Team must win on road
USF women’s soccer coach Logan Fleck knows his team has been knocked down this season.
Now, he wants them to get back up.
“What athletics should teach you,” Fleck said, “is when you get knocked on your butt, how do you get back up?”
The Bulls (1-5-2, 0-2 C-USA) have a chance to rise in the standings with a Conference USA doubleheader this weekend.
USF travels to Southern Miss (5-4-1, 1-3-0) on Friday and then to Tulane (5-5-2, 3-0-1) on Sunday. Tulane is currently second place in C-USA behind Louisville.
The Bulls are coming off a 2-0 loss at No. 14 Florida State on Tuesday.
“In that game, we played 80 minutes of the best soccer I’ve ever seen us play,” Fleck said.
USF, who has eight conference games left to play, is in the midst of a tumultuous three-game road trip, one that has the team traveling to Tallahassee; Hattiesburg, Miss.; and New Orleans in the span of six days.
“It’s so much better for this team to show what they’re made of on the road,” Fleck said. “I love when the odds are against us. That’s what it’s all about.”
In 2003, USF was one win away from the regular season conference title. To make the conference tournament this year, the Bulls must win at least five of their last eight games.
“You can either accept that you’re tenth in the league, or go out and prove them wrong,” Fleck said. “That’s why if we get in (to the conference tournament) and believe in ourselves, we will be one very close-knit group. This group will bound itself into where a ‘team’ will mean something.”
Senior goalkeeper Breck Bankester knows what it will take to win.
“We need to put the ball in the back of the net,” she said. “If we can score, it’s easier to keep it out of our net.”
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