Allen County womens soccer head coach Jeremy McGinness fully expects his team to make a return trip playoffs for a sixth straight year. No other Allen team has made it more than twice in a row and McGuinness feels his team is more than built to reach that expectation.
But in 2018, McGuinness and the Lady Devils are hoping for a little more.
I think every year we try to compete for that conference championship, McGuinness said. In our league, anything is possible because its just so up and down. Ive said the only thing consistent with this age group is that theyre inconsistent so its that consistency that were looking for. The next step is breaking in that door and making the final four and go from there. Weve always been just a goal or two away.
The 2018 Lady Devils will lean on a mix of new and returning players for success in 2018 led by returning goalkeeper Morgan Cossairt who anchors the teams defense.
Thats huge for us, McGinness said. Shes not only the captain of our team but shes just someone that we can count on to sit in the goal. She was top 10 in the nation last year. She can take us and lead us to where we need to be.
The Lady Devils lose their top two goal scorers in Leigh-Anne bartlett and Brynn Suddeth to graduation so it was McGuinnesss task in the offseason to try and find replacements for the 16 out of 20 goals that the Lady Devils scored last year.
Knowing that I had those two graduating, I had to bring in a lot of girls, McGuinness said. I couldnt just depend on one or two that I thought could do the job. Because of that, were very deep up top.
I think Destiny Smith will be big for us. Shes tenacious and a bulldog for us running through that backline. She stays very busy and is very athletic, she has great pace.
Other returning sophomores like Hailey Jones should make an impact for Allen County this year after the team went 8-10 in 2017.
Allen women aim for new heights
