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Is it game over for the Great West Conference? The ambitious project that started out as a football-only conference in 2004 and eventually spread to sponsoring many more sports a few years later could be grinding to a halt in the very near future. Instead of being a stable home for previously unaffiliated schools, the GWC has instead turned into something of a layover stop for programs looking for a more stable and lucrative destination with automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Great West is still eons away from gaining such distinction and its very viability looks increasingly threatened going into 2011. Beginning in 2012, the conference will only have five full members for all sports, with many affiliate members also breaking away for new, more permanent homes in other conferences.

From a soccer standpoint, the Great West is also struggling. South Dakota, on paper one of the league’s most viable and competitive clubs, departed for the Summit League as full members after the 2010 season, leaving seven clubs to compete in the conference for the 2011 campaign. The collection of contenders for the crown is a large mish-mash that’s less “West” than the name of the conference would have you believe. Full-time GWC members Houston Baptist, NJIT, North Dakota, and Utah Valley are joined by Delaware State, Howard, and South Carolina State, all members of the MEAC in other sports who needed a home since their usual conference doesn’t sponsor soccer. The alliance is a tenuous one at best. North Dakota leaves for the Big Sky Conference after this season, while Utah Valley has been in a very public squabble with Utah State over a potential move to the WAC. The number of options for adding to the conference’s ranks appears to be dwindling as well. Of the remaining independent teams, Seattle is moving to the WAC in 2012, Cal State Bakersfield only seems to have eyes for the Big West, and Longwood seems to have no interest in a conference move after the failed United Soccer Conference venture. The GWC’s best hope for continued viability as a soccer league would be to lure DI Independent Francis Marion into the fold, convince Chicago State and/or Texas-Pan American to start programs, or hope that a program trying to reclassify from a lower division would give the league a chance.

None of that solves the very immediate problems facing the league though, and you can’t help but be left with the impression that the ranks of the DI independents may swell after this season with some of this year’s GWC clubs. One change to note this year though is the elimination of divisions. The seven clubs will all play each other once to determine a league champion and seeding for the conference tournament.

You can’t help but get the feeling that UTAH VALLEY coach Brent Anderson may be building something in Orem that may ultimately grow too big for the humble Great West Conference. Forget the upset loss to Houston Baptist on enemy territory in the conference tournament, these Wolverines have been the class of their embryonic conference and of the defunct United Soccer Conference before it. They’ve also shown an ability to beat teams with much bigger budgets and higher expectations. UTEP felt the bite of the Wolverines in 2009 and last year, Boise State, North Dakota State, and Idaho State went down while Valley also drew with Portland State.

League play last year was pretty functional as the Wolverines just plain outclassed their Great West opponents on most days, scoring fourteen and conceding just three in their league matches in the regular season. Their lone loss in regular season conference play was a foreboding one though, losing 1-0 in Houston despite having throttled HBU in Orem, 4-0, to open up league play. After an 8-0 opening round mauling of Delaware State, a rubber match between Utah Valley and Houston Baptist loomed. With home-field advantage on their side, the Huskies edged it, and Utah Valley’s bid for a second straight tournament title ended in disappointment.

Matters off the field and away from the soccer program specifically consumed some of the offseason in Orem. The Wolverines were desperate, to say the least, to jump at the chance to gain conference affiliation, ideally with the WAC. But by some accounts, Utah Valley felt they weren’t getting support from potential conference rival Utah State and were ultimately turned down for membership in June. It means that the Wolverines’ immediate future for the next few seasons lies in the Great West Conference again.

The Wolverines may have been the bullies on the block for much of the past few years, but 2011 figures to be a large-scale rebuilding season for Brent Anderson as he tries to replace SEVEN starters from last year’s side. The biggest losses come in the form of the Great West’s West Division Offensive Player of the Year Nicole Archibald Spencer and Defensive Player of the Year Andi Bagdan. Archibald Spencer was plenty prolific last year, racking up nine goals and three assists to pace the Wolverines. Compounding matters is the additional loss of Katey Turner, Utah Valley’s second leading scorer with seven goals and four assists. Turner actually had more points in Great West play than Archibald Spencer, and the combined loss could be brutal on the Wolverines’ offense.

