September 6, 2016
By Emily Lapinski
With the start of the school year right around the corner and the season underway, team captains from men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball sat down to discuss their 2016 season.
Seniors Zack Venzon and Gabriel Gongora have high hopes for the men’s soccer team.
“We are a very experienced team that can do amazing things this year,” Gongora said. “We are attempting to change philosophies this year and be even more aggressive than previous years, so we need to continue to develop our confidence in this new system and do what is required from us.”
“One of the things that makes our team so successful is our core group and we are returning our entire core group this year with the exception of one member,” Venzon said. “I think the seniority of our team will help us to succeed in our goals.”
Both captains stated that the team goals are the same as previous years: to win the NACC regular season, win the conference tournament and make it to the NCAA tournament.
According to juniors Tania Martinez and Lexi Kiotis from the women’s soccer team, this season will begin with many new young players.
“We were talking about how crazy it is that our team is so young with just seven or eight returning players,” Kiotis said. “We have a really fresh team and it is exciting to see that the strongest point we have right now is commitment. We have a lot of skill and potential and it’s great to see everyone coming in hard and focused. We had a great team last year that we are focused on trying to build off of that and creating a strong group to represent Dominican.”
Junior Kendyl Todd is looking forward to leading the women’s volleyball team in a positive direction, maintaining a strong level of close relationships both on and off the court.
“We have a really dynamic team,” Todd said. “We have a lot of diversity and girls that can play a lot of different positions and really hold each other accountable. We are big on making sure that each practice we get better and that we make long-term goals that are achievable. Our great level of communication is really going to show on the court this year.”
The STARS are ready and looking forward to seeing members of the DU community at their games. To see the upcoming schedules go to dustars.com.
lapiemil@my.dom.edu