Completed Event: Women's Soccer versus Brown on September 17, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 4
Women's Soccer
vs Brown
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4
Providence College Athletics
Friars Women's Soccer Team Set To Open 1999 Campaign
9/3/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 3, 1999
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - On June 23rd, 1999, the Providence College women's soccer program took its first steps in rebuilding as Tracy DiMillio Kerr was named the seventh head coach of the Friars' program. The Friars were just 3-15 a year ago and have recorded just 13 wins in the last four years. The PC women have not had a winning season since 1993.
Kerr, a 1992 graduate of the University of Virginia where she was an All-American, has spent the past two seasons as the top assistant at Harvard. Her first team at Providence has a solid core of players to build around, but will be young and inexperienced. The roster features ten freshmen, five sophomores, six juniors and just three seniors.
With a late start as head coach, Kerr will look to her returning players to start the rebuilding process. She must also overcome the graduation of five regular starters who logged plenty of minutes a year ago.
The Friars do return three of their top five scorers from 1998. Offense is one area that the Friars must improve if they hope to make waves in the BIG EAST's Northeast Conference. Providence mustered just 15 goals last season and lost leading goal scorer Patricia Moore (six goals, no assists) to graduation.
On defense, the Friars have a solid unit that turned in several strong efforts in 1998. Leading the way for the third straight season is goalkeeper Shayna Ross (Sr., Whitman, Mass.). Ross kept the team in many games with her phenomenal play in net. The acrobatic goalkeeper made 179 saves as she started every game during the 1998 season. She was among the national leaders in saves per game with 9.94 per contest. For the year, Ross was 3-15 with a 3.71 goals against and a .731 save percentage while playing all but 19 minutes in the goal. Sophomore Jessica Mitchell (Shrewsbury, Mass.) will serve as the backup for the second consecutive season.
Returning to play in front of Ross are juniors Tricia Brennan (Grafton, Mass.) and Kim Carr (Hanover, Mass.). Brennan (2 assists) and Carr (3 assists) helped control play and move the ball forward to the PC offense. Both are solid defenders and will be counted on to break in the many new players joining the team this season.
At midfield, the Friars will be bolstered by the return of midfielder Kelly McCusker (Sr., Simsbury, Conn.). The fifth-year senior was an All-BIG EAST candidate heading into last year, but suffered a season-ending knee injury during preseason training camp. McCusker and fellow midfielder, Alexa Ricardo (Sr., Marshfield, Mass.) will serve as the team's captains this season. Ricardo has excellent speed and is a steady player who will add strong leadership in the season ahead.
Sophomores Kate Lyden (Bellingham, Mass.) and Meghan Trombly (Springfield, Vt.) saw action as reserves last season as freshmen and will look to break into the starting lineup. Lyden and Trombly are solid defenders who should see action at back or at midfield.
Offensively, the top returning scorer is sophomore Caitlyn Welsh (Winter Springs, Fla.) who was second overall with nine points (two goals and five assists) a year ago. She started all 18 games and gives the Friars good speed and excellent skill up front. A year's experience will definitely help Welsh as she showed flashes of being an outstanding collegiate forward last season.
Two other forwards who return and should be regular contributors on the attack are juniors Melissa Crowley (Duxbury, Mass.) and Jill Flanagan (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.). Crowley battled injuries during her sophomore year after leading the team in scoring as a freshman in 1997. Blessed with outstanding speed and a good scoring touch, Crowley scored two goals in limited playing time last season.
Like Welsh, Flanagan showed outstanding potential in 1998 as she scored once and added four assists. She also has outstanding speed and is an outstanding playmaker who knows how to find the open player from all areas of the field.
With ten freshmen joining the team, Kerr will be counting on several of the newcomers to step up and play key roles this season.
Among the players who will be counted on early in the new season are top recruits Kristen Gardner (Trumbull, Conn.), Erin Jones (Sandy Hook, Conn.), Kyle McAuley (Trumbull, Conn.) and Christy Merrihew (Trumbull, Conn.). All four have outstanding soccer backgrounds.
Gardner is a solid defender while McAuley and Merrihew had outstanding high school careers playing at midfield. All three come from the outstanding women's soccer program at Trumbull High School where they played on three consecutive State Championship teams. Last year's squad was 20-0 and did not give up a goal all season.
Jones comes to Providence after finishing second in the state with 26 assists while scoring 13 goals at Newtown High School.
The Friars will play in the BIG EAST's Northeast Conference this season along with Connecticut, Syracuse, Boston College, Miami and St. John's. The remaining teams will play in the Mid-Atlantic Conference with the top four teams in each division qualifying for the BIG EAST Championship.
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