[Hieronymus]

What is our projected starting lineup? 

I see Evans and Montoya starting. Who else should join them?

I'll venture some uninformed thoughts, since no one actually knowledgeable has chimed in yet! The unknown is the incoming freshman class, I hope a few of them will be of future star quality and play right away. We lost three very important players from last year: a major star in Doms, our excellent GK Ryan Campbell, and Kennedy Wesley on defense. We have two returning star players (Aikey and Evans) and a host of experienced, good but not yet great players. GK is our most important unknown this year; backup Craig got little time last year and it showed with some shaky moments. We have to hope she will rise to the level of play we need, or one of the younger GKs will. 

After Aikey (a midfielder/forward combo), we have two excellent forwards in Montoya and Kitahata, but also good forwards in Grillione and Williams, and two back-to-the-goal type forwards in Wolf and Kostmayer. Defense is led by Evans, and Harvey did a good job at holding mid last year. After them we have a lot of good, experienced but not necessarily standout defenders. Bhuta will continue to start in midfield and I thought Jung was good job in midfield last year, but there will be opportunities for the new freshman to break into the lineup in the midfield and in defense (and even forward if they're good enough). It should be a very strong team overall, assuming we get good GK play. The returning players really know how to play in our system, and the best new players will have a high learning curve in the pre-season and get more time as the season goes on. Last year we played a lot of younger players, and the improvement in our play from the first couple games to the end was the best I can remember, just stellar. (compliments to the coaches!).

I do not follow recruiting service stuff closely; so this is more about the team overall.

For me the key questions this year in order are:
1. Is GK, GK, GK. Campbell is a major loss and Craig was very shaky last year. I don’t know if Jota can challenge her as a Freshman, or if Savig steps up?
2. Who replaces Wesley at CB is almost as big a question. Wesley played essentially 100% of the time; so I don’t have any idea if anybody returning on the roster is an obvious replacement starter.  Can Murdock step in and start immediately?
3. Who replaces Doms? Doms is a significant loss as well, but there are a lot more known options here. Bhuta could go back to midfield from RB. Kitihata could drop back if forward becomes a real log jam. Or it is very possible Klinger starts quickly.
4. Does Jung continue to start as she did at the end of the year? For me she was OK, but somewhat overmatched physically. Maybe a year makes a big difference for her development or maybe she gets passed up.
5. Backup forwards are going to have a long fight for playing time with the new recruits. How does the pecking order shake out? None of the reserves were consistently effective last year and Ratcliffe tried everybody; so the Frosh are going to get chances to play. On a side note, I am somewhat surprised Lumi stayed. I think she is a good player, but a terrible fit for the system. 

On the whole though, if GK is at least solid, they should be very good again this coming year.

[Hieronymus]

What is our projected starting lineup? 

I see Evans and Montoya starting. Who else should join them?

I'll venture some uninformed thoughts, since no one actually knowledgeable has chimed in yet! The unknown is the incoming freshman class, I hope a few of them will be of future star quality and play right away. We lost three very important players from last year: a major star in Doms, our excellent GK Ryan Campbell, and Kennedy Wesley on defense. We have two returning star players (Aikey and Evans) and a host of experienced, good but not yet great players. GK is our most important unknown this year; backup Craig got little time last year and it showed with some shaky moments. We have to hope she will rise to the level of play we need, or one of the younger GKs will. 

After Aikey (a midfielder/forward combo), we have two excellent forwards in Montoya and Kitahata, but also good forwards in Grillione and Williams, and two back-to-the-goal type forwards in Wolf and Kostmayer. Defense is led by Evans, and Harvey did a good job at holding mid last year. After them we have a lot of good, experienced but not necessarily standout defenders. Bhuta will continue to start in midfield and I thought Jung was good job in midfield last year, but there will be opportunities for the new freshman to break into the lineup in the midfield and in defense (and even forward if they're good enough). It should be a very strong team overall, assuming we get good GK play. The returning players really know how to play in our system, and the best new players will have a high learning curve in the pre-season and get more time as the season goes on. Last year we played a lot of younger players, and the improvement in our play from the first couple games to the end was the best I can remember, just stellar. (compliments to the coaches!).

I do not follow recruiting service stuff closely; so this is more about the team overall.

For me the key questions this year in order are:
1. Is GK, GK, GK. Campbell is a major loss and Craig was very shaky last year. I don’t know if Jota can challenge her as a Freshman, or if Savig steps up?
2. Who replaces Wesley at CB is almost as big a question. Wesley played essentially 100% of the time; so I don’t have any idea if anybody returning on the roster is an obvious replacement starter.  Can Murdock step in and start immediately?
3. Who replaces Doms? Doms is a significant loss as well, but there are a lot more known options here. Bhuta could go back to midfield from RB. Kitihata could drop back if forward becomes a real log jam. Or it is very possible Klinger starts quickly.
4. Does Jung continue to start as she did at the end of the year? For me she was OK, but somewhat overmatched physically. Maybe a year makes a big difference for her development or maybe she gets passed up.
5. Backup forwards are going to have a long fight for playing time with the new recruits. How does the pecking order shake out? None of the reserves were consistently effective last year and Ratcliffe tried everybody; so the Frosh are going to get chances to play. On a side note, I am somewhat surprised Lumi stayed. I think she is a good player, but a terrible fit for the system. 

On the whole though, if GK is at least solid, they should be very good again this coming year.