SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Coming off the 24th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, Santa Clara women's soccer will open its spring season on Sun., April 7 at 7 p.m. vs. Cal at Buck Shaw. As of now, the Broncos are scheduled to play Cal, the California Storm of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the Bay Area Breeze of the WPSL and Stanford. The Broncos are coming off of back-to-back undefeated spring seasons with a win over Stanford in each season.
"Putting together the spring schedule is the same as putting together the fall schedule except we don't have a budget for travel," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith, entering his 27th season leading the Broncos. "If we travel, it's local where we take the vans over to the game. We're still trying to play the best teams possible so Stanford and Cal are on our schedule. We're really trying to get one of these new professional teams to come down and play us, but they have the same issues with budgets. We may play Cal or Stanford a second time because we want to play the toughest schedule that our budget allows, just like every spring."
Santa Clara will be without three different players for different games this spring as three current Broncos will be with national teams. Julie Johnston will be with the full national team for the first game vs. Cal, Morgan Marlborough will play with the U-23's and Andi Tostanoski and Dani Weatherholt have been called up the U-20 team. This means the team will be able to get reserves valuable experience in game situations.
"The spring season is a wonderful time to do several things," said Smith. "We allow players to play other positions and we try different formations as a team. In fact, we'll probably play a new formation all spring so we're comfortable with another option. The spring also allows for new leaders to emerge, which is an important part of collegiate athletics."