The old sports adage is that offense wins games, but defense wins championships. With a wealth of experience in defense and a three-time All-Sun Belt Conference goalkeeper, the Lady Toppers soccer team looks to have all the right pieces for a run at a conference championship in 2011.
Senior goalkeeper Libby Stout returns for her final season at WKU, looking to help the Lady Toppers win that first Sun Belt Conference tournament title and get an NCAA Tournament berth. WKU's all-time leader in shutouts with 29 and goals against average at 0.69, Stout has made a name for herself in the Lady Toppers record book. The chemistry that has been building in the preseason gives Stout and the rest of the Lady Toppers the focus and desire to get to the top of the Sun Belt in 2011.
"We're more on the same page, it feels like we're all working towards a common goal," said Stout. "My individual accolades in the past, they're great, but for myself getting the team what we want is more of what I'd like to do. For me I'm looking more towards the ultimate goal of a Sun Belt title."
"Libby is just fantastic," said head coach Jason Neidell of his senior goalkeeper. "She has a larger than life presence on and off the field and has all the intangibles to go with her skill."
It would be easy for some to look at WKU's shutouts over the last three seasons and credit just the play of Stout because she's the goalkeeper. It also takes a solid back line of defense to earn a clean sheet, and the communication between defenders and the keeper to keep shots from coming on net.
"I'm communicating the whole game, making sure everything in front of me is organized," said Stout of another aspect of goalkeeping. "If the defense is organized the way it should be, then you should never really have touched the ball because your defense should take care of it. So it takes a lot of focus, and that's tough because it's a 90-minute game with ebbs and flows in it."
The defense as a whole returns four starters from a year ago and Neidell likes what his defenders bring to the team as a whole.
"Ali Stahlke leads our defense at center back," Neidell said. "Torrie Lange moved to defense in the spring and has blossomed into the role. We have four to five players who could see time at outside back. All our defenders have the speed and athleticism to defend and at times attack."
Having started 28 of the 40 matches she has played in at WKU, junior Ali Stahlke has taken on more of a leadership role in the back for the Lady Toppers. She feels the experienced players who join her on defense, like senior Kaylyn Pratt and junior Sarah Sweeney, has made her role easier to take on.
"We have a lot more experience in the back," said Stahlke. "Last year I was expected to lead the defense but I had never really done that before. I'd never been asked to do that before. So that was good for this year, because now I feel like I know what I'm doing now and I can do that and other players can to. I feel like in the back we all know what are roles are and are better at them than a year ago and that definitely helps with the whole team. "
"The experience in the back helps a lot," Stout added. "Having Ali with more experience now as a junior, its similar to when Morgan Thomas was playing in the back. She had played since she was a freshman and she took control, she communicated, and I was kind of backup, and if she stopped I would keep her focused and make sure she was still doing her job. That's where I'm at with Ali. Ali's getting more comfortable with communicating now, so I just help her continue to do that."
With the season opening on Friday, WKU looks poised to make a run at the Sun Belt conference title. All the pieces are in place. Now it's time to get on the field and put them all together. The Lady Toppers open the 2011 season on Friday night at the WKU Soccer Complex against Western Carolina in the WKU Tournament. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
