Eagles hope to spread the scoring wealth among handful of veteran players in title defense
Eastern Washington University head soccer coach Chad Bodnar has the program operating at a never-before-seen level, qualifying for the NCAA tournament the last two seasons. Expectations are that the climb will continue.
Life for Eastern Washington University soccer will carry on after Chloe Williams.
Both head coach Chad Bodnar and the rest of the Big Sky Conference seem to agree on that for the two-time league tournament champions and NCAA qualifiers. The Eagles earned eight of 10 first-place votes among league coaches in a preseason poll.
Williams will not soon be forgotten as the Lewis and Clark High School grad set both EWU and Big Sky records for scoring. Along the way she became the first player in conference history to win Offensive Player of the Year for three seasons.
But there's no looking back for a program that's improved every season under Bodnar, who readies for his fifth in Cheney.
Bodnar's biggest challenge might be trying to find a place to practice now that the "other" football team has taken over the ground at the Sports and Recreation fields for its initial preseason workouts.
Soccer camp started Aug. 1 with football invading Aug. 4. "We're into it, a couple of days in trying to adjust around the football craziness ," Bodnar said. The grid guys will soon move operations to the red turf at Roos Field, making life a bit more simple for soccer.
That includes the transition without Williams' 12-goal, 3-assist, 27-point 2017 season, which Bodnar is confident will be done quite seamlessly.
The Eagles ended up with 40 total goals last season but they return a number of players who did their share on the offensive side. "There's a lot of kids here that actually scored a lot of goals," he said.
The Williams' void will be filled, Bodnar predicts, from Devan Tally, Allison Raniere, Alexis Stephenson, Brooke Dunbar - all seniors - and junior Saige Lyons, names of veteran players Bodnar rattled off who have been in the program for three years.
"I think for us it's going to be more of a balanced attack," Bodnar said.
Spreading the scoring chores around promises to make the Eagles more difficult to defend.
"You saw the results last year, if Chloe didn't do well we didn't do well," Bodnar said. "That was kind of the focus of the attack."
But soccer is maybe more identified by defense, not offense, and keeping balls out of the net is also a priority.
"We return Grace Klinkenberg in the back who was all-conference for us last year," Bodnar said of the sophomore. There's also Megan Spataro, a senior and three-year starter.
"The middle of the defense is pretty solidified, it's just finding who's going to be on the outside for us," Bodnar said.
Goalkeeping is solid with junior Hadley Bezon and sophomore Kelsee Winston returning.
The Eastern program has been on an upward trajectory ever since Bodnar's hiring in December 2013 from Walla Walla Community College.
The 2003 Washington State University grad took over a program that had won two games in 2013 and got eight in his rookie campaign. That improved to 12 and 13 in years two and three with the 2017 team winning 16. Add to that a pair of Big Sky tournament titles and appearances in the NCAAs.
"It's been exceeding what we would expect in that short (period) of time, but I credit the players and the things they have done; they've worked hard to get where they're at," Bodnar said.
Bodnar mines his talent primarily along the West Coast, from Arizona north.
"There's a special kind of player that we look for," he said. "We like to be athletic and play an attacking style. We need kids that can run."
Plus there's the element that transcends most sports at Eastern.
"They need to have a chip on their shoulder," Bodnar said. "Maybe they didn't get recruited by the Pac-12 schools but they're not that far off that level of player."
Winning the last two Big Sky Conference tournament titles has sent Eastern into the NCAA tournament where the Eagles have twice faced USC. They've lost both times, including 2-1 in double-overtime last year to the eventual national champions.
How does Eastern clear that hurdle?
"Being there helps," Bodnar said. "The first year there are a lot of wide eyes, the last year it was pretty darn close."
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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