Nebraska-Omaha Has Sights Set on MIAA Title

By David Boyce

Nebraska-Omaha's women's soccer team dropped its opening two games before the first feel-good moment of the 2009 season occurred.

Redshirt freshman Nicole Baier scored her first goal since November of 2007 when she was playing for Marian High School in Omaha.

Two surgeries on her left ACL prevented Baier from playing a year ago. All she could do was rehab the knee and hope it could hold up to the rigors of college soccer.

"It was so exciting," Baier said of her first college goal. "A midfielder headed over the defender. It was kind of a breakaway. I kind of hit it out of the air. The crowd was so excited for me. I hadn't scored a goal in so long. It was great."

Baier's teammates, coaching staff and fans knew what she went through to get back on the field.

"To see how much hard work she put into it, it is really rewarding to see her success," Nebraska-Omaha assistant coach Ted Anderson said.

Baier didn't stop at one goal. She scored three in the game, helping the Mavericks to their first victory of the season, a 5-2 win over Central Oklahoma.

"Once one came it was like I was on that day," Baier said.

Nebraska-Omaha soccer season has pretty much followed the same pattern as Baier's breakout game. The Mavericks lost immediately after the Central Oklahoma game, but have been winning steadily since.

They are 7-4 overall and 6-1 in the MIAA, just a half game behind Truman, which is 7-1 in conference.

"There's a huge difference in how we played in non-conference and how we are playing together now," said sophomore Jerica Kuncl, another Omaha native. "We are more together as a team. Everybody is working well. Nicole and I are starting to get into a groove together."

The Mavericks opened the season in Colorado and suffered a 3-1 loss to Metro State. Two days later they lost 2-1 to Colorado Mines.

It was during that time when the Mavericks were learning the playing strengths of each other.

The talent was definitely there as evidenced by the goals that Baier, Kuncl and senior Jessica Powers have provided. Baier leads the team with seven goals and six assists for 20 points.

Powers, who has scored six goals this season, was voted this week MIAA offensive player of the week. And Kuncl has four goals this year.

The key for the Mavericks was putting the offense and the defense together.

"It started happening right around conference play," Kuncl said. "We shook out all the kinks. We realized what we needed to do as a team. We had a wake-up call. We realized conference games we had to play all out."

Baier said they are working so well as a unit now that even some of the defenders have scored game-winning goals.

"At the beginning it was tough," Baier said. "Everybody didn't know their roles. But now the defenders are playing so well together and we are connecting so much in the midfield that it is making it easier for forwards to have open shots a lot of the time.

"It is a whole team effort to get the ball in the net."

It makes sense that the Mavericks would quickly find their on-field chemistry. Many of the players on the roster played high school soccer in Omaha. The majority of the players on the team are from Nebraska.

When the Mavericks won the NCAA Division II title in 2005, 18 of the 22 players were from Nebraska.

"I was always considering UNO," Kuncl said. "They were so successful. I was excited when they were looking at me."

Baier committed to the school when she was a sophomore in high school.

"It turned out to be the best choice I could have ever made because of everything that has happened," Baier said.

By the time the high school players became college teammates, many of them already knew about each other.

That can be good, said Kuncl, but sometimes it might be too good of a situation.

"It's a little bit of both," she said. "We come in with that comfort level, like a safety net. I can see it can be a little harder to branch out from that and build relationships with people they aren't that comfortable with.

"But it didn't take us long as a team to get to know each other. It only lasted a little bit of the season, and now it's like we've known each other forever. We've blended well."

Since the Mavericks have won six of their last seven games there is no disputing Kuncl's assertion.

"We came out of a tough start," Anderson said. "We played some very good teams. It forced us to look at some issues we needed to deal with early. It really focused our team on working together as a group. We solved those problems quickly as a group."

Nebraska-Omaha has put itself in position to win a conference title. The Mavericks split with Truman. They have nine conference games left and they want to finish strong.

"I think it is really important," Kuncl said. "It's a chance to show your conference that you are the best in the conference.

"It's a huge honor to win conference and something you really should strive for and carry the momentum into the playoffs."

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com