SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s soccer team begins its season this weekend with two contests in California. The first match is versus the University of Redlands on Friday, then the team travels to Chapman University on Saturday. The Gusties return a majority of their roster that went to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) championship game last season, including four of their top six point-scorers and look forward to big things from their youth as they look to make a run in the MIAC again this season.
Leadership
The three captains this year for the Gusties include defender Trina Rinke (Sr.,Waconia, Minn.), forward Kylie Lamberty (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.), and midfielder Chase Miller (Sr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.). Rinke sat out last season due to going through treatment and rehabilitation for ovarian cancer. Rinke brings a lot of experience to the Gusties as she started every game as a defender her first year and looks to get back into the rhythm of things this season. Lamberty appeared in 18 games last season for the Gusties and tallied an assist in a conference win over St. Catherine. Miller was Gustavus’s leading point scorer last season as she notched five goals and three assists.
When asked about her captains, Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie said, “Our three captains are all great leaders, but they’re also different types of leaders for us, so it’s a good balance in that sense. One main thing we’ve established in our program is that everyone has the ability to lead, and it’s easy to see that as our young players start to gain more experience they start to step up leadership-wise.”
Top Returners for the Gusties
Gustavus returns many pieces that helped guide it to success last season and are led by Miller who looks to help pace the offense again this season. Emily Skogseth (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.), who tallied nine points last season in just 17 contests, looks to build off her solid season and finish her Gustavus career on a high note. Abby Mullenbach (Jr., Lakeville, Minn.) and Lauren Johnson (So., Woodbury, Minn.) both accumulated six points for the Gusties last season and will look to provide some offense for the team again this year. With the loss of All-American goalkeeper Ashley Becker (Sr., Farmington, Minn.) due to an injury, Gustavus will look to fill her void in the net with first-years Abby Goodno (Fy., Little Canada, Minn.) and Leah Pavlish (Fy., Prior Lake, Minn.).
“We have a really deep team this season and look forward to having so many solid players on the team. We scrimmaged MSU-Mankato last weekend and played 23 girls and stayed really competitive with them so it was really a good sign for the direction of our team,” Burnett-Kurie said. “Our goalkeepers were also really solid on Saturday and the battle for the position has been really competitive which really helps our training environment in practice and makes not only the goalkeepers better, but makes everyone else better.
Preseason Ranking
The Gusties were picked to finish sixth overall in the conference by the coaches of the MIAC. St. Thomas was picked first, with Augsburg receiving the second place nod. St. Olaf, Saint Benedict, and St. Catherine are the other three teams slated to finish above Gustavus.
When asking about finishing sixth in the regular season last season but making it to the conference championship game, Burnett-Kurie said, “That’s the great thing about the MIAC, anybody can beat anybody on any given day and you have to the have the mentality that no game will be easy. You have to be able to just control what you can control and go one game at a time and put your best foot forward.”