Oct. 22, 2008
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Coveleskie is in her eighth season as the head soccer coach at Vanderbilt. Before last year, she had led VU to consecutive NCAA Tournament trips for the first time since the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
You lost just five letterwinners from a year ago, how exciting is it to have so much talent coming back?
We are very excited for this year. We still feel like we are a very young team, so we are still going to go through our fair share of learning experiences during matches. However, I think that our talent level is young and enthusiastic.
What do you think will be the greatest improvement from last season to this one?
I think we are still going to be young and enthusiastic, but I think we have matured as a group. Our work in the weight room and our commitment to our fitness level has increased. I think we’ve adjusted to the speed of play in the college game, and I think that our mentality, that we built in the spring and have continued to build, is really going to help us compete in matches. I think the most important part is that our inexperienced, young players have now gained a mental edge.
Molly Kinsella led the team in scoring last year, what should we expect this year?
I think Molly Kinsella is a fabulous player. You can see Molly turning into our go-to player on our field this year. She is the fittest player on the team. She is by far the most competitive player on our team. When you step on the field, you are going to notice Molly Kinsella right away because she makes an impact every single time she is on the field.
How hungry is the team after missing the NCAA Tournament last year?
Although we were disappointed with our results last year, I continue to think about how much we learned and how much stronger it is going to make us as individual players and as a team. The one thing that we have that will solidify us as a group is that we know that we don’t want to be back in that position again. We are all motivated to make sure that we don’t dwell on the past and that we focus on the present and future and reestablishing Vanderbilt soccer.
