Columbus State Cougars Division II Post Season Preview

The time for your Columbus State Cougar's preview as we are now in the n seed DOUBLEA Tournament Southeast Regional first and second rounds are going to be in Columbus as the Lady Cougar's nineteen oh one to one earned automatic qualification as the Peach Belt Conference tournament champs earned the right to host the regional this weekend after being

It's been really exciting to see what we're capable of going into what we lost. We graduated a lot of older experience people who are leaders on our team, and just like I know, our back line for examples, came in with not much experience. But to see how successful we've been and like up top, how successful we've been, I've just been exciting and has built so much confidence in our team, and I think that's.

Part of our success.

Has there been one thing that has surprised you about this season more than anything else? Or is it pretty much just business as usual down there for you guys, a little bit of both.

It's exciting to see how many people we get on like the so soresheet each game. And I think the freshman that came in and also raised the level and brought new things to the team and that helped as well.

How have you improved as a junior? How has your game evolved this season specifically?

Well, I've never really played out of a three back like in club. It was always four back, and so that was a challenge having to learn how to coach that during the game, and it took a while. It wasn't easy at first, but it's now that I feel like I've gone the hang of it. I just feel like I understand the game a lot better and I've just like seen like a whole different like way of playing that I just didn't even like get experienced with before.

What was the biggest adjustment for you? Just being vocal and understanding that there's going to be three in front of you instead of four. What's the dynamic there and what did you have to learn?

It's just understanding like if the opponent plays with like a two front, then sometimes you have to think a little bit more defensive, and just with building out the back, like you're obviously there's one less person back there as an option, So just having to recognize that you might need to go longer and trying to find maybe your attacking mids, which is something that I feel like I could still improve on, but it's just understanding like when you need to pull people back and like who needs

How would you describe your style between this sticks? How vocal are you are? You are?

You?

Are you literally at the top of your lungs? Are your pointing or you do it? How would you describe how you are stylistically back there?

I like to think that I'm pretty like vocal and loud on the field, and I think that's surprises people because I wouldn't necessarily say I'm like that off the field. But I also think I like to play very aggressive when it terms of like coming off my line. That's always been something I've enjoyed. I enjoy like the bigger diving saves, like in the air, and so I think that's just always like influenced my decision making. I'm not like I feel like a lot of goalkeepers like corner

That when it comes on your wall, who are the we all have posters growing up. Who were the posters on your wall when it came to the sport, and who you kind of had as if you want to say, role models or folks that you might have modeled aspects of your game after Who was on your wall that you paid attention to a lot.

I loved Hope Solo growing up. I love the way she played. She was so unapologetic. She sometimes walked the line between controversial and maybe made decisions that some people didn't agree with, but on the field, like she was just like insane to watch sometimes I'll still like go

What does it mean to you personally to have a clean sheet at the end of ninety minutes?

It's huge, Coach Lewis says, if you can't they can't score, like, they can't win, and so that's always like it always makes you feel good, like you know, you didn't give up any goals, you organized your defense. Well, it's not always possible, and so sometimes you just got to realize like okay, just gotta move on. But when you do get a clean sheet, it's like reassuring like okay, you did you did things right, you had stuff organized, and it's just it's a good reassurance.

Yeah, when you look at this weekend and you've had to study I'm sure bits and pieces of three teams, even though you've played one of them already fairly short notice last weekend, what study hall been like getting ready for this weekend?

For me, it's kind of just like looking back at the games we played and when we played them and like realizing like what did I realize about the game, what did I recognize, what did I think I struggled with,

Interesting that Heidi had Hope Solo and David de Haeat as those that she models her game after and had the posters on the wall. Very very cool conversation there with the junior from Swannee. Next up all turning team Sage Smith and Sage Smith. For those of you that have your programs all laid out, Sage Smith once again had as a great story, whereas number twenty four in the midfield, the senior from South forsythe High School and coming Georgia great story of perseverance to get to this

It to, It's been great. It's been a great season so far.

Obviously, getting that one tie was super hard. I consider that a loss in my mind because I just I'm very competitive as a person, so when it's not winning, it upsets me. But the season has been great and I'm so glad it's my senior year and I'm able to end with that.

