Thinking back to this time a year ago, there is much for the Northern Arizona women鈥檚 soccer team to be proud of.
The Lumberjacks (4-2-2, 0-0 Big Sky) have one more match left, coming Sunday at home against Loyola Marymount, before conference play begins. In 2022, before coach Alan Berrios took over on an interim basis, Northern Arizona entered the conference portion of the schedule without a win over a Division I opponent.
Now, Northern Arizona is at about the midway point of the season in which it鈥檚 aiming to defend its regular-season and tournament conference titles. However, it took a long season-ending win streak and a major turnaround to get there last year. The Lumberjacks have a chance to enter conference play on a high note and continue their solid run.
鈥淭he buy-in has continued from the second half of last season,鈥� Berrios said. 鈥淭his team came back ready to go. We didn鈥檛 have to manage the fitness like we did in the past, and they were mentally ready, too.鈥�
The Lumberjacks brought back most of the top talent that allowed them to win the conference a year ago. Midfielder Maddie Shafer, the Big Sky leader in points (16) in 2022, remains a stalwart for Northern Arizona, among many others.
But Northern Arizona also brought in a handful of transfers, increasing the team鈥檚 depth.
The result is that Northern Arizona is able to spread the ball around more and not require Herculean offensive efforts from players such as Shafer, forward Dai Williams or Josie Novak, who led the Lumberjacks in goals last season with six.
Rather, of the 11 goals scored so far this year, nine players have at least one -- Allison Veloz leads the team with two -- and 14 players have a goal, an assist or both.
The talent level has also allowed the Lumberjacks to have success changing things up depending on the game plan and opponent.
鈥淚 feel like our style of play has really been good. And we鈥檙e adapting to teams, whether it鈥檚 playing big balls over the defense or knowing when to possess, it鈥檚 been really promising,鈥� midfielder Joey Lujan said.
The defense has been stout recently, too.
Northern Arizona is fresh off a pair of shutout wins -- 1-0 over Utah Tech and 2-0 over San Diego.
Lujan was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week for her efforts in shutting down the pair of foes.
鈥淚t meant a lot,鈥� Lujan, a transfer this offseason from Kansas State, said of the honor. 鈥淚 came from a school where I wasn鈥檛 doing great, wasn鈥檛 playing a lot. And then coming here and being able to play well and be around friends and family when we鈥檙e having success is great.鈥�
She added: 鈥淭he whole team has to rally around each other, though, and the defense has to play well. It has to be everyone around who supported me or I wouldn鈥檛 have won it, so that was amazing.鈥�
Berrios was encouraged by the recent performance. The Lumberjacks hadn鈥檛 played up to their standard, he said, in some matches. But the last two games were performances that can lead to more success.
鈥淲e had high expectations for the group in general. We hit a little bit of a low, against Cal State Bakersfield we kind of struggled in certain areas, but after that we started finding the rhythm defensively. And that allowed us to start doing more offensively,鈥� he said.
The goal now is consistency, Berrios said. There have been highs and lows. One such example came in a 3-2 win over the Oregon Ducks. It was the first time the Lumberjacks had beaten a Pac-12 opponent since 2001. But they followed that match up with a 1-1 draw at Southern Utah, a team the Lumberjacks had beaten handily, 2-0, two years prior.
Loyola Marymount will provide a great test ahead of the conference portion of the schedule, and Berrios is eager to see how his team reacts to a unique, defensive-minded team Sunday. A solid performance could set them up for big things against Big Sky foes.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 ask for a better opponent this Sunday than LMU,鈥� Berrios said. 鈥淭hey are so organized, so disciplined defensively. At times they play in a really low block, so it鈥檚 hard to beat that. It鈥檚 going to set us up, because our conference is a little different. Everybody is high-pressing and things like that, but LMU will give us the ball at times. So it鈥檚 a chance to see what we can do playing a different style.鈥�
Kickoff between the Lumberjacks and Lions is set for 1 p.m. at Lumberjack Stadium.
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