GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland girls’ soccer team is looking to fill a key role as it prepares for the upcoming season.

The Lady Dutch are looking to replace the scoring and play-making ability of graduate Deanna Wachtel, but haven’t been able to as yet.
"Deanna was a quality player," said Guilderland Coach Barb Newton. "She could play all over and was a versatile player. I don’t know if we can find anybody to fill that spot. Deanna was big on corner and re-starts. We don’t have anyone who can go get the ball off a re-start. We’re still working on filling that spot. Deanna was tough in the air."

Wachtel is playing soccer at The College of Saint Rose this fall.

But that doesn’t mean that Newton isn’t happy with what she has seen so far during the pre-season.
"We’ve had one scrimmage against Oneonta," she said. "And it was successful. We played well. The passing game was working well. We looked good. And no one is injured and that’s good. That is one of our goals to get through the pre-season uninjured."

The Lady Dutch have 11 players returning from last year’s team.
"It’s good," Newton said. "I have my goalkeeper back, who is also my top field player. We also have some young kids that have quite a bit of talent. There’s competition on the team for positions."

Jen Mihok will see time at goalie, but Newton wants to get her in the field and let Julie Malkowski play some in goal, too.
"I want to keep Jen on the field," Newton said. "Jen is a more technical goalie at this time and more experienced."

Mihok split goalie duty with Linsday Gillis last year.

Mihok is one of four seniors who has shown leadership on the team.
"Kayla Best, Jen Mihok, Bianca Germain, and Sam Ruppenthal have done a nice job with uniting the team," Newton said. "This is a close-knit team. We feel like we don’t have any stars. Everyone gets along right now and is working on improving as a unit."

Newton has seen improvement in players from last year to this year.
"The returning seniors have improved since last year," the coach said. "The four I’ve mentioned have made major improvements. From offense to defense, it seems they all have improved since last year."

New divisions

The Lady Dutch will play in a new division this year. They are in the Gold Division with Columbia, Shaker, and Ballston Spa.
"We have to play everybody anyway," Newton said. "I would like to play tougher teams. We have to play them to get out of the section. It doesn’t really matter. It could help us record-wise, which will help out the players’ confidence. But I’m happy wherever we are, it’ll work out fine."

The Lady Dutch open the season with three games next week.

On Tuesday, Guilderland will play at Scotia-Glenville High School. Then the Dutch host Mohonasen on Wednesday and Bethlehem on Friday.
"We’re starting with good teams," Newton said. "Bethlehem will be a challenge, but it will be a non-league game. League games start the following week. This will be a good week for us.
"It’ll be three more chances to find ways to score," Newton added. "We have some kids that can shoot from outside the box with speed and accuracy. We need more opportunities to score. We have kids that will fight for the ball inside the penalty box. They will cause havoc and maybe we can create opportunities off that."