The Long Beach women's soccer team wraps up preseason with a record of 6-1-2 and ranked 12th in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches poll. It's reminiscent of the history of the LBCC Women's Soccer program, that has won six state and three national championships, with this year's team striving to bring that kind of success back to the Vikings.
The team is led by the goal scoring of several players, including Genesis Lopez (9 goals), Diana Leon (8 goals), and Evelyn Sandoval (7 goals). A lot of their success though has come from the hard working midfield. Melanie Guerrero, Paige Rodriguez, and Adelia Villasenor are three of the key components that link the team together and have been a major reason for the team's success this season. Of course, the team has not been able to garner this much success early on without depth at every position.
Head Coach Eduardo Nunes says, "That has been the biggest difference this year, our depth."
The team has a roster of 28 players this season and according to Coach Nunes, "Players 12 through 28 could start at a lot of other programs."
The women's soccer team will start conference play on Tuesday with a home game against East Los Angeles College at 2pm. This will be the second year that the league will culminate in a conference tournament. The team will seek it's first league championship since 2005 and try to improve upon the third place finish from last year's conference tournament.