The Dawgs will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats on Sept. 5. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
JULIA LORELLI | STAFF REPORTER | jlorelli@butler.edu
After falling in the Big East tournament last year to UConn, the women’s soccer team is ready to make a comeback this season. The Bulldogs came flying out of the gate, going 3-1-1 through their first five games.
The Bulldogs faced the Ohio Bobcats for their first game on Thursday, Aug. 15. The match ended in a 1-1 tie.
Butler shut out the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday, Aug.18, winning 3-0. Sophomore forward Norah Jacomen fired the ball into the back of the net at the 12-minute mark. Senior forward Alexei Whittaker secured the Bulldogs victory by scoring their third goal with an assist from junior forward Leila Lister.
The team traveled to Drake for their first away game on Sunday, Aug. 25 for a battle of the Bulldogs. While Drake put up a fight, Butler handed them a 5-3 loss. Drake started off the game strong, scoring two goals in less than ten minutes. Despite each team having several shots in the second half of the game, neither could find the back of the net.
The Bulldogs returned home for their game against the Ball State Cardinals on Thursday, Aug.29. Redshirt junior goalie Anna Pierce stopped every shot, helping the team to a 3-0 victory.
Butler’s win streak was cut short when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish came to the Jackie and Sellick Bowl. The Irish scored 17 minutes into the game and beat the Bulldogs by a score of 1-0.
The Bulldogs are led by co-head coach Rob Alman who will be entering his 13th season at Butler. His expectations for his team are to keep working on locking in the strategies that they use in practice so that they can be prepared to play against their harder opponents.
“It’s so much about growth and development and really locking in our principles of play, the things that we really value, and really trying to improve on those,” Alman said. “We’ve got a really challenging non-conference schedule. We feel like that portion of the schedule is going to get us prepared for a challenging Big East schedule again. So really, the focus at this point for us is just to stay focused on us, stay focused on the things that we want to see come out in our game, and the way that we express ourselves as a team.”
The Bulldogs are an ambitious group, attributing their victories to focusing on one game at a time.
Whittaker is thrilled for her senior year as a Bulldog as the team focuses on preparing for each game.
“I feel like we have a mindset where we take the next game as the most important game, just one after the other, after the other,” Whittaker said. “I would hope everyone has a little bit of that [mentality]. Each time we roll up to a new opponent, that’s who we want to take down that day. Doesn’t matter ranking…we’re coming and we’re gonna show up and we’re gonna beat up.”
Junior midfielder Talia Sommer has moved across the globe several times, starting playing professional soccer at 14 years old and becoming an internationally capped player for Israel while still in college. While many things have changed for Sommer, her love of the game is a constant that she has had since she was four years old.
“Every single game, we’re excited to play that game,” Sommer said. “The next game is always the most important one for us. It’s just step-by-step, getting that next win. I think the coaches instill that mentality in us as well. The next opponent, that’s who we need to beat next, and nothing else matters. We’re preparing for that game, everything we do before that is to win that game at the end of the day.”
While the team focuses on one game at a time, they still have goals they want to accomplish like winning the Big East Tournament.
“It’s our time to take that ‘W’ and win the Big East,” Sommer said. “We have a good enough team, we have the friendships, we trust each other, we have the passion for the game, we have the identity we’ve turned ourselves into. This is the year for us.”
Sommer believes that the program has built a solid foundation that allows each player to demonstrate their strengths.
“We have a very, very strong identity that, I think in the spring especially, has developed into something very concrete and strong,” Sommer said. “We play a beautiful style of soccer, very possession-based, very strength-based, so we know how to play to our strengths and what we’re good at, and we play to that. [We] lean on each other, we are here for each other. I think that’s the soul of our team: our togetherness, our friendship, our sisterhood.”
Whittaker loves the connection that she feels with her teammates as they push each other to be the best they can be.
“I think that having that kind of friendship connection makes it so easy to show up every day and play for each other,” Whittaker said. “I look to my right and left and see all my best friends, and I always want to give my best for them. I think it just makes it so easy to come out and kick butt. The legacy that I think my classmates and I want to leave behind is to just enjoy the moment, enjoy each other, and pick up as many wins as possible on the way. These are my sisters, rain or shine.”
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