Toledo, Ohio - The Toledo women's soccer team hosts Michigan State at 4:00 p.m. today in an exhibition match ahead of the start of the regular-season. The match will be played at Scott Park and admission is free.
 
The Rockets returned to campus this fall with an obvious question in the air: Can they repeat the success of last year's campaign?

Picked to finish last in the Mid-American Conference West Division in 2017, the Rockets surprised everyone by going the distance and claiming the MAC title. Going into this year, head coach TJ Buchholz has made it clear to his side that they have to keep the same underdog mindset that took them to the championship last year.

"I think every championship team's challenge is repeating what you did last year, and we've talked about that a lot," Buchholz said. "I told them this year that they have a little bit of a target on their back. People probably still feel like what we accomplished was a fluke or maybe ask how a team picked to finish sixth in the division wins it all. I think the team has to realize there's still a little bit of slight there going into the year."
    
Buchholz chalks up last year's success to his players staying healthy and buying into their roles. For example, sophomore goalkeeper Madison Perrin played every minute of Toledo's 23-match season; She bought into her role early on and earned the right to play between the sticks. This season, Buchholz will look for Perrin to buy into more of a leadership role.
    
"I think it was awesome for her (Perrin) to get that full year under her belt. She won the position and got to enjoy the highs of the season but she also had to weather the lows," Buchholz said. "When you graduate some key pieces from last year like all-conference defender Chiara Paradiso, it's critical for Madison to step up and be more of a leader on the field."
        
Reliable bench players were also important to Toledo's championship run. Sophomore Anita Mancini, senior Kelsey Kraft and senior Hannah Scafaria didn't start every contest but regularly saw action and were key to Toledo's championship run. Mancini registered two goals with zero starts. Kraft netted one goal in nine starts, and Scafaria paced the team with eight goals in 14 starts. Reliable bench players who were eager to help the team were key to last year's success, and the aforementioned three return for the 2018 campaign.
       
"If you were a starter, you needed to do that role well and start strong for your team," Buchholz said. "If you came off the bench, you needed to be a great person off the bench to give us a lift. As a result, we had a high level of productivity for 90 minutes."
 
Leadership
The Rockets will be led by senior captains Regan Price, Alena Sidwell and Scafaria. Price enters her third-consecutive season as a captain for the Toledo squad, while Scafaria enters her second and Sidwell her first.  All three earned the right by unanimous vote from their teammates.

"To be a leader in our program doesn't mean you're the best player," Buchholz said. "I think sometimes the best player gets to be a captain, but I don't know that the best players are always equipped to be the best leaders. I ask the team to think thoughtfully about who would be the best people to hold you accountable, to keep you honest and to help drive our season to success. Unanimously those three rose to the top. Hannah, Regan and Alena are at the top end of their work ethic, and I think our team really trusts them. I'm excited to see all the good things they do this year as leaders."

The three captains will be looked at to achieve this season's simple yet pointed goal: To improve every day. Buchholz is proud of what the program accomplished last season but that was last season. What happened on the field in 2017 doesn't matter once the first whistle of 2018 blows.

"What we accomplished last year was a great success but clearly it was last year, and now we want to spring forward this year," Buchholz said. "This year is about building on what we did well last year and continuing that championship environment. So our goal is to get better every day and to be a team committed to each other that buys into their role and wants to have that success. I think if we do those little things every day, success becomes easier."
 
The Rank and File
The Rockets lost top offensive threats Isa Echeverri (career: 20 goals, eight assists) and Sophie Pohl (career: 10 goals, five assists) to graduation, but bring in nine high school standouts who will be expected to contribute early on. Additionally, an experienced corps of Toledo veterans return to assist the newcomers.

Notable additions include freshmen forwards Tatiana Woodworth (La Quinta, Calif.) and Rose Sawyers (Newark, Ohio). Both standouts will join top threats Scafaria, Price and Sidwell, to round out the Rockets' front line.