While junior Regan Clifford returns as leading scorer and has potential with three goals and four assists despite only making five starts, you have to figure Utah Valley’s offense could sputter with the loss of so much firepower. The best hope for Anderson’s side may be that redshirt junior Jaime Lyons can shake off the rust very quickly after sitting out last season. Lyons had eight goals as a sophomore to lead the team and is a difference maker if healthy and on form. Getting the ball to the forwards could also be an issue as the team loses one of its best midfielders in Lauren Bluth as well. Camille Broderick does return in midfield though and is one of the few proven players of quality Anderson will have at his disposal in 2011.

Defense figures to be hardest hit of all, with starters Bagdan, Kendra Buchanan, and Danielle Anderson all graduating. Buchanan’s loss is a double blow as well since she led the Wolverines in assists last year. With the reconfigured backline, it’s somewhat comforting that the league’s Newcomer of the Year, Lauren Sack, who took over in goal for Hailey Brown mid-season, is back for more. It’s safe to say the Nevadan may be a busy woman in 2011.

So too will be Coach Anderson in all likelihood, trying to find a way to keep his Wolverines at the top. Roughly half his players are true or redshirt freshmen, and the Wolverines lose a whole lot of quality from last season’s fantastic squad. Though the Great West isn’t exactly a conference that overwhelms with top flight talent, there are some up and coming programs and the Utah Valley coach will have to get everything out of his returning players and newcomers to prevent a precipitous slide backwards in 2011.

Romanian Glad Bugariu has called many places home in his coaching career, including the U.S. Virgin Islands (for both men’s and women’s national teams), as an assistant with Grenada’s men’s team, and turning Belmont Abbey into a powerhouse in Division II’s Conference Carolinas. But when Bugariu took over SOUTH CAROLINA STATE, many saw it a fool’s errand. With a miniscule budget and no history to speak of, other than a history of failure, the Bulldogs looked light years away from respectability. After a 1-10-1 season against D1 competition in his first year at the helm in 2008 after previous seasons of one and two wins at SC State, Bugariu could have been forgiven for thinking he may have bitten off more than he could chew with his new job.

But a startling turnaround in 2009 saw the Bulldogs finish over .500 while also managing to record an absurd 17-1 win against Alabama State. There weren’t any equally ridiculous scorelines in 2010, but there were more wins. Twelve of them to be exact. Yes, there were the requisite pummelings of the quite frankly, overmatched, teams in their side of the Great West Conference. But there were also other encouraging signs, including an impressive win over Navy in the Bulldogs’ season opener.

While it’s true that SC State were well and truly beaten against the only team in the RPI Top 150 they faced (The Citadel, 4-1), Bugariu’s team did manage to fare quite well for themselves against some of the region’s comparable mid-majors, including beating Big South contenders Winthrop for the second straight season. The Bulldogs entered the Great West Tournament as sleepers for the tournament title and made good in the quarterfinals with a dominating win over South Dakota, their seventh straight win. But SC State was upset by North Dakota in the semi-finals, disappointing considering the Fighting Sioux’s 6-10-0 finish on the year. If anything, the semi-final defeat showed that while the Bulldogs had made considerable progress since Bugariu took the helm, they still have further room to grow.

The truly scary thing for SC State’s opponents is that Bugariu may have constructed this team to peak over the next two seasons. Most of last season’s overachievers were freshman or sophomores. The team only loses three players to graduation going into 2011, and only forward Olivia Moore and midfielder Bahja Peeples are seniors this season. It adds up to a potentially big year this season before a chance to possibly make some serious waves in 2012.

