NORTHEAST WOMEN’S SOCCER ENTERS YEAR NATIONALLY RANKED WITH EXCITING SCHEDULE AHEAD

NORFOLK, Neb. – The No. 16 Northeast Community College women's soccer team enters the season ranked in the preseason NJCAA national poll for yet another year as they are on the hunt for their fifth trip to the national tournament in the last six seasons.

Head Coach Chad Miller is gearing up for his 11th season guiding the women's soccer program and is experiencing some new emotions entering the campaign ahead.

"This is the first year where we haven't had a leading goal scorer returning or someone who was a huge factor the year before, so it really is nice to not have expectations on individual players," Miller said. "Our leading goal scorers graduated, our leading assisters graduated and a lot of our defensive line graduated, so it's a fresh feel knowing that there's no expectations of certain players being the stars in positions. We are just looking to see who is going to step up and take over roles. It's refreshing."

Even though the roster looks different, Miller says the goals remain the same.

"You always have the national tournament as a goal," Miller said. "Every team should have that. Our group's biggest thing was better chemistry amongst the team and pushing harder, which I feel like they have done. Practices have been intense and at a high level. They know that they must push each other to be better, and their short-term goals are to get better each and every day."

Despite a rather new team, Miller still has eyes on a few sophomores who he is counting on to lead the way.

"Addison Osilka (Fort Collins, Colo.) is one of our strongest players and she can play at so many positions," Miller said. "Alia Gordon (Cibolo, Texas) is our only returning defender, so we are moving her to a different position on the defensive line, and I think that she is going to have to take a big role both on and off of the field. The biggest thing for us is we need some of those sophomores who are pretty quiet to step up and take a vocal role to help us. The more voices we have, the better we can do with leading."

Miller's freshmen class has also shown flashes of brilliance throughout training camp and the preseason.

"Addyson Kaberline (Topeka, Kan.) has really come in and surprised some people," Miller said. "She has stepped up and she is doing really well. Maria Gomez-Herrara (Barranquilla, Colombia) has really stepped up on the backline. She is playing in a position that maybe wouldn't be her first pick, but in our first few scrimmages she has been a key factor for us defensively. Emma Brilleman (Diepenveen, Netherlands) has a lot of pace, so there are opportunities for her up top on the attack to get in behind the defense."

The Hawks loaded their preseason schedule up with matches against the College of Saint Mary, the University of North Dakota and Hastings College in hopes of being prepared for a grueling schedule ahead, and there were plenty of great things that Miller saw in those exhibitions.

"Defense was the number one thing that stood out to me in our first scrimmage," Miller said. "They held up a good team and kept them from scoring. Our midfield has done well possessing against some very strong teams. All of those teams are really good, and we were still able to move the ball, so that was big for us. The biggest thing that we need to look for is who is going to be our goal scorer? Who is going to be in charge up top? Now we just need to put it all together."

Northeast will open the season against ranked opponents in six of their first seven matches, which Miller says is intentional to get his team prepared for crucial games down the road.

"I always want to play the best teams that we can play," Miller said. "It benefits us in the long run. If you can stop focusing on wins and losses early and just focus on what we learned from that game and that level of play, by the time we head into our regional contests we are trying to be at our best. We are playing some of the best teams in the nation, and some of those include teams from our region. If we can play at a high-level early and continue that throughout regional play, we should put ourselves in a good spot at the end of the year."

Head Assistant Coach Adriano Coppolecchia is joining the bench with Miller in 2025 after winning a national title on the men's side in 2024. Coppolecchia will be joined by first-year assistant Halena Handel, who completed her playing career at Wayne State College last season before a previous stop at Anderson University in South Carolina.

Miller knows that it's hard to put a price on the value that both of his assistants bring to the table.

"It's really good having them both," Miller said. "They aren't afraid to take charge in a training session and lead it. That's huge because it gives me an opportunity to step back and take a bigger look at the whole picture. I'm really happy with how they have interacted and taken charge of different parts of training. They aren't hesitant and they'll stop practice if they need to while also running sessions that they think are beneficial to us. I really like what they have brought and it's really helpful for our team. It gives our team different voices to listen to."

When it's all said and done at the end of the season, Miller doesn't want his team to define their season by their record but instead wants the focus to be on putting their best foot forward every time they hit the pitch.

"We have a really tough schedule," Miller said. "Last year we went 14-5 and the team was disappointed because we didn't reach the points that we had the previous years, but I don't want that to be the focus all of the time. Yes, we want to make it to the national tournament, but if we can still have a successful record based on the schedule that we have, that's definitely a successful year. The primary focus has to be trying to get some wins against these top-ranked teams." 

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