MCLA on the verge of back-to-back winning seasons

By Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

NORTH ADAMS - The women's soccer program at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has come a long way in the last two years.

"I was at a dinner last year and there were a few players from an opposing school that had typically beat us up," recalled MCLA head coach Deb Raber. "One of the kids didn't have a filter on that day, and said 'Oh, MCLA? I used to love playing there. It was the only time I got to play.'

"She didn't realize it was me sitting right there. But that's OK. Teams are not having that any more. We're setting a standard to want (opposing) teams to work hard to win."

Raber, who is in her ninth season at the helm, hasn't turned the MCLA program into a juggernaut - the Trailblazers haven't even been ranked in a National Soccer Coaches Association of America New England Division III poll. But her team is 8-3 going into today's match with Bay Path College, one of seven remaining matches on the regular season. A .500 record, give or take, the rest of the way, would give MCLA its first back-to-back seasons of winning soccer since the 1990 and 1991 campaigns.

"I allow myself to think about it. I don't talk to them about it," said Raber, a Springfield College graduate. "They have been reminded that something special could happen here. I don' t know if they realize what that is."

On the MCLA Athletics Web site, which is managed by Raber in her other role as the college's sports information director, it says MCLA has had only seven winning seasons dating back to 1985. The consecutive winning seasons came under Rich Brague in 1990 (9-6-2) and 1991 (13-4).

Last year, the Trailblazers ended a long over-.500 drought, finishing 9-7-3. The last winning season before that came in 1998, when the former North Adams State College was 10-8-0.

The Trailblazers are 1-2 in the MASCAC standings, but that is after playing the three top teams in the conference. MCLA lost to Bridgewater State and Salem State but beat Worcester State in overtime.

The current senior class at MCLA was 7-23-3 in their first two seasons. In the past year and a half, the senior class has already won 17 games.

"There used to be a lot of not talking on campus about the games," said Williamstown's Sara Miller, who played at Mount Greylock. "You come home from a long game, you just got beat by how much, and it really does get to you.

"Even in those first two years when we weren't winning a lot, it was still a lot of fun and girls improved drastically."

Players may have "Improved drastically," in Miller's words. But the Trailblazers weren't winning, with only 22 wins in Raber's first seven seasons at the helm.

"There have been times when I wondered what the heck I was doing. I think, more or less, I was questioning myself as a coach. Not the players, not the school," said Raber. "More of it came down to what am I not doing? Am I made out for this?"

It was truly frustrating.

"It's how you handle the frustration that I think was the most important thing," she continued, "trying to find all the positives. You become almost a master at trying to find positive points in very difficult times."

Among the frustrating things was a perennial field problem. The main soccer fields at the Zavattaro Athletic Complex didn't drain well, and that forced matches to be postponed or moved. It also limited how the men's and women's soccer teams could practice.

The main soccer field, now known as Ron Shewcraft Field, has artificial turf. That has made it easier to practice, easier to play matches and easier to recruit quality athletes.

And then there's Jess Tietgens. The sophomore from Stamford, Vt., who was a three-sport standout at Drury High School, transferred back to North Adams from Westfield State. In two years, Tietgens has been a stellar soccer player. Going into today's match with Bay Path, she has 14 goals and 31 points. She is four goals from breaking the single-season record set by Roberta Smith in 1987, and nine points from breaking the points mark held by Christine Bonatti in 1999.

Tietgens said the difference in the program from when she started to now is night and day.

"I didn't have an expectation," said Tietgens. "You hear stuff, but I didn't have any expectations. I wanted to play soccer and have fun. Once I saw what it was like when I got here, I thought we can really go somewhere with this team."

Miller had to watch the Trailblazers get better from the sidelines in 2007, as she recovered from knee surgery. But before last year, she admitted that it wasn't always easy to get up to West Shaft Road.

"You can ask my roommate Taylor (Kenyon) about it. She's a captain with me. We were both on the sidelines, and I did not want to have to go to practice every day, but she forced me," Miller said. "Now, it's a lot more fun and definitely a lot more worth it now."

Raber said that she's noticed the difference the improvements have made when she's been in contact with potential recruits. The coach said that the admissions office pushes all the sports teams to prospective students, and the admissions counselors report back that more prospective students are asking about the teams and their successes.

And that has translated on campus.

"We have so many more fans come. Even other athletes on campus notice," said Miller. "It used to be, 'MCLA soccer, oh, they just lost again.' Now people really respect us around campus."