Women’s soccer club in Arizona for NCCS

Senior forward Erin Cummins read a text message a couple weeks ago in her afternoon class that sent her running out of the room.

“I thought it was a sick joke,” Cummins said. “I was literally shaking the rest of class.”

The text came from her co-captain  and senior outside midfielder Bekah MacGregor. It said the IU women’s club soccer team qualified for nationals.

The women’s club soccer team will travel to Phoenix today to play in the 2011 NCCS National Soccer Championships. Twenty-four of the top women’s teams in the country will compete at the Reach 11 Sports Complex.

The women finished their league season 9-1 at the top of their division, resulting in an automatic bid to go to nationals.

Coach Phalo Pietersen said the team has been so successful because it played the entire season in “tournament mode.”

“The girls approached every game as if the season depended on it,” Pietersen said.

The last time the women’s club soccer team went to nationals was in 2005, though they were close to returning in the past three seasons. Last year’s team was two wins away from going to nationals.

“We all had the common goal not to get that close and fail again,” Pietersen said.
For Cummins, who has played with the team all four years, making it to nationals is a long-awaited reward.

“It really does mean everything to me,” Cummins said. “It is the perfect end to my competitive soccer career.”

Winning against Purdue on the final day of the regular season was a major accomplishment for the women’s team because it secured its spot at nationals. The win was especially big for Cummins who made the only goal of the game.

“It was like a fairy tale,” Pietersen said. “Senior captain Erin Cummins makes the winning goal to nationals with three minutes left.”

Cummins’ teammates give her full credit for the win.

“Erin was a star in that game,” junior center back Hannah Davidson said. “She kept shooting the entire game. She’s the hardest worker I’ve ever met.” 

Though Cummins has spent some time in the spotlight, she said the success is due to the collective effort of the 24 players.

“You’ll see girls doing extra workouts or jogging around campus after we already had practice that day,” Cummins said. “It is amazing to see everyone get rewarded for all the hard work we put in.”

Pietersen said the team works so well because the players genuinely like each other and love the game of soccer.

“I am always excited to go to practice,” Davidson said. “I leave with an ab workout just from laughing so much.”

The tournament lasts three days, with the semifinals and finals on Saturday.
Pietersen said the strategy is to concentrate on the team in front of them.
“I always say to them, ‘All you can control is the game you are about to play,’” Pietersen said.

Cummins said she wants to win but making it to this point is an accomplishment in itself.

“(Going to nationals) means more for us than others because this is something that wasn’t handed to us,” Cummins said. “This is something we aren’t used to. This is it.”