MTSU women’s soccer found itself in a new spot when it comes to the roster dynamic. The Blue Raiders have 27 players on the team, 11 freshmen and 12 seniors.
That leaves four players who are sophomores or juniors on the roster, unlike any other team in Conference USA. There are schools in CUSA that have a large number of freshmen or seniors, but not both. New Mexico State University and Florida International University have 11 seniors, while the University of Texas-El Paso carries 12 freshmen players.
With such a roster, quality play is needed from the younger players who are still figuring out how they fit into the system.
“A big part of who we are is trusting each other, and for them to buy into that, I have to model that,” head coach Aston Rhoden said. “I must show that I trust them in these key moments, to give them opportunities to have an impact on the game.”
In MTSU’s first weekend of play, nine freshmen saw the field with four starting. Forward Allie Craig saw 93 minutes between two games, playing at right and left midfield while scoring two goals against Jackson State University.
“Allie had a great preseason and is one of our more consistent scorers in practice,” Rhoden said. “The work that you put in at practice certainly correlates with the minutes you earn in the game.”
MTSU’s play style is built on positionless movement, seeing players all over the field. In the graphic below, if a player moves out of position and the open space isn’t filled by another player, that creates a weak point for MTSU.
Blue Raiders in the first week of the season showed this fluid movement style against Belmont University and Jackson State on the way to two wins.
“Outside of the goalkeeper and center backs, everybody else knows that somebody is in a certain space and this is a space where [they] need to be,” Rhoden said.
Against Belmont, MTSU Ximena Jauregui – on the right flank – crossed a ball into the middle of the field that freshman forward Olivia Best connected with on a header, with the ball trickling into the net for the Raiders’ first goal of the season.
“A lot of freshmen have come in here and taken up sports that they don’t normally play in, and there’s a lot of girls who are moving, and it’s fluid movement,” Best said. “As a team, we do well filling the spaces and making sure we are capitalizing on all the space in the field.”
With the personnel and playing formation, on-field communication has to be on another level. When a player moves out of position, the open space has to be filled by another player, who, without communication, would be left open.
Jauregui, Hannah Murphy and Megan Carroll start as the center-mid trio for the Raiders, with the offense pushed through them. Jauregui, newly a Blue Raider, plugged herself into a gap MTSU had with the experienced Murphy and Carroll.
MTSU women’s soccer, at 2-0, is off to its best start since 2016, when it started the season with two wins. The Blue Raiders’ next game is against Alabama A&M on Aug. 21.
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