Not to say that there isn’t work to do this season. Departed goal machine Brooke Ehinger rang up eleven goals and six assists as a going away present before departing SC State after two successful seasons following a transfer from Long Beach Community College. Great West East Division Newcomer of the Year, Briana Lopez, who exploded for eleven goals and eight assists in her freshman season to lead the team in scoring is also an unexpected and damaging loss for the Bulldogs.

Fortunately, there’s still some firepower left behind for Bugariu to utilize. The Bulldogs will be able to call on the talents of Moore, who led the team with four game-winning goals, half of her total of eight. Moore was a former Big South Newcomer of the Year in 2008 at VMI and was a real transfer coup for S.C. State in her first season for the team last year. Moore figures to again be one of the league’s top forwards but the Bulldogs again need more scoring options to step up if she isn’t to become a marked woman this year. Bugariu has to hope that returning junior Cassie Rodriguez or newcomers LaTasia Thomas and Canadian Breia Pierce can make some of the slack up from the lost offense.

If SC State’s offense is misfiring, a confident defense should hold strong, headed up by Canadian junior Stephanie Searle, with Sara Harris and Morgan Roesler also bound to feature. One potential Achilles heel might be in goal, where neither Danielle Murphy nor Mariah Hebbe did enough to lock down the job. One stepping up to take command of the position would do the team a world of good, and both still have time to grow and establish themselves in goal for the Bulldogs.

Versatile junior Darci Nicole Smith is the best of the midfield players, a group that also includes Swede Rebecca Dale, who made an impact in her first season with the team. The presence of Dale, Searle, and others from far and wide show just how far Bugariu’s cast his net in recruiting. The team has more Californians on the roster than players from the Eastern side of the country. SC State should have no problem with the GWC clubs on their side of the country and stand a reasonable chance of capturing the Great West tournament title if Bugariu can continue to weave his magic. They’d be well advised to strike while the iron’s hot though. Bugariu’s star continues to rise with each successive successful season, and the Romanian wunderkind could be in demand for open jobs sooner rather than later.

Going into their Great West Tournament final against Houston Baptist, NORTH DAKOTA had every reason to feel confident about their chances in lifting the crown. The Fighting Sioux had vanquished the Huskies in both of their meetings thus far in 2010, including a 2-0 win on HBU’s field, the same venue for the final. In fact, North Dakota had run right through the Great West, only falling to Utah Valley twice, which was a moot point now since the Wolverines had gone down to HBU in the Great West semi-finals.

And then things didn’t go according to plan. UND got up early through Alex Zarling but were pegged back right before the half. Both sides threw caution to the wind which ended up being both a good thing and a bad thing as both teams attacked relentlessly but also whacked each other with glee, leading to a very busy referee. The Fighting Sioux would pay the heaviest price though, Courtney Beckwith being dismissed for her second bookable offense right before the end of normal time. Who knows how things would have ended up had it finished 11 v 11? All that matters though is that UND came up short in the shootout after one hundred and ten minutes, left to watch the Huskies lift the title despite not having beaten UND in three tries in 2010.

That North Dakota had rebounded so well from seven straight losses to open up the season likely meant little at the moment, but the Fighting Sioux’s upward trek during Great West play was good news for a program that has been through its fair share of turbulence throughout its history, especially for a school with a winning pedigree at Division II level. But UND has gone through a ridiculous amount of coaches in its little over a decade of existence, with current coach Kristen Gay the sixth person at the helm and set to become the longest tenured in 2011, entering her fourth season in charge.

It’s not been a fun ride for much of North Dakota’s time in DI thus far. The first full reclassifying season saw the Fighting Sioux go a miserable 3-14-2 and struggle even in Great West play. 2010 looked to be going just as badly with seven straight losses to open the season, including a five match scoreless streak, but the team rebounded to win three of their final four league games before reaching the Great West Tournament final against nemesis Houston Baptist.

