The St. Joe’s women’s club soccer team kicked off the season with an optimistic outlook.
After not having a season since 2019 due to covid-19, the team played its second game of this year against Haverford College on Oct. 22 after a match against Temple University the previous week.
After not being able to have a soccer season in her senior year of high school, Petra Langan ’25 is excited to finally be back on the field.
“It just means the world to have a great group of girls who love the game of soccer,” Langan said. “We like to just have a bunch of fun with each other, and we push each other to be better.”
Co-captain Devon Fitzpatrick ’22 said she likes what she sees from the team so far.
“We have a lot of really good girls, and they’re all really optimistic and motivated to be here,” Fitzpatrick said.
In the past, putting together a women’s club soccer team has never been an issue. However, this year, it was not as easy to pull a team together because they weren’t able to recruit new players last year due to covid, according to co-captain Anna Kalafatis ’22.
“It’s basically rebuilding from scratch at this point,” Kalafatis said. “Most of the girls have never played club soccer before, so we had to do a lot of recruiting this year.”
According to Kalafatis, not having a season last year still affects the team. A main objective for the team is making sure everyone regains all of the endurance they lost from not playing for over a year.
“We actually did a challenge over fall break where the team as a whole had to run 100 miles,” Kalafatis said. “It was a great way to bond, especially virtually.”
Even though the team surpassed their goal with 117 miles, Kalafatis said she believes there is more work to be done on the field.
“I want to get better as a team collectively testing the goalie with further shots out and getting more confident in ripping it,” Kalafatis said.
Fitzpatrick is hopeful about the future of the team. She said she can see how dedicated the team is to improving.
“We have a really good turnout and a lot of girls that are really committed, I don’t see that changing at all,” Fitzpatrick said.
According to Kalafatis, the team chemistry has been building faster than she expected, which is crucial for the team’s future.
“Watching people who barely knew each other’s names a week ago play on the field together was great,” Kalafatis said.
The team will get an opportunity to capture their first victory of the season on Oct. 28 against Drexel University.
“I think our next game is gonna be our breakout game,” Langan said. “We’re just going to come out super fit and super ready to go.”