When it comes to your senior season, obviously, I know what the team expectation was from your perspective, but what about you and your game there at the back? What were your what was on your checklist to improve upon this season?

So coming into the season, I actually had hip surgery less than a year ago, So coming into the season was super difficult because I was trying to recover and get back for the team, and so something on my checklist was to get my body right and healthy for the season.

And I just really wanted to work.

On connecting more passes and being better with one v one defending and getting the ball out of back distributing it well. But those were kind of my goals for this season.

So how'd you do?

I mean, it's been working so far. You know, I always think someone can improve on their game, but honestly, I've been pleased with my performance so far, but I always have room for improvement.

Twenty matches, twenty starts. How difficult was it for you coming off of surgery, rehabbing and being active in every game this year? How difficult a process was that for you?

It was extremely difficult. This past summer was really hard for me. You know, it was a lot of overcoming pain. But I was able to get myself right and mentally, I came in with a good mindset, which I think is a huge part of playing good. So that just kind of helped me gain my confidence back to where I could provide for the team.

When you are being the traffic cop back there, what's it like to have that responsibility for you where you get to You're sitting there and making sure that everything defensively is the way that it's supposed to be, and that everyone's lined up the way that you want them to be. Being that quarterback back there, what's it like having that responsibility?

It honestly becomes super natural to me. I think I've definitely improved on it over the years. I was really quiet my freshman and sophomore year, but honestly, it just.

It became a point.

To where it's like, I want to win and I want to help my teammates be as successful as they can be.

So I'm going to talk to them.

I'm going to make sure they know what's going on around them so we can win as a team.

So, yeah, how difficult was it this season knowing everyone's gunning for you as much as they are. How would you break down how difficult this season was?

It was?

It was difficult, but it was you know, no, it was definitely a difficult season. I think we do a great job at just being the best versions of ourselves and respecting other teams, and we're just able to go out there play the way we play and we just we beat teams by just you know, respecting them and going out and trying our artists. But it was definitely a difficult season, but very rewarding.

For someone who's never seen you play as a group this season. Someone's walking in the door for the first time this weekend down there at Columbus State. When things are going as well as you want them to go offensively and defensively. How would you describe what CSU soccer is.

It's definitely a high press soccer. I think we're all very disciplined, very determined, high energy. Every single one of us works extremely hard on the field and we work really well together. We have a lot of chemistry on this team. We've all played with each other for a while and we just really work very.

Well off each other.

So batting third, it is Sarah Hungerford. Sarah Hungerford. Obviously, when it comes to any kind of a scouting or port involving Columbus State University, you're drawn to the junior from the Hill Richmond Hill High School and making her way from the coast to the other coast, goes west all the way and goes east. The five to one forward double digits and goals scored this season for Columbus State and head coach Jantly, and she has been hot

I think a lot of it has to do with the mentality and the discipline that our coaches, like from the tops of bottom day instill in us that, like previously mentioned, all of us are so disciplined, all of us are so determined, and we know that when it puts us on the field, like you have a job to do, and we all joke around that. He always says, like you're fresh. You're fresh because you step on the field like you were just standing, like you have the

But at the same time, you know everyone's gunning for you. What's it like having to balance the responsibility of knowing what you want to do versus what everyone wants to do to you.

I think a lot of that has to do. I would say the same with the mentality that if you go in with a fear that like what they're going to do to me, I know personally it really affects how I play. So I just need to go in into every game understanding that this is a new game, and while I want to win, I'm going to have to manage my teammates on the field. We're gonna have to communicate with each other. And then you can't go into

There was a stretch where you put the ball in the back of the net a lot. When you look at your film of you doing that, that's wretch of Land or UCSB Monavalo or it was six and three. When you look back at that stretch of play with you in those three matches, what are some of the takeaways that you have about yourself in those games where you end up having you know, pretty much half of your your goal total in those three matches.

I think when I look back at games previously, like I mentioned before, I think I was playing a little bit scared, like more conservative, that I wasn't the one who wanted to maybe get the job done. I wanted to pass it off to someone I thought could do better than me. And then during Lander, when the I started to really like tap into like how I can

To play like that.

