Central Missouri Soccer Has Eye on the Prize

By David Boyce

WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Angela Dobbie joined the Central Missouri soccer team in 2006 with several other freshmen with innocent thoughts of building the Jennies program into a winner by the time they graduated.

They had no idea in their first few days of college soccer that success would arrive so quickly.

As freshmen they helped Central Missouri reach the NCAA Division II soccer tournament for the first time in school history. In their sophomore season the Jennies won their first game in the national tournament.

"We just kept building. It was so amazing. I can't even explain the feeling," said Dobbie, a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Although last season ended in disappointment with a first-round, 2-0 loss to Texas A&M-Commerce in the first round of South Central regional, the Jennies still got to celebrate their second straight MIAA title and third appearance in a row in the national tournament.

"We tell our kids to leave the program better than they found it, and this group has already done that," said Central Missouri coach Lewis Theobald, who is in his third season with the Jennies. "Their legacy is kind of carved in stone. This, for me, is like icing on the cake."

Dobbie, Melanie Hall, Kylee Schuhler, Lindsay Hoerl and Kayla Jupp have already accomplished plenty as teammates.

"This group put us on the map and made recruiting a lot easier and my life a lot easier in terms of prestige of our program," Theobald said. "For them, I hope we are really successful. But we have to earn it."

Central Missouri enters the season as the team to beat in the MIAA. The Jennies received six of nine first-place votes and were clear favorites to win the conference in the preseason coaches' poll.

A year ago the Jennies finished 15-4-2 overall and 13-2-1 in the MIAA. Strong team chemistry, Dobbie said, was the reason for the success.

"All of us get along so well and Lewis did a really good job recruiting new players," Dobbie said. "We've only had one practice, but just talking to them it seems like they will fit in with us really well.

"To be a really good team you have to have good team chemistry or else you really won't get anywhere."

As much as the senior class has accomplished so far, Dobbie said they want to do better in their final season. They didn't like the way last year ended.

"It was so hard," she said. "It makes me feel so much more determined because I'm a senior. We have so many amazing leaders.

"I think our leadership really has a big impact on our team."

But this could be the hardest season for the seniors to win the MIAA title, and they know that. There are some hungry teams in the MIAA wanting to taste what the Jennies have the last two seasons.

"We said to our team it is different to be the hunted instead of doing the hunting," Theobald said. "The hard thing for us is we feel like we are going to see everybody's best shot.

"We are ready to embrace that. We want to be in that position. This is where you want to be. It also makes us sharp knowing that people want to play us and beat us."

All Theobald has to do is look to his senior class and know the Jennies will be up for the challenge. Theobald wants to see them leave the program in championship style.

"This year," he said, "is kind of for them in a lot of ways. They deserve a ring and they deserve a region championship. They deserve a lot of things that they are going to have to work for."

Offensive player to watch: Senior forward Melanie Hall, a graduate of Washburn Rural in Topeka, is coming off an MVP season in the MIAA. She scored 13 of the Jennies' 36 goals. Hall scored almost as many goals as Central Missouri allowed its opponents. The Jennies gave up just 14 goals.

Defensive player to watch: Junior goalkeeper Lauren Bamvakais, of St. Louis, recorded 12 shutouts last year and gave up an average of 0.62 goals per game.

Key game: On Sept. 6, Central Missouri plays at Texas A&M-Commerce. Although the game has no bearing on the conference race, it is important for the Jennies to win to put last year's ending completely behind them and have complete focus for the rest of the 2009 season.

On Wednesday: Central Missouri football preview.