University of Delaware Women's Soccer to Kickoff 25th Season of Competition Tonight at Home vs. Monmouth

8/22/2014 9:16:00 AM | Women's Soccer

By: Delaware Athletics

Scott Grzenda, the only head coach in the 25-year history of a program that played its first varsity season back in 1990. “The team worked very hard over the summer and it shows in our fitness and mental preparedness.”

Among the group are six players who started 12 or more games a year ago led by senior defender Allegra Gray and junior midfielder Emily Market. Both Gray and Parker earned All-CAA honors a year ago and were named to the preseason All-CAA team was well. Delaware was picked to finish sixth in the conference in the preseason coaches poll.

“Our team always has the expectation of winning the conference,” said Grzenda, who has posted 222 wins over his 24 seasons. “We need to put ourselves in the position of participating in the conference tournament and then winning the automatic bid.

“We are very excited to welcome five new freshmen to go along with our 11 sophomores and nine upperclassman,” Grzenda continued. “Even though we will be young, our upperclassmen bring plenty of experience. Our experience is in our back line with Allegra, Maddie Parker, and Alison Slark all returning from great years in 2013. Allegra should compete for (CAA) defensive player of the year and we will rely heavily on her leadership. We are looking for Andi Arnold and Emily Market to anchor our midfield along with some very talented sophomores and freshmen.

“Our freshman class is very strong and all of them will compete for playing time this fall,” said Grzenda. “With the loss of Shannon Kearney, we will look to Natalie Zelenky to pick up some of the slack. Rachel Vaccaro and Maddie Brosler along with our freshmen Krista Trinidad and Gina Tricocci will also need to put in a few goals. At keeper, we are very strong with senior Jess Figueroa, junior Kelsey O'Donnell, and redshirt freshman Kailyn Rekos pushing each other for the starting role (to replace Jess Levy).”

The Blue Hens will be looking to post their first-ever win over Monmouth, which owns a 5-0 all-time mark against Delaware, including a 1-0 win last year in West Long Branch, N.J. The Hawks tied a school record with 17 victories a year ago when they went 8-0-2 in league play, capturing the MAAC regular season and tournament titles and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Monmouth posted an incredible 16 shutouts on the season and eight starters return from that squad.