Friday Features: UWF women’s soccer returns to national stage
By Maurice Patton
Dropping a double-overtime decision in the NCAA Division II National Tournament Quarterfinals didn’t dampen veteran West Florida women’s soccer coach Joe Bartlinski’s enthusiasm for his team’s accomplishments of the just-completed season.
The Argos’ 2-1 loss to Columbus State – a national tourney finalist a year ago – brought the curtain down on a 19-5 campaign that included 17 shutouts, a Gulf South Conference Co-Regular Season-, Tournament and an NCAA DII South Region Championships.
“You’re disappointed for the seniors; they put a lot of effort in,” Bartlinski said. “But to finish in the top eight out of 260-something teams is a great accomplishment. It’s hard to swallow, but we know we left it all out there.”
Competing at a national level is nothing new for West Florida. The Argos won the 2012 national championship – when current seniors Emily Grammer and Emily Vogler were redshirting as incoming freshmen – and were national runners-up in 2013, in addition to making a national tourney appearance last season.
“Expectations were high because we had such quality seniors coming back,” Bartlinski said. “We rely on them heavily, on the field and off. They’re the heart of the team, from (defender) Svenja Burkhardt and (goalkeeper) Grammer, right down the center of our team, through the midfield and all the way up front. We had five starting seniors that were the core, so expectations were always high. They’re seasoned, they understand what it takes.”
That nucleus, which also includes Sara Helgadottir, Kaley Ward, Rachel Lassitter and Alisa Festagallo, led UWF to a share (along with Lee University) of the regular-season GSC championship with an 11-1 league record, before back-to-back shutouts in the conference tourney. The Argos then won consecutive NCAA South Region road contests against Nova Southeastern, Saint Leo and Barry before suffering that 2-1 double-overtime loss to Columbus State.
“To compete in our conference is very difficult,” Bartlinski said. “Doing what we did during the regular season (14-4 overall) and in the Gulf South – we advanced as deeply as we did because of how strong and how good our opponents are in our conference. Beating the top three seeds in the Sunshine (State Conference), all on the road, that was because of how difficult our conference is. We see some really great teams and great coaches, and they prepared us really well for our deep run in the NCAA Tournament.”
That preparation and that work made the final outcome, admittedly, a little tough to take.
“Full credit to Columbus State. They had five starting seniors returning from the (2015) national finals,” Bartlinski said. “We started slowly, but we had an excellent second half, and we had our opportunities in overtime. I’m just happy it didn’t get to penalty kicks. It would be good to have one, but it would have been a lot of anxiety for players to maybe not have won on penalty kicks.
“For us to take them to double overtime was obviously a credit to how hard our seniors worked. That’s part of the disappointment, to know they were so close. I couldn’t have asked for more, during training or (during) this year. So there’s disappointment, but there’s also knowing they worked so hard to get there.”
And while the senior Argos didn’t go out with a title, Bartlinski credited them with setting the foundation for West Florida’s underclassmen to take the next step before they leave.
“They now understand, the youngsters, what it takes,” he said. “They’ll be the leaders next year. They have a better understanding of what it takes -- going back to how difficult our conference is -- to battle on the road in the places we have to and at home. They understand it’s very difficult.
“You have to work, not only during the season, but you have to work hard in the offseason to get better to compete in such a difficult conference.”
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