What's it like to look in the mirror and to be able to talk to yourself however you want to talk to yourself and go, Sarah, you know, abcde, What's it like to stare in the mirror and know that that's there within you, that you finally have tapped into it, You found it, and you've sprinted the other direction.

It's funny that.

You mentioned the mirror because at the beginning of the season, I wrote a list down on a whiteboard and it said that, like my goals for this season, and like, I want to be an All American, I want to score more than eight goals because I've never passed eight goals, and i just want to play the best I can. And I've feel like I've done a really good job of meeting those goals and meeting my expectations, and hopefully

I'm not going to stop.

Have you dragged other folks into that room to show them that mirror to reinforce that to them as well? Is it is it something that others get to look at too? Or is that just my mirror and I'm going to look at it myself and reinforce my own behavior.

It's a it's a joke between my roommates and I because we previously had written like motivating quotes on our like shared bathroom mirror and so that we can all like look at it and you know, when you're having a hard day, seeing that, like, I'm not a quitter, it just gives you that little extra push. So it's

You know, you could take that mirror out of your you know, out of your room and you could bring it to the locker room maybe and have it hang up in the locker room or something like that.

I'll take the XO marker and ride it in our locker room.

There you go. What's study hall been like? Getting ready for this weekend? Three teams that are coming to town, but one you know, intimately what study hall been like?

I think a lot of the study has been more personal because I have a confidence in my team that we're going to go together and no matter what opponent opponents in front in front of us, Like I said, it's going to be a new game, and teams have a tendency in the postseason to really show up because at this point, we're all like fighting for our lives. So they're not going to necessarily play the same as

Very very interesting and very very cool about the whiteboard and the mirror, by the way, very cool, so of course now one, two, three, number four head coach Jay Enlick, and it is a well rounded and deep conversation about everything about the difficulties of knowing that everybody is going to give you their best through the first twenty matches of the year, what it's like to have this kind of a standard continue, and as we mentioned before, the schedule.

Oh gosh, Frans Marin is a darn good team. Sam Holmes is a terrific coach. I mean for a guy to take over a team that I think only won maybe two or.

Three games two years ago, he does incredible things.

He was a head coach at Limestone Guys Team nca tournament several times, and for him to go into Francis Marion within two years and get himself an NCAA bid. So I know they're going to be well prepared, well coached, and it's going to be a challenge. I tell people, Johnny, eight teams in our region all have the ability to win the region championship this year.

Seventeenth n CUAA tournament appearance for the program. What makes this one different than the others?

You know, I think everything is different because it's a new group, and I think it's an awesome experience for some of our younger players that haven't been there, or it's a different experience for maybe.

Players that last year.

I don't want to be rude, but they watched from the bench and maybe didn't get the opportunity to get the minutes that they felt like they deserved.

And so I think the coolest.

Thing this year is we have so many new players that have different roles. You can start in the back with a goalkeeper who wasn't heavily involved last year in our run to the NCAA tournament, and now she's been a starter defensive Player of the Year in a conference.

It's awesome. You've got a left back.

That didn't play a single minute in our first two years at left back, was used promptly as like a left winger, and here she is now playing almost ninety minutes a game. You got a right back that is coming off of three back to back to back acls and she has been arguably our best overall most complete player from start to finish this year.

So those are some of the cool stories we have.

And I love the fact you got a kid in Vanessa Vilas who played for US for a year and a half, followed her family out to California, decided not to play, and then all of a sudden goes, I want to come back to Columbus State. Okay, doors always open comes back, kids score with the winning penalty kick in the tournament championship game the other day and against tournament MVP on hers So there's so many different storylines this year.

John, I think that's really the coolest thing.

With this group assembling to where they are position wise, response ability wise, did you and the staff have an aha moment of Okay, yeah, this group is going to be We're going to be fine. Or was it something that developed over time and then it was like, Okay, we've hit a marker. We know we'll be okay. Was there an AHA moment or was it gradual?

Uh?

