It looked at one point UCF Women’s soccer might fall out of the NCAA Tournament picture. A strong run at the end of the season has them peaking toward Nov.
Coming into the 2015 season, there were many questions around UCF Women Soccer program. Coming into the season, UCF Women’s Soccer head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak had to basically put a brand new team together with 15 new players on the team.
One had to wonder if this was a season of rebuilding for a program that had won back-to-back American Conference regular season championships and two trips into the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in the last four years (2011, 2014).
The Knights hit some bumps on the road and it look like they would miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006 after they lost in the final seconds on the road at East Carolina 1-0 on Oct. 1 followed by getting shutout at Cincinnati 2-0 on Oct. 4.
That left UCF with a 6-5-1 record on the season. But that weekend proved to be a critical point in the Knights season.
“I think that was the turning point for us that weekend losing to ECU and Cincinnati” said Sahaydak. “We got together after that weekend that following Monday, and we had a real heart to heart. When you have some struggles it’s all about believing in the process, believing in each other trusting one on another and doing it together and thats what we been doing since that bad weekend.”
Since then, the Knights have run off five straight wins including knocking off No. 18 South Florida 3-1 on senior night at the UCF Softball Complex. That should pretty much lock up another bid into the NCAA Tournament.
UCF will enter the American Conference Tournament playing its best soccer clicking on all cylinders. The Knights will be the number 3 seed in Dallas on November 3 when UCF will take on Temple.
You can listen to my interview with UCF Women’s Soccer Head Coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak that aired on SportsTalk Florida 1080 AM on Saturday where we discussed the Knights season as well as the arrival of Women’s Pro Soccer to Orlando with the Orlando Pride set to play in 2016.
