2019 Women's Soccer Preview

New recruits along with a roster chock full returners have this year's Cal Maritime Women's Soccer Team ready to take a step forward in 2019.

Although the they didn't come away with a win in their inaugural season, the Keelhaulers improved immensely throughout the campaign, scoring three goals while the defensive awareness improved every time they took the pitch.

But the Keelhaulers will have to replace the production and leadership of the program's original co-captains in Noel Gomez and Mo Powers, who combined for the program's first goal and received honorable mentions in the Cal Pac Conference's All-Conference Teams.

Head Coach Emily Scheese is entering in her second season at the position and will look to continue the growth of the program. As a three-time NCAA Division-III Association of Independent's Coach of the Year make, she is the ideal coach to guide the Keelhaulers in the program's infancy.

The 2019 roster is predominantly filled with returners who now have year of intercollegiate experience under their belts with each position group broken down below:

Goalkeepers:

Seniors Vanessa Pena and Nathalie Calderon will both return for the Keelhaulers in 2019, but Pena will move to the midfield this year, and freshman Maddy Dack from Troy High School in Fullerton, Calif. will slot immediately into the starting role. Calderon started five games while appearing in seven of them. She had 64 saves in those seven games while finishing with a 53% save rate.

Pena missed a handful of games last season with a concussion, and Calderon and the now-graduated Powers filled in admirably in her absence. The five-foot, 10-inch Dack is an aggressive, agile keeper and was one of Cal Maritime's big additions this offseason.

Midfielders/Forwards:

The Keelhaulers attack features returning sophomores Jackie Garcia, Rebecca Masliah, Emily Silva, senior Vanessa Pena, and incoming freshman Caitlin Gibson.

Garcia, a freshman last year, played in every game while scoring two of the three of the three Keelhaulers goals on only 11 shots attempted, six of them on goal. The Los Angeles native has a powerful leg to score from distance, great ball control skills to dribble through traffic, and ankle-breaking moves to shake defenders.

Masliah appeared in 12 games for the Keelhaulers and the six-foot-one Silva played in seven games while tallying a total of seven shots, five of which were on goal. Gibson comes from Del Campo High School and will look to add a scoring punch the Keelhaulers need. The tall forward played club soccer with Union FC Sacramento in US Soccer's National Premier League which ranked in the top three of the NPL-1 East League Standings, ranked 21st nationally, 11th regionally and 7th in Northern California according to Gotsoccer.com.

Defenders:

Seniors Brittany Holloway, Helen Gordon, Hannah Soule, Katherine Kronheim, and sophomore Lovette Valdivia all return to the Keelhaulers back line. They allowed 120 goals on 305 shots on goal and allowing an average of .6 shots on goal per shot last season.

Fans will have their first chance to see the Keelhaulers in action this upcoming Saturday, August 24th at home at 11.00 a.m. located at Bodnar Field in Vallejo, Calif. when they host William Jessup University of the Golden State Athletic Conference.