You know, I think it really started last spring when we started to realize some of the kids that maybe weren't getting the minutes that they desired their first couple of years in the program and as sophomores in their spring season going down the University of Florida and tying University of Florida zero and zero, going up to Division one Georgia State in Atlanta and tying one one, going you know, to Troy University and tying beating Kennesaw State four to one, And so I think it really all

They do. But it's our job and our responsibility.

Is as educators, mentors and coaches to build up kids and develop them into roles that as soon as there's graduation, there's no looking back and they just jump on the pitch and they're equally, if not better than some of the kids that were here last year. And that's been an awesome experience for us.

This may sound like a very very basic question. How difficult is it to win nineteen out of twenty and not lose in that whole stretch this season? How hard is that to accomplish?

Well, it's really funny you say that, John's I just got off the phone with our tennis coach, Evan Isaacs, who year in and year out, the guy wins, and I think people take it for granted. I think people look at it and go, ah, winning's easy, John, winning is so hard, and people don't realize, like, as I was talking to Evan earlier, like you can outshoot a team thirty five to one like we did in twenty eighteen and lose one nothing. And so I think a lot of things have to fall into place. I think

Getting it done. And so super proud of this group.

They believe in each other, They truly are boughting bought into the team first mentality, and heck.

I'm just super proud to be a part of this organization. It's been awesome.

What did you learn about yourself as a coach this year? Knowing everything that you've accomplished, knowing you're not done obviously, but going to this particular or point, what did you learn about yourself as a coach?

You know, I think the biggest thing is just greatness is achieved through humility and serving. And I truly feel that we as coaches need to remember to be humble.

We need to remember that we're here to serve and we're here.

To be mentors, be role models, be educators and teach and find solutions. And so I tell people all the time, you know, as coaches, it's our job to.

Eat problems for breakfast and poop out answers for lunch.

Say it over and over. Everything in life, John is solution based. And we got to stop pointing fingers. We've got to stop making excuses. And honestly, John, we got to We've got to start to find solutions and make sure that our players are put in positions to be successful and give them the processes and processes to to get the job done.

So then when it comes to having breakfast and you have to have three separate meals, not knowing what your next meal is going to be like if you advance past the first meal, what's it like having three separate meals, getting ready for a weekend, not knowing what the table setting is going to look like after your first match.

It is one of the hardest things, you know.

I look at you know, men's college basketball and how they do their regionals and they do their NCAA, and you know, it's so tricky because you don't have time to really really prep for the next opponent, unlike some other sports, like a football, you know, the football wouldn't dare play a Friday Sunday schedule, you know, And so I think sometimes soccer gets it wrong when it comes to setting up these regionals where you have to play a back to back less than forty eight hours.

And I hope at some point soccer.

Will get it right, and they're starting now in some of the Division one weekends, some of the Division two weekends where it's just a one game weekend. So again, if we could be successful on Friday, yes, we have to turn around and compete on Sunday less.

Than forty eight hours later. That's going to be tricky. That is super, super tough.

However, then it's a one game on December first, so you have a full week to prep. And then it's a one game the Elite eight on December seventh, So that's reasonable. Giving a team a full week to prep, I think is reasonable. But then you go back to the Final four and go, okay, let's play two games within forty eight hours and not give proper rest to the student athletes and not give proper prep time.

To the coaches.

And that's where I think the NCAA is going to take a much harder look at how soccer is set up and honestly, how basketball is set up. I think they're doing basketball and justice as well.

Last question for you, because I know you're kind of busy when it comes to these teams in this particular preparation that you're you're getting ready for. For someone who is walking in the door for the first time, they haven't seen you play this year. They haven't seen the other teams come into town this weekend to play. What should folks expect walking in the door When I mentioned CSU soccer, what should folks anticipate walking into the door.

You know, I think they're going to see us compete.

I think they're going to see us, you know, go to the bench and use multiple players and multiple situations. I like to tell people we want to score goals, we want to go forward. We almost every session we do as an attacking minded session, and you know, I think we lead the country and I think we scored over ninety goals less than twenty games. And we want to score goals. We want to go forward, we want to put points on the board, and you know, we love to attack. We love to get corners, we we

As promised once again. Go to CSU cougars dot com get all the information that you need when it comes to the matches on the weekend. Starting Friday at noon, go into the women's soccer section. Click on the tab