Today is the first day of a new Niner athletics season. Our women’s soccer team, tonight, led by Charlotte alum John Cullen, takes on North Florida on the road. Charlotte’s women’s soccer team has been near the top of the Atlantic 10 since joining the conference in 2005, reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2007 and 2008. The last two seasons, their season has ended in disappointment, coming up short to Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Championship game both years, first in Charlotte, then in Kingston, RI last year.

With the new season started, we exchanged questions and answers with Head Coach John Cullen, as they prepare for another season, one in which they wish to leave Dayton the victim for once.

We lost an electric offensive player in Whitney Weinrub to graduation, where will you look for that spark in this season’s squad?
When you lose a striker who holds the record for goals scored in her career at Charlotte, I don’t look to one player to pick up the slack, but rather a collective effort as a  group. If all of our strikers can increase their goal tally from  last year then we will go a long way to getting the goals we need to be successful. We will be leaning heavily on the senior quartet of Macky Wingo, Oni Bernard, Jenna McKeon and Jonna Handra and then we will be looking for strong contributions from our younger players; Jessica Ryan, Dakota Olson, Amanda Jones, Heather Carew and Sara Trexler. Plus our mid fielders need to contribute more so than ever before with goals too.

What do you expect out of our returning leaders in scoring, Macky Wingo, 2010 goals leader for Charlotte, and Oni Benard, this season?
I’m looking for them to be exceptionally strong players for us in terms of the leadership, consistency and quality. We will need both of those girls to have  the type of season where they are All-conference and All-regional level for us to be successful. They are going to have to be at the top of the game all season. I have great faith in them as I do in the other seniors and team as a whole.

Last season, we switched keepers between Alex Kubrick and Natalie LaVigne, who will start the season at goalkeeper?
Alex gets the nod going into the season, as you would expect Natalie is working hard too, pushing for that spot. It’s great as a coaching staff to have that real daily competition . I’m excited where they both are in the their training and we have Annie McHenry a freshmen waiting in the wings too.

Which freshmen will be contributing to the team immediately?
Amanda Jones, Sara Trexler will be two players we will be using a lot early in the season and I’m looking too for Darby Broeker to have a stellar season. With so many freshmen though we will see a lot of them on the field during the season, which is encouraging and gives us a bright future for many years to come.

We close the regular season with a huge game at our nemesis the last couple of seasons, Dayton, who also host the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Would you rather get this game out of the way early, or have it looming out there with chances to improve along the way?
I like the fact we see Dayton before the Atlantic 10 tournament, gives us a true sense where we are  at that time of the year and what we need to improved upon in those last 1-2 weeks heading back to participate in the tournament. It will be good for our young team to see them at the end and know what level of performance is required to be successful and hopefully be crowned champions in the A10.

What will this team have to accomplish in order for you to consider it a successful season?
Improve every day, grow as a team , play to high standards and most of all be competitive every time we pull on that Charlotte Jersey. All you can ask of any player and any team is “bring it” every game. Our  standards are high and we strive to be successful for every title we are in competition for each year.

If a Niner fan could only make it out to one home game at Transamerica Field this season, which game would you have them attend?
Hopefully, the season opener, and our intent is to put on a good show and that makes them want to keep coming back more and more often because the Niner fans enjoyed the occasion and we put on strong showing to represent our program and university. Make them leave happy and wanting more !!

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT and ENCOURAGEMENT Niner fans….it means the world to us !!!!

After playing a pair of games in Jacksonville, FL this weekend, the ladies have a four-game home stand at Transamerica Field starting next weekend with Florida Gulf Coast on Friday night, the 26th, and then Providence on Sunday afternoon. The next weekeend they will host UNC Wilmington and East Carolina. See the whole schedule here.