MCLA soccer looks to keep improving

September 4, 2009

By Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

NORTH ADAMS -- It was a good news-bad news 2008 for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts soccer teams. Both teams are hoping 2009 will be better.

The MCLA men qualified for the MASCAC postseason tournament but finished with a 7-9-1 record.

The women had their best season in 15 years at 12-6 and their second consecutive over .500 year. But a 2-5 MASCAC record didn't give the Trailblazers a berth in the postseason.

Both teams begin play on Saturday. The men kick off their season on Ron Shewcraft Field at MCLA's Zavattaro Athletic Complex at noon when the Trailblazers play Norwich in the first game of the CIAO Soccer Tournament. The women will open on the road Saturday at Hamilton College.

Men's soccer

Third-year head coach Adam Hildabrand is the reigning MASCAC Coach of the Year, and said his team has one goal for 2009.

"Qualify for the NCAA [Division III] tournament, and to do well once we're in there," he said. "Obviously, leading up to that, we need to do well out of conference and we need to do well in conference to get into the MASCAC tournament."

The Trailblazers graduated leading scorer and first-team All-MASCAC forward Raul Escobar (5 goals, 1 assist) and three of their top five scorers. Fortunately, senior Joe Deady and sophomore Rick Massey were the other two top scorers, and both are back. Deady led MCLA last year with four assists and had three of his team's 19 goals. Massey, the former St. Joseph's standout, was tied for second on the team with three goals.

There are 12 freshmen on the MCLA roster and the coach said that's one of his team's strengths.

"Without a doubt, depth, and we have guys who are pretty good on the ball," said Hildabrand. "We're not terribly large, but we're pretty quick."

The key battle is at goal where senior Evan Coe and junior Adam Tarsa are vying to be the No. 1 goalkeeper. Tarsa, a former Hoosac Valley standout, started 12 games and played in 13 last year, registering a 1.63 goals-against average and three shutouts. Coe started three games and played in six. He had a 1.23 goals-against average and registered a shutout.

Hildabrand said he'd like one of the goalies to win the job outright.

"I need that guy to sort of dominantly take that position," said the coach, "where it's apparent to the guys and apparent to the coaching staff that this is the guy. I think it would be confusing for my defense, confusing for the team and I think it would be confusing for the two goalkeepers [to alternate all season]. Whoever earns it will get it."

The Trailblazers are picked to finish sixth in the MASCAC. Defending regular-season and tournament champion Framingham State is picked to repeat, with Salem State No. 2.

Women's soccer

Record-wise, the only seasons that were better came in 1994 (12-5) and 1991 (13-4). So what do coach Deb Raber and her Trailblazers do for an encore?

"We clearly need to improve our conference record," Raber said. "We were great out of conference last year. The games we played in conference, most of them were very tight games. Now we need to capitalize on that and move toward the conference tournament."

In 2008, the Trailblazers scored 56 goals and junior Jess Tietgens scored 25 of them. Tietgens, a second-team All-MASCAC player, also had nine assists. She holds the single-season school mark for goals and assists and is one goal away from breaking a career record for goals.

"We've been working in training trying to figure out different ways to get her open and to get more people involved in the attack," said Raber. "Jess scored 25 goals, but this team isn't just about Jess. The team is about 27 hard-working women."

Tietgens wasn't a one-woman offense. Last year's No. 2 scorer, junior Danielle Parenteau (9 goals, 6 assists) and No. 4 scorer senior Jade Prickett (6 goals, 3 assists) return.

The Trailblazers have young defenders in front of a pair of quality goalkeepers. Sophomore Jen Wehner suffered a knee injury two games into 2008 and was replaced by Cece Von Tiesenhausen-Hush. Von Tiesenhausen-Hush had a 2.12 goals-against average, four shutouts and was voted the team's MVP.

"Numbers certainly help. People pay attention to your success," said Raber. "We have 13 new players to the team, two of them were here last January. We're looking very good. I think we could start two brand new players, Shannon Maloney from Hoosac Valley and then Lindsay Barbola who is from Greenwich, N.Y. Let's not forget Brianna Bresett from Hoosac Valley."