The key now for coach Kristen Gay is to use 2010′s championship game failure as fuel for a title run in 2011. With plenty of experience and talent on the roster, expectations will surely be high heading into this season. A pair of big losses on the team could give some pause to those title hopes though. Gone is Alex Zarling, who tied for most goals on the squad with six las season. Finding a replacement for Zarling’s goals shouldn’t be too tough, seeing as how leading scorer Rachael Loomis is back for her senior season after a nice six goal, six assist haul in 2010 to pace UND. That was actually a bit of a down year for the senior from Fargo, as she scored eleven in 2009 and could reasonably hit double digits again this year as the focus of the offense. Sophomore forward Amanda Dahl could also be a key figure. She only scored twice last season, but both were in league play, and she’s the only returning player besides Loomis who tallied multiple goals in GWC action.

Also in among the goals should be junior defender Sheri Stapf, who netted four in 2010, and another defender Rhaya Ballon, who had three goals and three assists in her sophomore campaign. Taking a more subtle but no less important role in pulling the strings should be defender Veronika Zischka, the Canadian making the All-Great West team in her junior year in 2010 and also capable of playing in midfield if need be. The club also has to replace senior keeper Monica Stierman, who started every match in goal for the Fighting Sioux in 2010. Replacing the steady Stierman in goal could be more of a challenge with only untested sophomore Alex Ciaccio having anything resembling college experience coming into 2011. She’ll be pushed by incoming freshmen keepers Kristi Hestdalen and Mariah Paz.

Gay has assembled an eclectic mix of talent in making UND Great West contenders, bringing in players from Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska among other outposts. It’s worked so far, but keeping UND from suffering a 2011 hangover after last year’s penalty heartbreak in the GWC Tournament Final will likely be one of Gay’s biggest tests thus far in a somewhat short head coaching career. Anything resembling solid play in between the pipes this year will likely have the Fighting Sioux in the Great West title hunt or thereabout, where they will be eager to make up for last year’s shortcomings.

The Fighting Sioux also know that this will be their last chance to lift some Great West silverware with a move to the Big Sky Conference pending for the 2012 season. That also means a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth will finally be within reach, meaning Gay will want to build momentum in the program’s last season before the move.

Sometimes life in college soccer is just about peaking at exactly the right time. Just ask the coaches and players at HOUSTON BAPTIST, who seemed to be plodding through a rather non-descript season as conference tournament time approached. With a 2-4-0 record in Great West play, it was something of an outside bet when talking up the Huskies’ tournament title hopes. But HBU did have a big ace in the hole for the GWC Tournament, namely the fact that they’d be hosting the league’s showpiece event. A tight win over NJIT brought up a third match against Utah Valley, which the Huskies won, their second win over their rivals in a week.

The title match against North Dakota was a physical affair, with six bookings and a red card, but in the end, the Huskies held their nerve in a shootout to prevail and lift the Great West Tournament against rather sizable odds. Not bad for a program in their third year of D1 play. It’s a bit of a family affair for head coach Misty Jones whose husband Steve coaches the men’s side at Houston Baptist. Jones came in to start the HBU program in 2006 after success as a club coach in the state, including a fair amount of success with the powerhouse Dallas Texans club.

As members of the Great West Conference, the Huskies have had their ups and downs, but the trophy does erase a little of the growing pains of a challenging season which saw some heavy defeats in non-conference play but also a surprising victory over Sam Houston State to open the year. Now the key becomes building on this season to ready the side for an eventual shot at an NCAA Tournament berth, most likely when HBU makes an inevitable move to a bigger conference. The only questions in that regard is “when and where” the Huskies will move, rather than if such a defection is in the cards.

Rather than the beginning of a new age for Husky soccer though, 2010 may have been the last hurrah of an old guard as the team transitions to an extended D1 existence. The 2010 Great West Tournament winners lose eight seniors from the title winning squad, including leading scorer, Isla Cameron. Cameron was involved in a third of HBU’s goals in 2010, and her presence up front will be hard to replace. The Huskies will have to hope that second leading scorer, junior forward Brandi Hart, steps up to fill the void. Hart was the only Husky to score multiple goals in league play last year and could improve yet considering she only started ten matches for HBU last year. Gabby Trujillo could also be a factor up front after scoring six goals in 2009 but fading badly last season and being held pointless in only one start.