Woodworth registered 68 goals with 42 assists through four years of high school. Buchholz will look for her to bring some creativity to the attack.

"Tatiana is a forward through and through," Buchholz said. "She had a phenomenal high school experience and can create opportunities out of nothing. When you watch her she is strong in stature, will go at people with the ball, and is a handful for defenses to deal with. She has a similar skill set to Hannah, where they do create some really unique opportunities that other people aren't prepared for. We're very excited to have her."

Sawyers played for Granville High School where she lettered all four years and finished her career with 87 goals and 71 assists.

"Rose is very explosive and very fast," Buchholz said. "She's a player that has really quick feet and is able to be able to navigate going at people one-on-one really well."

The Rockets will look to veteran defenders, juniors such as Rachelle Topolewski and Sheridan Bufe, to fill the holes left in the backline by Paradiso, Sydney Vinton and Alexis Burdick. Topolewski and Bufe each saw action in every match last season, playing over 2,100 and 1,100 minutes respectively. They'll be helped by homegrown players Lexa Bauer (Sylvania, Ohio) and Payton Sullivan (Whitehouse, Ohio), who attended Notre Dame Academy and St. Ursula Academy, respectively. Bauer was a highly-decorated recruit who garnered multiple first-team honors, and Sullivan recorded 75 goals and 32 assists in her high school career. Buchholz described Bauer as someone with "great athleticism and a phenomenal defensive IQ," and expects her to slot in nicely. Sullivan played at forward in her prep career but will transition into a defensive role for the Rockets.

"Lexa and Payton are two of the best in our area's class by far, and we're very excited to land local kids," Buchholz said. "We don't want them leaving town, and I think we definitely did well with this year's class by getting them."

Toledo boasts strong goalkeepers in Perrin and senior Katie Wilson and will add another threat in Adrianna Brewer (Liberty Township, Ohio). Brewer played at Lakota West High School and her highlights include winning the U17 U.S. Youth Soccer 2017 National Championship with Cincinnati United Premier.

"Adrianna was a very highly decorated player," Buchholz said. "She won a national championship in club, she's a very good game manager as a goalkeeper, and has very good feet. Her experience and ability to keep her teams in games by making high level saves is impeccable."
 
The 2018 Campaign
The Rockets play a road-heavy schedule this season, with the first four contests of the year away from the grounds of Scott Park. Buchholz is a self-proclaimed big believer in early-season road matches and likens it to his push for everyone to buy into their roles on the team.

"Especially in non-conference, we'll take everybody on the road with us, and even the ones who might not right away get on the field as freshmen," Buchholz said. "It's like when I talked about buying into our roles. We need them to understand that you never know what could happen in the middle of the season. Something could change through an injury, and you don't want newcomers to have their first road game be during the conference portion of the season.

"We really try to acclimate them from day one," Buchholz added. "When we go to Xavier and Wright State, everyone will travel and I think they need to experience that. They need to know what it's like to prepare on the road because it's not the same as home, no doubt. You're away from your normalcy. You have hotels, food on the road, buses, and I think all that difference is something they need to be exposed to in the non-conference. They need to experience that, and it's ok that we have as many road games as we do because we start to learn about them more too.

Toledo will host eight regular-season matchups and will travel to 11 opponents. The season opens on the road against Xavier on Aug. 17, with the Mid-American Conference slate beginning on the road at Ball State on Sept. 21. The Rockets' home opener is Sept. 2 against IUPUI.

"We're going to be on the road a lot this year but I don't make excuses," Buchholz said. "I say we're going to be on the road and managing that but I think you have to be prepared. Every spring game we had this year was on the road so we told them 'Get used to winning on the road; it's not an excuse, you have to get out and find a way. If you don't, no one's going to feel sorry for you. They're going to look at your record and ask "Are you good or are you not good?"'

With the schedule set and the season around the corner, all eyes will be on the Rockets, ready to see whether they can be the first MAC team in nearly a decade to win back-to-back titles.