Written by Ben Lane
The Harding University soccer programs finished their season last week and are now setting their sights on preparing for next year as they look to change their game mentality.
The Lady Bisons soccer team finished 2-10-6 overall and 1-6-5 in conference play, placing sixth in the Great American Conference (GAC). They ended their season losing 1-2 to East Central University Oct. 29.
Senior McKenna Moore said that despite the losses, she still had fun. Moore said the team shared a close bond on and off the field and shared good team chemistry, but that they needed a mindset change after struggling to score at the start of the season.
The team began with a defensive focus, but after failing to score consistently, head coach Greg Harris said he switched to an offensive-focused formation.
“You can’t win if you can’t score,” Harris said.
Harris said one issue was that the team lacked a goal scorer since Emma Roberts, the 2021 GAC offensive player of the year, graduated. Opponents outscored the Lady Bisons 14-32 and outshot them 156-288.
“It just hurts every time you lose, or you tie a game that you worked really hard for, because it wasn’t for lack of effort, and it wasn’t for lack of talent,” Moore said.
Moore said difficulty comes with any sport and that though the team lost more games than they wanted, they continued to encourage and lift each other up.
“I know that we worked hard, and there were some games where we played some of the best soccer that we’ve ever played,” Moore said.
However, Harris said junior Briley-Anne Brown found her rhythm toward the end of the season, and that he is excited for next year’s season. Brown broke a 24-year-old record Oct. 13 by scoring the fastest goal in program history at the 17-second mark of the game against Oklahoma Baptist University, beating the previous record of 35 seconds set by Candace O’Neal in 1998.
Men’s soccer finished 4-11-2 overall and 4-6-2 in conference play, placing fifth in the GAC. They beat Ouachita Baptist University 3-2 in a comeback win for their final game Oct. 29.
Team captain Josh Fulton said injuries were in part to blame for their performance this season, and that inexperienced players had to fill in for the injured players, which is difficult because of the difference in high school versus college soccer.
“We had a bunch of freshmen step up,” Fulton said. “I mean, they saved us. It could’ve been worse than it was and they played great all season long.”
The Bison soccer team did not win until the eighth game of the season, which Fulton blamed on their mindset.
“Obviously, when you’re not winning, you don’t — you kind of get used to losing,” Fulton said. ”It hurt us mentally, and I think that’s our, as a team, that’s our biggest problem without a doubt.”
Fulton said he has high hopes for next year’s season and that he will return for his sixth year, and players this year gained the needed experience to win.
“Next season we’ll have so many experienced players,” Fulton said. “The only thing next year that we can change is the mentality and, just like, we’re not a team that loses.We’re a team that can compete with these guys.”
