2015 Fall Sports Update

 

 By Brittany Wilson, The Whetstone

Football

The Wesley College football team is off to a winning start, with a 3-0 record this season. The team dominated its first game of the season on Sept. 12, winning 44-3 against Frostburg. The team won 44-24 the following Saturday on the new home turf—Drass Field—in a game against Christopher Newport, earning Coach Drass his 200^th career win.

Football captain Craig Pettit said the team has a very close bond, both with their coaches and each other.

“I came to college knowing that this was the experience I wanted,” he said. “As a team we [consider] ourselves family—a band of brothers who will always have each other’s backs.”

Wesley’s football team—which has not experienced a losing season in twenty-six years— ranked in the top 25 for the fifth year in a row in D3Football.com’s Top 25 preseason poll and, in July, joined the New Jersey Athletic Conference. For the first time in the football team’s history, the Wolverines have a chance at an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament.

Pettit said he is excited to see what the team can do this season.

“My favorite part about playing for Wesley is our winning tradition,” he said. “I am looking forward to wearing that jersey that says Wesley across the front, and representing the school and the community.”

Field Hockey

After winning their first game of the season against Immaculata 3-0 on Sept. 1, Wesley’s field hockey team has struggled to hit the back of the goal— scoring only six times over the course of nine games.

Field hockey captain Meghan Groom said the team made 27 shots on goal against Immaculata, and scored three times.

“This is a huge improvement from last year,” she said. “Having this many shots and winning our first game is a big momentum builder.”

Field Hockey Coach Tracey Short sad there are no disappointments, just lessons learned.

“We have a very tough conference and our non-conference schedule is also highly competitive,” she said. “It is always a challenge when you lose large classes of seniors and we lost seven good players last year.”

Groom said despite the number of new players this season, the team is full of talent.

“There is talent in the defense, mid field, and forward lines which makes the team solid,” she said. “This year we are depending on everyone to win. It is not up to one person to score, it is up to all the players.”

Team captain Kayla Fromal said the team is like one big family off the field, but communication on the field could use some improvement.

“As a team I feel like we should work on communication— knowing where everyone is on the field is key to winning games,” she said. “We have been working hard in the offseason and preseason to be the best team we can be this season.”

Last season, the team almost made it to the CAC Playoffs. Team captain Morgan Seymour said this year they hope to make it all the way.

“My hope for this season is to improve upon last year’s season and, of course, ultimately make it to post-season,” she said. “Our schedule is tough, but that will only force us to continue to improve each day.”

Groom said reaching play-offs is the team’s ultimate goal.

“I know that it is not always about winning, but to win is the best feeling in the world,” she said.

 

Volleyball

Wesley’s volleyball team has started off strong this season, winning 10 of the 15 matches they have competed in so far.

 

The team’s new coach, Lindsay Miller, said the team will focus on game strategy and becoming smarter, more efficient players this season.

 

“We want this to be a “Next Level” kind of season,” she said. “We want to build on the talent that we already have and become a stronger, more cohesive unit.”

 

The team’s overall winning percentage is .667, which is progress, Miller said.

 

“The team has hovered right around .500 in the past and we’d really like to improve upon that, as well as become more competitive in our CAC conference.”

 

Wesley’s volleyball team only graduated one senior last year, and has returned its top four hitters from 2014 this season.

 

Team captain Megan Marshall said the team is working on running a more consistent defense to better fuel its offense.

“My hope for this season is to win more conference games than last season,” she said. “We had a very new team last year with a lot of freshman so we have definitely learned how to work together better.”

Cross Country

At their first meet of the season on Sept. 12, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the University of Delaware Invitational. The men’s team earned a seventh place finish, and the women’s team made ninth place. A week later, the women placed sixth out of eleven teams, and the men placed eighth out of nine teams at the Seahawk Invitational.

 

Wesley’s cross country coach Stephen Kimes said he wants to see the men stay in the mid-pack and the women move upwards toward third or fourth place.

“We’ve got to get better at pack running,” he said. “We have disparity in talent, so it is a challenge to get all of the women running closer to Dieunise Desir and the men running close to William Taylor. We need to bring everyone closer together, but keep the top runners still running fast.”

Last year, Dieunise Desir was the fourth Wolverine in program history to earn multiple All-Conference selections, finishing 16th in the CAC Championships. Kimes said he would like to see her make All-Conference for her third year in a row.

“We have the goal in mind that she be all-conference all four years, which is a rare feat in our conference,” he said. “On the men’s side, we have a very talented newcomer, William Taylor Jr, and we are hoping that he will be all-conference also.”

This year, the team hopes to improve upon its sixth place CAC standing this season, bringing them into the top five for 2015.

Women’s Soccer

Wesley’s women’s soccer team is 3-4-2, after winning three, losing four and tying twice so far this season—scoring 18 goals over the course of eight games they played.

Team captain Kerri Pagels said she is looking forward to a successful season.

“Every practice and every game everyone puts in 100 percent,” she said. “Wesley women’s soccer is always considered the underdog for our conference, so my hope this year is to prove everyone wrong and have a winning season.”

Women’s soccer coach Edward Muntz said last year the team narrowly missed the CAC playoffs but qualified for the ECAC Tournament.

“The goal each year is to make CAC playoffs and compete with the best in the conference,” he said. “Last year, we finished just short, losing a tough match with Mary Washington University 1-0. Mary Washington earned the last spot in the CAC tourney and made a run to the conference finals.”

Team captain Megan DeFalco said the team’s greatest strength is their work ethic and cohesiveness.

“Last season we had a pretty good record, but we had to work hard for it,” she said. “This season I hope to be even better than the last— we may have to train harder and put in a little extra time, it will all be worth it in the end.”

Men’s Soccer

Wesley’s men’s soccer team is 3-5-1. The team has scored nine goals.

Team captain Robert Dina said the team’s greatest strength is their speed and physicality.

“Playing in one of the toughest conferences in the country we have to be fast and physical, both of which are something we have never lacked,” he said. “We have a talented group of young guys that have not played for us before so we need to learn their strengths and weaknesses and build on them as well.”

Dina said the team is looking forward to conference games this season.

“Every game we play is an important game, but conference games are played at a much higher level of intensity,” he said. “Last season was a disappointment missing the playoffs and it did not sit well with us upperclassmen so we don’t want to be in that position again this year.”