Like the football program, UH’s soccer team will be playing its final season in Robertson Stadium this fall. Away from home, UH faces a challenging schedule including games against Arizona and Arizona State. | File photo/The Daily Cougar
Three games into the season, the Lady Cougars stand at 2-1-0 after defeating the HBU Huskies 3-2 on Sunday at Robertson Stadium.
Prior to the game, the Coogs faced Northwestern State at their exhibition match on Sept. 11, and defeated them with a goal by senior Katelyn Rhodes. The following game resulted in 2-0 loss to SFA on Sept. 17.
“We are a new staff,” head coach Chris Pfau said. “We didn’t have the spring with them (so) it’s going to take some time getting comfortable with each other. That will change from game to game. Our big aspiration is to get everything figured out before we hit conference. We’ll take some losses trying to figure things out but the big picture is we want to be strong going in to conference.”
Even so, junior midfielder Jasmine Martinez says the team is adjusting well.
“Everyone is willing to do whatever he has us doing,” Martinez said. “He’s bringing in a new style and everyone is working really well with it, getting to know each other and staying positive on becoming champions.”
The new coaches’ style of play, a four-two-three-one differs from the four-three-three the team was accustomed to under former five-year head coach Susan Quill.
“I think we all have the same idea of what we think soccer should be,” assistant coach Suzie Grech said. “We know it’s a beautiful game and we want to keep it that beautiful game. In the past they’ve played much more direct. We’re trying to a play a little bit more simple yet still attacking and going after teams. There are still things we’re looking to tweak but at the same time we’re finding a nice foundation as to where we want to take this team. ”
Such tweaking according to Pfau includes building on the positive and addressing problems.
“I thought we kept our structure very well (Sunday),” Pfau said. “I thought we attacked very well, we created some very good goals, and we were dangerous at times and so we will build on that. We got to fix (things) defensively. We’re not strong in the air and we don’t walk up very well so we got to fix that, and going forward, we’ll be a good team.”.
Conference USA games began Tuesday against SMU at Robertson Stadium and run through Oct. 26 in a culminating game against the Rice Owls at Robertson.
