, I don’t think this year’s first-year players will be thrown into the deep end, like we had to do with last year’s freshmen.”

Senior co-captains Kate Lemieux and Rachel Flemming, as well as senior Erin Henry and junior Megan Ortiz, form a strong foundation of leadership, said Juniper, who list of returners also includes several accomplished players.

Junior Kate Berrini and sophomore Tanya Taylor both matched Kelly’s five goals last season, while Caty Cope comes off a freshman campaign in which she notched a school single-season record 10 assists.

Sophomore Nikki Forrest was one of only five players with at least three goals last season and sophomore Gilly Acedo rounds out the returners who scored in 2007. Forrest was the team’s Newcomer of the Year last season and joined Taylor and Lemeiux as those receiving honorable mention in all-conference voting.

Juniper said Cope, recovering well from off-season knee surgery, surprised people with her production last season, the majority of which came from restarts, such as corner kicks.

“She delivers an exceptional ball,” Juniper said. “She hits it with a lot of pace, she puts a bend on it, and she’s very consistent with her placement. She makes us very dangerous on restarts.”

Juniper likes what he has seen in preseason from Berrini and Taylor, while Ortiz, coming off a second reconstructive surgery on the same knee after a repeat tear of an ACL, was the ’Eaters leading scorer in 2006, before sustaining her first knee injury.

“[Ortiz] will be 100% some time this season [within the first month] and she will contribute for us,” Juniper said.

Juniper singled out sophomore Milana Shabestari as one who has “progressed more than all the other returners,” since last season.

Juniper said he could not similarly single out a newcomer and believes all have the potential to produce.

“There is not one superstar in the 2008 class,” Juniper said. “We have players people have heard about [like Sonora High product Lexi Kopf, who scored 96 goals in three prep seasons] and we have players people have not heard of,” he said. “We’re equally excited about both groups.”

Improved depth, versatility and competition for playing time will produce a fluid lineup, Juniper said. No better illustration of that competition is at goalkeeper, where sophomore Danielle de Seriere, who had nine shutouts and a sterling 0.64 goals-against average last season, is battling Henry and freshman Erica Quevedo for playing time.

UCI, picked ninth in the nine-team conference coaches poll last season, was picked fifth this season, behind projected conference title contenders UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton.

The Anteaters open the regular season Aug. 24 against visiting UNLV and begin conference play Oct. 3 at home against Pacific.

“There’s not a team on our schedule that we are not capable of beating,” said Juniper, who had the motto “anyone, any time, anywhere,” painted above one row of lockers in the program’s new locker room.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].