Coming off a season in which the Central College women’s soccer team set records on offense, coach Mike Kobylinski believes his team ready to turn it up another notch in 2018.
A 14-2-3 record in 2017 also gave the program its highest winning percentage ever at .816. Last season, the Dutch fired off 478 shots and put 218 of them on frame for 52 goals. The players responsible for 40 of them return. Erin Manion, Lauren Vahlkamp and Elise Askelsen each had at least five goals and several other returning players had at least two. In the newly-renamed American Rivers Conference, the Dutch were picked to finish third by the coaches. Defending champions Loras College, who tied Central 1-1 in 2017, were projected to repeat. Trailing the Dutch 1-0 for most of the 2017 regular-season finale, the Duhawks pulled even in the final eight minutes. A victory would have clinched a share of the conference title for Central.
This will be the eighth season of Kobylinski’s tenure, in which he has compiled a 83-35-15 (.680) record. Central will open at home against Albion on Saturday, September 1 at 3 p.m.