Big opening weekend for women's soccer team

The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team opens the regular season with a huge weekend of soccer at Titan Soccer Complex.

Three of the four teams playing on the Melbourne campus this weekend head into the new season in the top 10 teams in the country.

"That is neat, you get that excitement of having some of the top teams in the country playing in one weekend and I think it creates a nice buzz to start the season," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Jeff Carr said. "Once again it just shows how good our facilities are that teams want to come here to play."

The weekend begins Friday evening with a doubleheader. No. 8 Daytona State College will play Johnson County Community College at 6 p.m. and then the No. 4 Titans will play No. 2 Laramie County Community College at 8 p.m.

"(Laramie County coach) Jim Gardner is a very good friend of mine and he always has a fantastic program and I think they are really special this year," Carr said. "The tough thing about playing one of the better teams right away is you don't have film and can't scout them so there is an unknown going into the game as well. You are trying to find out if you are really the No. 4 team in the country and so there are all these uncertainties but it is tough to play these right away."

Then on Sunday, No. 2 Laramie County Community College will play No. 8 Daytona State at 10 a.m. with the No. 4 Titans playing Johnson County Community College at 6 p.m.

The Titans are coming off another deep run in the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament but open the season with four returning sophomores and 18 new players.

"We are excited for who we have, started with 32 in June and are down to 22 but it is a good 22," Carr said. "With so many freshmen, they have to learn the system and they have done a pretty good job. We have had some scrimmages and they have played well at times, disappointed at times but that is the maturation and understanding of the college level and the speed of play. There are a lot of things we still need to improve on as we move forward."

The midfield has been a strength for the Titans the past couple of seasons and is once again one of the strengths of the team led by sophomores Ebony Wiseman and Cristina Garriga.

"We have depth at some positions but our strength is our midfield play, we have some really special players this season," Carr said. "Our midfielders have been our leading scorers the past couple of years and that is how I design our team. We have a strong back four with some depth and Kiera is doing a good job as our goalkeeper."

The Titans will open the season with four straight home games before traveling to New York for a couple of games against ranked opponents.

Admission to games at Titan Soccer Complex are free.