Westminster women’s soccer shows its muscle early in the season

The Westminster women’s soccer team is letting its opponents know it’s the team to beat this year. The Griffins have started the season strong, beating Frontier Conference rivals Rocky Mountain University on Aug. 29 and the University of Great Falls on Sept. 5. Coach Tony LeBlanc said his senior-heavy roster has made a big impact already this season.

“We’re very excited. It’s our fifth year and we have a big senior class for the first time ever. We’ve also been able to bring in some very solid recruits,” he said. “We’re very deep, very talented and it’s starting to pay off with some of our results. We keep pushing harder and getting better but we’ve got a very strong team.”

Dayna Winter-Nolte, Corie, Nicole Taylor, Lisa, Nikki Kopfman, Heather Hillam, Vanessa Jordan, Brinna Bennion, Michelle Erickson, Sarah Swenson, and Elaina Pappas are the 11 seniors on LeBlanc’s roster this season. These players have been with the program the last three years and LeBlanc said he’s steadily watched these players develop and get to the top of their game.

“Playing with each other that long, you just know where everyone is going to be one the field,” Swenson said. “You don’t even have to talk. When you pass the ball you know they are going to be there.”

In addition to the seniors, LeBlanc said a strong freshman class and several solid transfer players have built up the team. Margo Hickman transferred from Walla Walla Community College and has already started making a name for herself. She was named the Frontier Conference Player of the Week for the first time after scoring two goals, including the winning overtime goal against Biola University on Sept. 2. Hickman leads the team with four goals so far.

Westminster also picked up several new local recruits with impressive soccer championship pedigrees. Nicole Carter spent the last three seasons as an Alta Hawk and helped the team win the 5A championships in 2009. Sabrina Walker was part of Juan Diego’s 3A championship team in 2009 and 2010.

“We’ve been able to bring in some good recruits like Margo Hickman and our freshman class,” LeBlanc said. “We’ve got a great core we already had and we’ve supplemented that with a few dangerous players. It’s worked out great so far.”

The Griffins are 4-1 so far. If they can keep the momentum going it will put them in a good place to make a run for the Frontier Conference title.

“We’ve played a lot of great teams so far and we have a very good team,” said junior Jaime Nelson, who transferred from Cal State Dominguez Hills. “This year we’ve had a good fight in us. Everyone has this belief that we can go places and our work ethic has been very good. I think we have a really good chance at winning the conference tournament this year and hopefully we can go on to the NAIA tournament and win that too.”