 "Photo: Katie Kirkland / The Gamecock")
Shelley Smith expects her fifth season in Columbia to be her most exciting and fulfilling season yet - on and off the field.
The former women's soccer coach at University of Rhode Island and Dartmouth College has been at Carolina for a full recruiting cycle and can see the makings of a program back on the rise.
"This will be our fifth season, and this year's graduating players will have been our first recruiting class," Smith said. "We're really excited about this year for them. We've seen how far they've come as players. They've improved a program and brought so many great memories in the past couple of years."
The Gamecocks have one NCAA Tournament appearance in their brief 10-year history, a 0-2 loss to Charlotte. Last season, with a roster of 13 freshmen, was Smith's worst since coming to Carolina in 2001, but the coach said she believes she's finally found the talent and recipe for the program's second trip to the tournament.
"We've been really close, and I think that this year it's really a goal of ours to make it to that next step," Smith said. "I feel that this year we're more prepared than ever to do that. The players came back more fit than I've ever seen. There's excitement going into the season knowing that we don't have to worry about fitness level."
Another important piece to the puzzle involves teamwork, an aspect Smith acknowledged as the young team's strength. Senior captain Kimmy Criss' optimism in a great season mirrors that statement regarding the difference between last year and this year's teams.
"This year's been a year where there really hasn't been a gap between each class as far as freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors," Criss said. "We are a very unified team. This year we know that with each game we're playing, we're reaching for the NCAA Tournament. From the freshmen to the four seniors, we all know the goal that we want, and it's a common goal throughout the 25 players that we have."
One main reason the team has bonded so well is that upperclassmen were quick to embrace freshmen and keep a close-knit atmosphere.
"Each player really bonded with the freshmen, and we really got to know them - who they are, their personalities, and how we mesh well as a team," Criss said. "Even before starting preseason, we all knew each other and had that common bond of going into preseason together and knowing each other."
That teamwork and unity is what Smith said she believes will help Carolina take the leap from a team with opportunities to a team that executes. The Gamecocks have already shown promise after an undefeated preseason, including a 2-0 victory against No. 9 Duke. Last season, games against that type of competition remained close, but the Gamecocks' inability to capitalize on opportunities left them one game from the SEC Tournament. Given the depth of the SEC, making that tournament means finishing in the top eight in the conference, which speaks volumes about a team's resume.
"The SEC is very competitive," Smith said. "We ought to finish in the top five or six in the conference, that's our goal. We want to be at the SEC's, and if we can get there, anything can happen. If you're in the SEC's and you're (a higher seed), you should have a chance of going to the NCAAs."
While Smith said the NCAA Tournament might sound like a stretch when comparing USC's roster individually, she stands strong on her belief that as a team, the Gamecocks can compete with any team any day. Having already backed that up with a convincing win against Duke, the Gamecocks will have two non-conference matches against tournament teams from last year before starting SEC play. The recruitment of skilled offensive players at the moment might be a solution to last year's scoring problems.
"This year, adding more offensive players to the attack has been a big help," Smith said, referring to newcomers Darcel Mollon, Felicia Schroeder and Alex Mouton. "Last year we struggled to find the net. We played hard, we had lots of chances, we just couldn't finish."
Even if the offensive attack doesn't end up as strong as anticipated in the early games, Criss pointed out an observation about her teammates she believes is a sign 2005 will indeed be the start of something exciting.
"The work rate at practices has been a lot better than previous years," Criss said. "Each day that we go out there is to get better, it's not just to go out and practice. We want to work as hard as we can for those two hours to make it in November to the NCAA Tournament."
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