2011 Season Review

Signature Win: Haverford captured their first ever Centennial Conference Tournament win on Nov.2 with a 3-0 defeat of Franklin & Marshall in quarterfinal round action.  Allie Chen scored the game winner midway through the second half.  Prior to this breakthrough win, Haverford was 0-6 overall and 0-2 in first-round playoff matches.

Season Notes:  Haverford finished the season with a 12-3-4 record, 6-2-2 in league play.  The team fell to eventual conference champion Johns Hopkins 3-0 in the league semifinals.  Katie Van Aken led the team with 22 points (8 goals, 6 assists).  Elizabeth Newman anchored a defense which only allowed 16 goals throughout the season.  Freshman goalie Robin Chernow made an impact in her first season as she recorded 10 shutouts (.80 goals against, .795 save percentage).

Postseason Awards: All-Centennial Conference: Van Aken (first team), Newman (first team), Sarah Andrade (honorable mention), Meg Boyer (honorable mention), Chen (honorable mention), Chernow (honorable mention).Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll: Mariah Baker, Meg Boyer, Allie Chen, Sophie Eiger, Sarah Hoffman, Kara McMahon, Elizabeth Newman, Anna Rayne, Lindsay Ryan, Katie Van Aken, and Erin Verrier.

Looking Ahead: The offense of the Fords must absorb the loss of leading scorer Van Aken and contributor Andrade among the five graduating seniors.  The return of Boyer (17 points) and Chen (11 points) should help offset this loss.   Netminder Chernow will have the benefit of Newman’s calming presence and a season’s worth of experience.

2011 Season Outlook

The Haverford College women's soccer team posted its second consecutive 12-win season in 2010 (12-5-1) and reached the semifinal round of the Centennial Conference tournament.  It was the fourth time in the program's 26-year history that the Fords won at least 10 matches in back-to-back seasons. The 2011 Fords will be a mixed bag of youth and experience with 10 freshmen on the 25-player roster. They will have to come together to extend the double-digit winning streak to three for the first time and, more importantly, earn a conference title.

"Our first goal is to make the conference playoffs," said fifth-year head coach Jamie Gluck. "From there we want to be a contender and vie for a spot in the conference championship game and the NCAA tournament."

Last season the Fords boasted one of the top defenses in the Centennial, finishing first in goals allowed (14), second in goals against average (0.76) and third in shutouts (10). With the graduation of three All-Centennial performers, keeper Kayleigh Herrick-Reynolds and backs Kristin Sockett and Maura Schiefer, Haverford in 2011 will rely on a mix of veterans and freshmen to maintain the high defensive standard. 

Offensively, Haverford has steadily improved each season under Gluck. In 2010 the Fords netted 36 goals which ranked fourth in the conference. The 36 goals are a five-goal improvement over the 2009 season and the most goals by the team since 2005 (48 goals). This season Haverford looks to continue to keep up the offensive pressure with four of its top five scorers from 2010 on the 2011 team.

Gluck believes that every game plays a role in the season. The Fords will receive a pair of tough non-conference tests at the Manhattanville Tournament. Haverford takes on a pair of NCAA tournament teams in Eastern Connecticut State, ranked 14th in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America preseason poll, and host Manhattanville. In conference, Haverford, who is picked fifth in the preseason coaches poll, looks to get past six-time defending championship Johns Hopkins University, who eliminated the Fords on penalty kicks in the 2010 conference tournament semifinal.