Midway through the season – with nine regular-season games left on their calendar, the ACU women’s soccer team is sitting with a 2-1-5 record.
Despite winning only two of their first eight games, the Wildcats’ season is very much still in grasp.
“We’ve built from each game, we’ve gotten better and better each game, and that’s what I’m happy with,” said Head Soccer Coach Stephen Salas.
The team’s progression every game, particularly with outshooting most opponents, is apparent. Coach Salas said that he is not concerned about his squad’s offense but instead is ready to see them take the next leap forward.
“We’ve outshot every opponent except Mississippi State,” Salas said. “We just got to put them on frame.”
He said the team’s focus is to get this done: discipline.
“I don’t think there are major adjustments,” Salas said. “I think it just comes down to discipline and practice.”
The Wildcats, however, have to get this fixed fast because, after the next two games, they swing into seven straight conference games to end the season. This stretch will further help them with winning objectives moving forward.
“It’s one more week until things get real, and we have to maximize our points and get the win,” Silas said. “We always want to get No. 1, but we want to set realistic goals and top four gets us a shot.”
Making the Western Athletic Conference postseason is going to be vital moving forward as anything can happen in the postseason.
Something foundational to this team’s success is their defensive presence moving forward. This remains the team’s preached philosophy, the focus of their game plan.
“For us, we’re going to preach defense first,” Silas said. “It’s the team defending, and team attacking. That’s the key.”
While the Wildcats having five ties at surface level looks bad, it is a positive thing in the sense of quality defense. This year this team has five games where the opposing team scored zero goals against them and two games where they have only surrendered one.
Furthermore, these several ties do not hurt the Wildcats. Although not as many points in the standings as a win, half of a point is still given for every tie received.
Looking to the future, Silas’ eyes are venturing high but is still staying grounded in the moment.
“I want to build this into a top-50 program,” Salas said. “We’re are still growing day by day.”
