Midway through September the IVCC Lady Eagles soccer team is looking for its first win of the season. The Lady Eagles are 0-5-1 through five games so far.

Coach Rey Arteaga states, “It’s a bit of a struggle with our matches… My girls are fighting for the entire match. “Despite scores, it’s hard to go into matches 90 minutes without any substitutes. That’s more than any coach can teach during training sessions.”

Arteaga noted that there was a huge improvement from the beginning of the season to mid-season.The Lady Eagles have had success learning the hardest part of transition from high school to college: the system change.

Arteaga stated, “The hardest part some of these girls have is transitioning to my system from their high schools. With only one returning [sophomore], Michaela Mall, that understands the level of college soccer, a lot of people truly don’t realize the difference from high school to college. “The team is doing an amazing job understanding a lot of knowledge in a short amount of time to not only better themselves for each other, but for the future of our team.”

Arteaga also noted that the team chemistry is fantastic. They spend time together on and off the field and interact well with each other. He was also impressed with how fast the team got to know each other and grow their chemistry.  However, he also noted that team has struggled scoring and, in turn, winning. But he put the fault on himself, saying, “That’s my job to help the girls better their skills to do so.”

Arteaga has been most impressed with Mall, the only returning sophomore. He said, although she has had to transition from knowing everyone on the team last year to having to work a new group of players, she is an “amazing captain and knows what to get out of the girls.” “She has set the tone as far as putting in hard work. Also, for my entire team, it takes them as individuals to make sure they know how to play that position and with each other.”

Arteaga’s expectations for the rest of the season is for the team to know that they are the underdogs, but he wants to surprise each team they face. He is not worried so much about the score of each game but the performance of the team in each match-up. Arteaga stated, while this season is not done, he is excited for the future.

“I am extremely excited to grow into next season with the amount of knowledge and skill they’ve gained already this year but still adapting for this season,” he said.