Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State women’s soccer coach Travis Sobers didn’t want to lean so heavily on freshmen — that’s normally not a blueprint for success, of course — but he didn’t have much choice.
Five starters this season were high school seniors a year ago, and nine newcomers in all are getting meaningful minutes.
But the Raiders, picked seventh in the Horizon League preseason poll, are alone in second with two matches to go. And while they’ve been able to count on some veteran stalwarts, they couldn’t have gotten as far as they have if their freshmen weren’t playing so fearlessly.
“I was really happy with the recruiting year. But because of injuries to some key kids, we’ve had to throw them in. And they’ve responded very well,” Sobers said.
“We’ve had some growing pains with some of the losses, but we’ve shown we trust them in those roles regardless of the mistakes.”
Asked about ending up with far more hits than misses in that group, the third-year coach chuckled and said: “I really lucked out — knock on wood. I hope I can bring in a couple more classes just like this one.”
