By: Sean Crocker, BA'18
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The St. Thomas University women's soccer team is looking for a bit of fortune to come their way this season.

After failing to qualify for the playoffs by a slim margin of three points after a season that saw them finish with a 5-6-1 record, head coach Michelle DeCourcey is looking to guide a young team to a big step forward in the conference.

"This season the Tommies welcome 11 new players to their roster," DeCourcey said. "In our first exhibition game against UNBSJ, seven out of our starting 11 were rookies."

With a young team comes the need for veteran leadership, which will fall on fourth-year players and captains Vanessa Pettersson and Zoe de Bellefeuille this season.

Defense—one of the major strengths of this year's edition of the squad—will also be led by a core group of returning players.

"Our veteran backs, Amy and Vanessa, and central midfielders, Zoe and Tory, will be our most experienced and strongest defensive assets," DeCourcey said of the group on the backend.

"Rookies Silvia Fullerton, Olivia Ormand and Phoebe van der Meulen will likely be our goal scorers."

The Tommies are coming off a season in which they failed to qualify for the ACAA playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.

Consistency will be the key for the Tommies squad this year.

"Last year we struggled with the consistency of our play through the season and even within games. We'll need to work hard to overcome that this year."

The ultimate goal for this season is to make the playoffs and to use their combination of youth and experience to their advantage.

"I expect to build upon some of the successes we saw last year and improve our standing in the conference. This would see us make the playoffs and have the opportunity to push for a championship," DeCourcey said. "I also hope to see our senior players, among the strongest in the league, step up and lead by example."