Teammate’s presence lifts women’s soccer

She took the field Friday night with a little more than 20 minutes remaining, wearing a band around her arm so she wouldn’t forget.

Even though she said it’s been difficult, sophomore midfielder Amanda Farina put the black band around her left arm to remember Nicole Megaloudis, her teammate and friend of five years, who died in late February from injuries sustained in a car crash.

Her team, almost six months removed but still getting adjusted, cruised for the final minutes of their first game this year, sitting on a 4-0 lead over George Washington University, and then traveled to the West End to face Richmond on Sunday, but the games were almost secondary.

They dedicated Friday’s win to Nicole, and for the next three months Farina said the team will “play every day and every game in her memory and for her.”

Before that night’s game, all 23 women stood side by side next to the ’21’ painted near the middle of the field, sharing a moment of silence with the fans at Sports Backers Stadium, and during player introductions Nicole’s mother, Gail Rongen, ran out alongside sophomore forward Melanie Simonich to be announced with the starters-the same way her daughter was 12 times last season.

Both head coaches, Denise Schilte-Brown and Chris Brown, say Nicole still has a presence with the team. Schilte-Brown said “her name comes up every day” as the women tell stories about all the times Nicole made them laugh during her first and only year with the team.

While they are the preseason pick to battle William & Mary for the Colonial Athletic Association championship after falling to the Tribe 2-0 in last year’s championship game, Chris Brown said the women will want to win this year for Nicole.

“They carry Nicole’s memory with them in their hearts,” Brown said. “So I think that not only will they be trying to play and win for the sake of winning because it’s a competitive. Obviously, that’ll be an extra motivator.”

The team still got the performance out of Jen Parsons that earned her CAA Player of the Year honors last season (two goals in her first action since sitting out much of last week with tonsillitis), but for the next 19 games it will rely on nearly a dozen newcomers in its push for the championship.

The team brought in three transfers and eight freshmen to join the 12 players returning from last year’s roster, and Shilte-Brown said the new players “don’t have time to get their feet wet. They have to perform right away.”

As she warmed up before Friday night’s game-diving left and right, leaping to stop balls from sneaking into the top goal, and digging balls out of the grass just inches below her knees-rookie goalkeeper Emily Niman was ready to contribute, but there wasn’t much for her to do.

She picked up saves in each half, but for most of her nearly 65 minutes of scoreless soccer, she watched as her teammates consistently attacked the Colonials’ net.

While coach Brown said a lot of pressure comes with expectations of winning for a friend, Niman said she was comfortable for most of the match.
She said it wasn’t exactly pressure that she felt.

“It was more like motivation,” she said. “Something in the back of our minds that made us work harder.”

Results from Sunday night’s game against the Spiders at First Market Stadium were unavailable at press time.