The two other big losses are defensive duo Ashley Pierce and Gemma McDonald, a duo that were constants on the Husky backline last season. The Huskies weren’t exactly watertight in 2010, conceding forty-four goals, but the shuffling of personnel in defense may make improvement a slow process. Much will be expected of standout junior defender Arielle Rodriguez, a versatile and talented player, who now needs to step up and help lead her side in the new decade. One of the captains of the HBU side, Rodriguez built on being named GWC Newcomer of the Year in 2009 with a strong 2010 and is unquestionably one of the side’s best players going into the new year. In goal, Shelby Horn made the position her own as a freshman late last season and has the potential to develop into the Huskies’ keeper of choice for many years to come.

Considering the side’s losses on defense and struggles there at times last year, it’s hardly a surprise that most of the recruiting focus for this upcoming class has been on that side of the ball, and Jones will be hoping some of the new recruits can help fortify HBU’s defense. With only two seniors listed on HBU’s preliminary 2011 roster, it’s safe to say there may be better days ahead for the young Huskies. The loss of their main offensive conduit and many other contributors though means 2011 is likely to be spent treading water ahead of a potential title challenge once again in 2012.

Beneficiaries of low hanging fruit in 2010, HOWARD may have boasted their fifth straight season with more wins than the previous season, but the Bison didn’t beat an opponent higher than 282 in the season end uRPI. This was the same team that took a blistering 7-0 loss to a Temple squad that ended the season at 277 in the uRPI. Chronically underfunded and short on numbers, Howard have struggled to keep up in the evolving world of DI soccer from the beginning. Long-time coach Michelle Street recovered from some horrific early seasons to build the program into a team that actually went over the .500 mark in 2001, even scoring a win over MAC side Akron.

But the Lady Bison eventually sunk back down the ladder, and Street left after a thirteen loss 2005 season. Replacement Erinn Garner was a fine player with Howard in previous seasons but struggled through a pair of sixteen loss campaigns and was gone after three years in charge. Current coach Brent Leiba has many local ties to the D.C. area having been a staff coach with the Washington Freedom club and having played with George Mason many years back. Leiba found just the same struggles as Garner had after taking over though, and 2009 was about as uneventful as previous seasons for the Lady Bison.

Still, there was some optimism as the squad entered Great West play last year with three wins on their resume. Things started out well with a win over NJIT, but two straight losses derailed title hopes. In truth, Howard’s three wins in league play had more to do with the overall disarray of the Great West’s Eastern Division. A more stark picture of Howard’s quality could be seen in their losses to the likes of Wagner and NJIT. The Bison were crushed in the Great West Tournament quarterfinals by North Dakota, 7-0, revealing the overall gulf in quality between themselves and the top dogs in the fledgling league. Howard may have ended up with a fairly decent W-L-T record by small school standards, but their RPI was its worst since 2007.

Leiba will be hoping for better fortunes in his third season at a very difficult program to win at. Howard went into battle in 2010 with a very thin roster, a roster which will have to have replacements drafted in to take the place of four seniors. One of those seniors, crazily enough, spent her final season with Howard in goal despite being listed as a midfielder/forward on the team roster. For whatever reason, the team’s only listed keeper Chanel Bell was a spectator for 2010, and the team didn’t have another keeper on the roster. That prompted Bermudan Cheyra Bell to don the gloves. It went as well as you’d expect a field player playing in goal would in 2010, although Howard did manage two clean sheets in a row at one stage early in the season. The Lady Bison shouldn’t be in the same situation this season with the trained keeper Bell returning alongside Canadian goalkeeping recruit Kyra Dickinson.

