Fighting Scots hope to make women’s soccer history

Release Date: August 30, 2004

MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth College women’s soccer team is good, and it’s getting better.

The Fighting Scots posted a 7-6-2 record last fall, the first winning season for the program since 1997. It marked the second straight year the Scots had increased their victory total, and second-year coach Barry McNamara feels his team is now ready to make the move to serious Midwest Conference contender.

The Scots nearly reached the four-team MWC playoffs a year ago, finishing fifth in the 10-team league. Had two MWC ties against Carroll and Lawrence been converted to two victories, the Scots would have earned their first-ever conference playoff berth.

McNamara hopes that berth arrives this year instead, and he feels his team has the talent and depth to pull it off.

“Last year, I think our players were good enough to get it done, but we were very, very thin,” he said. “What we’ve been able to do this year is retain our talent – 10 of our 11 starters are back – plus we’ve added more than a dozen recruits who we think can help us, including some right off the bat.”

Leading the returning starters are twin sisters Amy and Abby Horneck, who have been voted the team’s co-captains. Amy is a two-time first team All-MWC forward, while Abby earned a second team selection last year at midfield.

“One MWC coach voted Amy the second-best player in the conference, and I certainly agree that she’s right up there,” said McNamara of the fleet forward, who enters the season with 31 goals and 10 assists, good for 72 career points. Early in the season, McNamara expects her to break the existing MC career records for goals (32) and points (79).

Her sister, Abby, has also posted solid two-year numbers, scoring 14 goals to go with 17 assists (45 points). It’s quite likely that the sisters will finish their careers 1-2 on the MC scoring list.

“Their combination of talent and determination definitely makes them the leaders on the field for us,” said McNamara. “There’s no question that they both deserve a lot of credit for turning our program around.”

Other standout returners for the Scots include two other juniors, midfielders Audrey Stoffel and Kathleen Heinrich. Playing directly behind Abby Horneck in the Scots’ 4-4-2 scheme, Stoffel has netted eight goals and distributed 12 assists in her career, while Heinrich figures to get the chance to use her athleticism in the open field after two years as a starting defender. Playing opposite her as the other outside midfielder will be versatile sophomore Audrey Bellefeuille, who had a pair of two-goal games last year and finished with seven.

“Audrey has reported back in tremendous shape, and is definitely fit enough to handle the workload at an outside mid,” said McNamara. “However, she’s also No. 2 on our depth chart at several other positions, including sweeper and forward.”

The returning defenders are led by sophomore stopper Kristin Mertel, who earned the team’s defensive MVP honor in her first season, scoring five goals and delivering seven assists despite spending a majority of her time in the back half of the field. Other returners in the back four are sophomore sweeper Jess Myers, who earned an MWC Player of the Week honor during the season, and senior Laura Turk, who transferred to MC last season and three full seasons of college soccer under her belt.

The team’s other senior, forward Carrie Murphy, had five goals last year and is the other returning starter. Also back are Dani Briceno and Jolene Bazon.

Monmouth carried only two goalies on its roster entering 2003, and one of them was hampered by an injury all season and never saw the field. Amanda Havens stepped up and played better and better as the season wore on, eventually earning the team’s Most Improved Player honor.

There will be no shortage at that position this year, as three recruits will battle Havens for the starting role. That includes Allie Aagesen, who minded the nets for a 21-1 team at Normal’s University High School, and Chicago-area recruits Jennifer Scott and Mariam Turay.

“Making sure we had that position covered was our No. 1 recruiting goal,” said McNamara, “and right behind that was improving our offense. We think we did pretty well in both areas.”

Ashley Kensinger, an IHSSCA All-Sectional player at Princeton, will help take the scoring load off of the Hornecks, while Katie Graham, a proven goalscorer from the Indianapolis area, could also make an impact. McNamara is also anxious to watch the development of newcomers Katie Buerger and Jenny Tunberg.

A trio of Chicagoland recruits will provide talented depth in the midfield – Lauren Lafond of Batavia, Summer Waecker from state quarterfinalist Lincoln-Way East and Rocio Mendez from Chicago (Notre Dame).

IHSSCA honorable mention selection Laura VandeMoortel of Rock Island has won a starting defender spot, and Montini’s Anne Murphy and Batavia’s Lauren Livingston will also compete for playing time.

“I like a lot of things about this team,” said McNamara. “It would be nice to have more than two seniors, but on the other hand, the vast majority of this group is going to be together for more than one season. I like the fact that we’ve been able to go 11-on-11 in practice and come a lot closer to simulating game situations. We had one practice last year where we only had five healthy players left to run sprints at the end.”

McNamara is also pleased with the Scots’ schedule, which has them playing nine times at beautiful Peacock Park, nearly double last season’s total.

Monmouth opens at home on Sept. 1 against a talented Principia team, then plays matches in Kentucky (vs. Georgetown) and Indiana (vs. Hanover) over Labor Day weekend.

“There’s a very real chance we could open with some losses but still be a much-improved team from a year ago,” said McNamara. “No matter how we fare in our first three games, though, we expect to be playing some very good soccer by the time our conference season opens on Sept. 25. We’ll have played six games by that point and we’ll have a month of playing together under our belts.”

McNamara feels that last year’s conference playoff representatives – Grinnell, Lake Forest, St. Norbert and Carroll, will all be tough again. Sixteen of their combined 17 all-conference players return.

“I can’t say which team it will happen against, but we have to knock off at least one of them to get where we want to be at the end of the year,” said McNamara. “We tied Carroll and had good halves against Grinnell and St. Norbert. This year, we finish up at St. Norbert, and we expect a lot to be at stake in that match.”

Joining McNamara on the coaching staff will be his wife, Vicki McNamara, and Jon Parr.

Women's Soccer