Youthful Yellowjackets Grow in 2009

Growth, Potential and Accomplishments
Growth and maturity were the hallmarks of the 2009 soccer season for the Montana State University Billings women’s team.  With five freshmen in the starting lineup for the majority of the 20 games this season, the experience gained bodes well for the future Yellowjacket lineup.  Despite finishing 9-10-1 on the year, the Jackets saw success in a number of key areas and look positively on the potential return of 10 of 11 starters in 2010.

“It’s good that we have potentially 10 of 11 starters returning and that obviously brings a bit of stability as we move into the spring season and next fall knowing we have a group of players returning who have played at a pretty high level,” Trentham said.  “I think we’ve gained experience and will continue to work on consistency and tightening the chemistry.  The more the team knows about how they each play on and off the field, the greater the team chemistry.  I believe that team chemistry can get you 2-3 wins a season.”

There were many positives in the Yellowjacket season that can be built upon going into 2010, including a significantly improved record on the road—something the Jackets had struggled with in the past.  The Jackets went 5-3-1 on the year on the road for the most road wins since going 7-4 away from Billings in 2006.  In addition, the Jackets made a return to the regional rankings this season.

“We made a return to the NSCAA region and NCAA rankings this year,” Trentham said.  “We beat a Dixie State (College) team, who went to the NCAA Tournament, at their place, we scored on Seattle Pacific (University) for the first time and took them to overtime and we won games at Central Washington University and Western Oregon University for the first time in school history.  There were a lot of positives that happened this season, but our home games were where we let ourselves down.”

This was evident by a 3-6 record at home which were the fewest wins at home since the 2003 season (3-4-1).  At home the Yellowjackets’ offensive production was almost half of what it was in road and neutral games.  MSUB scored 12 goals at home with 15 assists, while scoring 24 goals with 22 assists away from home.

The Yellowjackets will benefit from the leadership roles advanced by a large group of juniors who took over leadership positions for the first time this season, as well as from the experience gained by a sizeable number of freshmen who were learning the expectations of college soccer.

“A lot has been said about the freshmen and what they brought to the team,” Trentham said.  “The freshmen scored over half of our goals this season, which was a nice addition to our offense and they contributed to the team at midfield and in the back.  Overall it proved to be a pretty strong recruiting class and I look forward to working with this class for three more years.  On the other hand, the sophomores, juniors and seniors brought a lot to the table, as well.  It was a nice compliment (of talent) overall.”

As a team, the Yellowjackets set a number of records in 2009.  MSUB tallied 37 assists on the year, which is second-best in the school’s annals.  They also tallied the second highest averaged attendance at home with 142 spectators per game and had the second-best total season attendance in home games with a 1,276 in the stands.  The 2009 edition was third in the school record books in points in a season with 109 and tied for third with consecutive road wins (3). 

Individually, a number of records were broken as well.  Junior midfielder Kari Foreman tied for first in game winning goals in a season with four, which was good for second in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. 

“Kari had a quiet, good year,” Trentham said. “She provided a good work rate in the midfield and gave us a defensive presence at times, putting the ball in the back of the net nine times, which is pretty good production from a center midfield player.”

With nine goals and three assists on the year, Foreman finished second on the team in scoring this season, while freshman Jen Larsen added eight goals for the Yellowjackets.  Senior Chelsea Libby tallied eight assists in ’09, while registering 78 games to tie the MSUB record for the most games played in school history.

Junior goalkeeper Jordan Fenwick played every minute of all 20 games this season to finish second in school history in season minutes with 1866:39.  Fenwick stands at second in career wins, with 21, second in career minutes (4323:33) and second in career goals against average (1.73).  Fenwick moved into third on the career shutout list with seven.

MSUB’s freshmen accounted for 20 of the Yellowjackets’ 36 goals on the year and 12 of the 26 assists.  Billings native Jaucelyn Richter led the team with 10 goals, eight assists and 28 points.  She was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and was a first team all-conference selection.
“Jaucelyn had arguably the best season a freshman attacking player has had here,” Trentham said.  “I think she and Jen (Larsen) created a threat up top that we hadn’t had since 2006.  Both of them scored some big goals for us this year and were both players who our opponents had to be worried about.”

Foreman and junior defender Samantha Boehm were named GNAC Player of the Week this season, while Boehm was named CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Region VII Third Team.  MSUB had seven student-athletes named to the GNAC Scholar-Athlete team including the following:  Boehm; Libby; Foreman; Lauren Anderson; Caitlin Differding; Kelly Ross; and Carly Valentine.

“Sam (Beohm) continues to get back to the form that she was in as a freshman.  She has speed on and off the ball and becomes better every day,” Trentham said.

Five players were named to the GNAC All-Conference team with Richter earning first team honors and Freshman of the Year honors.  Boehm, Larsen, Libby and Foreman all earned honorable mention honors.

Season Recap
The 2009 season got underway on the road as MSUB split two games at Dixie State to open the year.  The Yellowjackets suffered a 2-1 setback in the season opener to Cal State San Bernardino, but responded nicely with a 3-2 win at Dixie State.  The Red Storm finished the season 14-5 on the year.

MSUB opened the home slate splitting two games in the Best Western Clock Tower Inn as Colorado Christian University won 1-0 in the opening game, followed by the Yellowjackets fighting back in a thrilling 3-2, double overtime win over Augustana College.  The Yellowjackets avenged two losses at Dixie State College (4-0) and at Augustana (4-0) from the previous season in the first two weekends of 2009.

The Yellowjackets then went on the road for three straight weeks, going 4-1-1 on the trip and improving to 6-3-1 on the year and 3-1 in conference play. Trentham felt the second conference road series was the pivotal point in the season.

“I thought our two wins in our second road trip in GNAC play were great,” Trentham said.  “To go out and win two games at WOU and Saint Martin’s (University) showed what we are capable of doing when we are on.  The win at WOU (2-1 in double overtime) was a grind-it-out, gutty performance by the entire team.  Winning at Saint Martin’s proved to be pretty good, as it was a team we beat at their place and they finished third in the league.  Seattle Pacific was the only other team to beat Saint Martin’s on the road.”

The Yellowjackets dropped a tough conference decision at home to Central Washington (3-0), before downing Northwest Nazarene University (2-1).  MSUB regained the Rimrock Cup with a 4-0 victory at Rocky Mountain College, avenging an overtime loss to the Battlin’ Bears last season.

MSUB then hosted Carroll College in a hard-fought 2-1 loss, which began a string of four consecutive losses, and six of seven, to end the year.

“I thought our performance against Carroll at home was disappointing and seemed to start the losses we had at the end of the season,” Trentham said.

The Yellowjacket’s lone win in the final seven games was a 3-0 dismantling of Western Oregon at home. 
Despite the losses, the Yellowjackets showed great improvements in two games to end the regular season against the top two teams in the league.  MSUB scored two, first-half goals against Seattle Pacific and took the Falcons to overtime before falling 3-2.  It was the first time in school history that MSUB had scored on SPU.  In the season finale against Western Washington University, the Jackets boldly outshot the Vikings before losing by one goal in the 2-1 competition.

Trentham considers several performances to have been high points of the season.

“Beating Dixie State at their place, beating Augustana and Rocky were real high points for us, along with having a great opportunity to beat Seattle Pacific and Western Washington in the final week of the season were some of the key highlights,” Trentham said.  “We had two extremely solid performances against the top two teams in the conference in the final week of the season which showed a lot about our team. 

Going forward, Trentham expects the Jackets to continue to build on the experience and chemistry that’s been developed during the 2009 season.