Sept. 11, 2015
By Jack Dougherty, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In head coach Erica Walsh's first eight seasons at Penn State, the Blue and White has reached the NCAA Tournament each year and secured the Big Ten regular season title in all but one.
With Walsh at the helm, the Nittany Lions are in the conversation to win it all every single year.
It's one thing to build a solid foundation of players and make a run at a championship every so often, but few have had the consistent success Walsh has displayed during her tenure at PSU. The single most important factor in maintaining a powerhouse year in and year out is recruiting, and Walsh has proven she's among the best in the business.
Of course, she has some help. Assistant coach Tim Wassell, who deals primarily with the goalies, heads the strong recruiting team. This will mark his sixth season with the Nittany Lions.
"Tim is as good as I've ever seen," Walsh said. "He's played a huge role in the success of our recruiting. Since he joined our staff you've seen the improvement in our recruiting classes. I will give him 100% credit for what he's done in that area."
"You can't get better coaches than our staff," said freshman Kaleigh Riehl. "That was a big factor in choosing to come here. When I came, the girls were very welcoming and obviously I had watched them play many times and it was just a great team and a great environment."
In such a competitive day and age in college soccer, it's absolutely imperative to snag top recruits each and every year. One weak class can hinder a program, so offseason work is becoming more and more vital to success during the season.
In each of the previous two years, Walsh and associate head coach Ann Cook and Wassell have reeled in the No. 2-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to TopDrawerSoccer. This year's class boasts nine talented and fearless players pulled from all over the globe.
"I think the personality of our current players is what sells this place," said Walsh. "We're able to pull kids from all over the country and all over the world. We're competing against the best schools right now, so we can't take any days off."
Another key factor in college recruitment is whether or not a recruit's game translates to the college game. Number 2-ranked classes don't mean anything until the players lace up their boots and prove what they can do on the field. Part of this transition depends on how well the coaches and upperclassmen prepare younger players for a faster and more physical game, and part of it is finding players who fit the Penn State mold.
"With all things being equal, the character piece is the number one component that we value and emphasize in our recruiting," Walsh said. "We believe that Penn State is the best place in the country to play college soccer and we have consistently shown that we are able to attract the top players from around the world due to the environment and experience that we are able to offer our student-athletes. When you spend five minutes with our current student-athletes it is easy to see the quality of character that they represent and we look forward to sustaining this standard of excellence."
Last year's class entered Happy Valley with a bang. Frannie Crouse led the team in goals (10) en route to her earning second-team All-Big Ten honors as a freshman, while Megan Shafer tallied an impressive 17 points and six goals. Emily Ogle, who has started in every game of her young career, was awarded Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2014.
The highly touted 2015 class has already shown its No. 2 ranking is not a fluke either. Freshmen Ellie Jean and Kaleigh Riehl have started in every game so far in 2015. Riehl's 468 minutes played is the highest mark on the roster. She's been on the field for all but two minutes this season.
Five Penn State freshmen have played in every contest so far: Jean, Riehl, Charlotte Williams, Marissa Sheva, and Alina Ortega-Jurado from Wetzlar, Germany. The young group has totaled four points in the early stages of 2015.
"The freshmen have been amazing," said Ogle. "The biggest thing is keeping their composure in big spots and in big games and I think they've done that really well so far. That's going to help us big time once the postseason starts."
With both No. 2 classes now playing beside each other, the roster is littered with young, hungry talent. Underclassmen have accounted for seven out of the team's 10 goals this season. They also are responsible for 17 of the squad's 28 points.
"I think it's a pretty tall order against the quality of opponents that we're playing against, but I think these guys have stepped up" Walsh said. "We've put them in environments where they can sink or swim, and there have been moments when we definitely sink. Credit to them, they lift themselves back up but it's not easy."
The young guns face their toughest test this Friday when they take on the second-ranked Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto.