The Rockhurst soccer team is ranked 10th in the nation. They’re 2nd in Region VII, which includes Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. They’re 12-1 overall and ride a 9-game winning streak. For almost any other program in the country, those feats would be impressive. But when you consider where the Hawklets started the season, 1st in the nation, according to the United Soccer Coaches, and 3-0 after the first three games, it’s a bit of a step back.
It was that fourth game of the season that changed things, because when the Hawklets fell 2-1 in penalty kicks to Blue Valley Southwest on Sept. 11, it was their first loss since Oct. 14, 2022. While the defeat might have seemed like a setback, team members look at it a bit differently.
“The first loss in almost two years felt terrible, but we can improve,” junior forward Asende Welongo said. “It’s a good thing we lost, so we can focus on the season and know that we can lose.
“But our goal is to win.”
The loss dropped the team out of the top spot in the United Soccer Coaches rankings, all the way to No. 12. However, the players gained more confidence after the loss.
“Losing isn’t a good thing, but it took off a bunch of pressure on us. Now that it is gone, we can be sort of relieved,” junior defender Tanner Hollenbeck said. “We still have a lot of pressure on us for the rest of the season.”
The coaches understand their players feel that way.
“As a coaching staff, this is not so much our focus, but it was silly of us to not understand that there maybe was some weight on the kids’ shoulders, which is unfair because they just want to play a game,” head coach Matt Darby said.
While the loss did away with any ideas of another perfect season, their primary goals remain in front of them.
“The goal is always to be getting better every day,” Darby said. “Hopefully, the main goal every year, at the end of the year, is to win the state championship. We don’t ever really talk about going undefeated or wins or losses. Winning is great. We enjoy winning more than losing. We can keep reaching constantly, like, we just want to be better than the day before.”
