After a long and well-played season that saw many ups and downs, the 2019 Rowan’s Women’s Soccer team’s season has come to an end after a 2-0 loss to The College of New Jersey in the semifinals of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) tournament. 

Going into the game as the number four seed and the underdogs against the number one seed of the tournament who had only had one loss all season, the odds were stacked against them. Unfortunately, the Profs weren’t able to overcome them this time. 

Without winning the NJAC tournament, the team was unable to secure a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III National Tournament, meaning this game brought their season to an end. 

This shouldn’t overshadow the fact that the team had many upsides to their season. They were able to overcome a tough first half of the season to have a pretty successful second half that allowed them to qualify for the NJAC tournament. 

Coach Scott Leacott also doesn’t want the result from this game to overshadow how hard the team worked all season, no matter what obstacles were in their way. 

“I just think they worked extremely hard, in games and in training,” Leacott said. “They had an overall high work rate but we just didn’t have the numbers to push them through the stuff that we needed to, but they never quit, never complained.”

“We talked about it after the last game, they played their hearts out,” Leacott said. “The other team just basically subbed and subbed, they knew where we were at so they could wear us down, but I was extremely proud of the effort they gave and if we can give that effort for every game next year, we are going to be an extremely tough team to beat.”

The fact that the team is only losing three seniors this year looks to be a good indicator that they will be able to keep their same work-hard attitude, which is something Leacott is really looking forward to. 

“It gives you a good base for next year, I mean obviously every team is different,” Leacott said. “But if we can just roll over that work rate and teach the new players how that is a necessary thing for us, how we want to go about our daily business, I think we can be extremely successful next year if everybody buys into that same thing we brought into this year.”

Leacott has a long time until he has to worry about next season, but unfortunately, the 2019 season is officially over for the Profs, who ended with an 10-8-1 record on the year. 

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