Also gone from the back is senior starter Stephanie McLean. Midfield seniors Rachael Lee, who netted All-Great West divisional honors for the Bison and Briana Gamble also depart, leaving Leiba some holes to fill before the new year. The losses deplete an already thin roster, but having Jordan Brown and Retha Koefoed back should help offensive matters somewhat. Brown was team leader in assists with four, while Koefoed knocked in six goals to take the role of team scoring leader. The four goals of Cynthia Snyder should also return, meaning at the very least, the Lady Bison may be in a position to knock in a few goals this year. The offense will have to keep firing though and improve on last year’s somewhat paltry total of fifteen goals with the defense seemingly still unsettled. Having a full-time keeper in the mix should help also.

If that goalkeeping situation resolves itself, Howard may stand a slight chance of being the best of the rest in the Great West. That enough would be progress for a Howard program looking for any shred of improvement after so many years in the doldrums.

The coaching graveyard that is NJIT claimed another victim in 2010 as Kevin Leacock fell on his sword at the end of another losing season for the Highlanders. The success that the men’s side has seen over the years has not transferred well to the women, with NJIT’s ladies still waiting for it’s first winning season in the ranks of Division I. In all honesty, the Highlanders were never really that much of a Division II team either, though former coach Alyssa Radu led a laudable charge in 2005, driving the team to an 8-6-3 record and participation in the postseason ECAC Tournament. But NJIT chose that exact moment to make what in retrospect looks like a very poorly thought out move up to Division I status.

Almost all of NJIT’s progress was washed away against much tougher and better funded opponents, and soon, Radu was off to try her hand at another reclamation project at Maryland-Baltimore County. Assistant Kevin Leacock took over and found goings no easier, setting a program worst in losses in his first season in charge in 2008 with sixteen. After 2009′s 7-9-2 campaign, there seemed to be hope that Leacock’s team could perhaps turn the corner in 2010. Instead, the Highlanders regressed back to a 4-13-1 mark, enough to mark another changing of the guard in Jersey.

New boss Sergio Gonzalez will be presiding over a side that fought hard but were often outclassed. That two of NJIT’s wins came against hapless Delaware State should tell you a lot about the Highlanders’ year in 2010. It was a season that ended with a whimper to Houston Baptist in the Great West Tournament, a 1-0 loss ending Leacock’s reign at the helm of the Highlanders. Gonzalez was hired away from A10 powerhouse Dayton where he served as an assistant for five seasons during a very productive time in the history of the Flyers. He certainly comes in with a lot of promise, but Newark has proved a very difficult place to win this far.

Not to say there’s not a little bit of talent on the roster. Top scorer Amanda Dotten, straight out of Alaska, returns after a four goal haul in 2010 and will be looking to boost that total as she helps lead the Highlander offense in 2011. The goals have to flow from somewhere. Dotten was the only player to even top three goals, NJIT only tallying sixteen on the season. Another potential offensive threat would have been Piper Lunan, after the Canadian won the GWC Eastern Division’s Offensive Player of the Year award. Oddly, the Canadian scored only a single goal with three assists, making her selection odd but noteworthy nonetheless. Lunan’s gone from the 2011 roster though, and her loss is a blow to Gonzalez’s rebuilding project in Newark. Forwards Gechi Ukeagbu and Rebecca Tustin, along with midfielder Erin Morris, all scored two goals in Great West play, but surely more will be needed to drive NJIT back towards respectability.

Sadie Mele was the GWC East’s Defensive Player of the Year after playing every minute in goal for NJIT as a senior. She’s gone, leaving senior Caity Ragni and Canadian sophomore Anna Kornmuller to likely fight it out for the vacated starting spot she leaves behind. Neither has played a single minute in college, making this area a big worry for Gonazlez going into the new year. The new coach had some nice success in building up keepers at Dayton though, so there’s still hope yet.

Defender Mary Munoz and forward Kori Washington are the other big losses as the Highlanders seek to finally get over that .500 hump. The team adds Freestate SC defender Jennifer Cislo to the mix, and she could be a vital figure early after impressing in ECNL action last year for her club.

