Photo courtesy of Madison Bowden
In sports, it’s not how you start—it’s how you finish. Yes, I am aware of how cliché that sounds, but it’s more true than you would think. Just this season, the Cleveland Guardians were behind the Detroit Tigers by 15 games and had a losing record as late as Tuesday, September 2. But Cleveland pulled off an incredible comeback in the final month and won their division.
Our Covenant womens soccer team finds themselves in a similar situation. After starting the season 0-6-1, the Lady Scots have finished 6-2-1 since then and have come all the way to a spot in the CCS playoffs. Forward Georgie Strawbridge ’29 credits her coach for preparing them to perform well in conference. “He wants us to have to face teams who are stronger and faster to make us better, and it worked. Because of those first seven games, we are more organized and confident.”
Multiple players bring up their homecoming game against Bellhaven as an example of who they want to be as a team. “In our game versus Belhaven, we completely outworked them,” says Blythe Jelley ’27. “We stayed strong defensively, not letting them score one goal. And then we took advantage of our restarts, one leading to a P.K.” This attitude of goal setting and goal achieving has been drilled repeatedly throughout the season. “First [goal] was to outwork every opponent we face. Two was to be strong defensively. Three was to be ruthless in restarts (corner kicks or foul calls). Coach has reminded us of these goals before almost every game, whether we have done them or not,” says Blythe Jelley. Team culture is also an important factor in success, “The culture of this team is amazing.” says Georgie Strawbridge ‘29. “This is the first team I’ve ever been on in 15 years of playing soccer that has a shared faith, and it makes all the difference. Every game, we have a devotional beforehand, talking about how we are going to go out and glorify God with our words and actions.” The team currently sits at 4th in the conference and will host Asbury on Saturday, November 1 in the opening round of the CCS playoffs. Covenant defeated Asbury earlier in the season by a score of 2-0 and looks to emerge victorious again on their way to achieving goals set at the very start of the season. “We have been saying since the beginning that we wanted to win conference,” says Strawbridge. Well, that goal is certainly within reach, and from all of us at Covenant College, GO SCOTS!!
Photo courtesy of Madison Bowden.