With a new hand at the wheel, progress could be possible if the players buy into the new system that Gonzalez has brought with him from Dayton. Realistically though, NJIT remains a long-term project. Though their Great West rivals aren’t necessarily world beaters, they do seem to have a leg up on the Highlanders at the moment, meaning NJIT may struggle to make a significant climb up the table in the GWC. It still looks like significant progress is a few years out for Gonzalez’s side, and task #1 may be building depth with what looks like a side very thin on numbers at the moment.

With their normal conference home, the MEAC, not offering up women’s soccer as an official sport, DELAWARE STATE has instead taken root in the Great West. Although more favorable than life as an independent, the Hornets have still been consistently near the bottom of the Great West over the past five years. A 7-11-0 mark in 2006, built mainly on the backs of non-DI opponents offered some hope for progress, especially considering then head coach Matt Okoh had performed similar miracles at Grambling a few years prior. But consecutive years of three, three, one, and one win again have kept a dark cloud hanging over Dover.

Okoh left after the 2007 season, and his replacement, Nitan Soni, has found it extremely tough going in three seasons so far with the Hornets. Any hopes of a respectable season last year seemingly went out the window right off the bat as the Hornets were pounded at UMBC, themselves nothing to write home about, 4-1. Three more big losses followed before a narrow defeat at Binghamton. Despite meager opposition, the Hornets would keep on losing until they popped up and shocked Wagner, 3-1 to record their first win of the season. It would turn out to be their only triumph in a miserable season that saw them go winless in Great West play, capped off with a 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Utah Valley in the Great West Tournament.

Not that the Hornets didn’t come close to grabbing a point a few times. DSU only fell by a single goal four times in league play, including a 4-3 thriller against NJIT. The eighteen losses suffered by DSU were a program high though, and the overall winning percentage of the program has gone down for the past four seasons. In truth, there’s not much further to fall for Delaware State in the DI ranks.

Unsurprisingly for a team at this level, conceding goals was a serious problem, the Hornets shipping seventy-one goals and only scoring twelve in return. When you add the fact that last year’s starting keeper for much of the year, Courteney Haas has graduated, you might worry a little about the upcoming season for DSU. But Soni may have scored a minor coup with the addition of freshman keeper Katelyn Koslosky, who has ODP experience, immediately making her one of the more distinguished players on the Hornets roster. Koslosky figures to battle with returning keeper Alexandria Young for the starting job, though without a vast improvement in the backline in front of the keeper, it’s unlikely to make a huge difference on the pitch.

Kristen Mathis and Morgan Vandenberge are the other two big losses to graduation, having played defense and midfield respectively. Most of the young Hornet core should return including leading scorer Jeanette Salgado, who tabbed three goals for DSU in 2010. Salgado was also the only player for DSU to start every game for the Hornets, meaning she’s likely to be a pivotal figure again for the team. Salgado was also the team leader in goals scored with a paltry three but did score two of those goals against Great West opponents. It’s not much but it’s something. Theresa Wappett also returns having scored twice and assisted on two more goals, having also scored the game winning goal in the Hornets’ only win of the season.

On the whole though, this team is still deficient in just about every area of the pitch and doesn’t seem to have brought in enough reinforcements to expedite the long climb up from the bottom regions of DI. Delaware State still has light years to go to get themselves up to a respectable Division I standard. In this regard, a class action lawsuit recently brought against the school (and settled as of the end of 2010) for Title IX violations isn’t likely to attract players to help boost the program. But there’s nowhere to go but up for DSU at the moment, and many returnees mean that the Hornets may ultimately have a decent shot of tacking on a few wins to 2010′s meager total.

Projected Order of Finish (Note: The Great West Conference does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament)

1. North Dakota
2. South Carolina State
3. Utah Valley
4. Houston Baptist
5. Howard
6. NJIT
7. Delaware State

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