(Rolla, Mo.) – At first glance it might be hard to see why head coach Joe McCauley is optimistic about his team's chances heading into the 2014 season despite finishing with a 3-7-5 record last season. Of the five games S&T tied three ended being against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament and four of the losses were only by a goal.

"Our record last year doesn't indicate how close we were in all of the matches and how competitive we were," he said. "Some of those matches had we been more confident in our finishing I think the results could've gone our way. We've got a good group of players that we can address of those issues with and turn some of those ties and losses into wins."

The Lady Miners return two very good goalkeepers in Kaitlyn Deister (St. Louis, Mo./Visitation Academy) and Carrie Levy (Columbia, Mo./Rock Bridge ). Deister allowed only five goals last and set a new school record for lowest goals average with a mark of 0.56. She also finished 17^th in NCAA Division II in save percentage and posted four shutouts. Levy has appeared in just one game for S&T but McCauley feels she brings some strong attributes to the position such as a strong sense of positioning and she communicates well.

"I feel very confident in our goalkeeping this year," McCauley said. "I think this could be a really good year for both Kaitlyn and Carrie."

A big reason for the improvement from 2012 to 2013 was the play of the defense. After allowing 27 goals two years ago the Lady Miners lowered that total to 19 last season. The back four of the unit returns intact, but will see some new faces in that unit. Those additions will allow McCauley some flexibility to move more players up front like Sabrina Hostler (St. Louis, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) to utilize them in the attack. Also back to anchor the defense are senior Kacey Ludwig (McKinney, Texas/McKinney), junior Kendall Fitzpatrick (Houston, Texas/Memorial ) and sophomores Alex McCord (Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View) and Anna Fink (Fulton, Mo./Fulton). The group helped post five shutouts and allowed just one goal four times.

"Not only do we return a seasoned group of defenders, but we've also added to that group as well with a couple of freshman and a transfer we had to red-shirt due to injury last year," he said. "We feel like we're a much more balanced team and we've added some depth front to back."
Senior Sammy Minea (Leawood, Kan./Blue Valley North ) and junior Catherine Hawn (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) return to anchor the midfield and will once again be the playmakers trying to get the ball up top and create more scoring chances.

Offensively, the main objective is trying to increase the scoring output from year ago. S&T scored only nine goals but returns four of its six players that scored including leading scorer Sarah Hostler (St. Louis, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) who finished with four goals. Hawn added a goal and two assists, Fitzpatrick added a goal and an assist while Leah Camery (Anchorage, Alaska/Steller Secondary School) added a goal as well. Returning to that mix also is Suzy DeWael (McCordsville, Ind./Mt. Vernon High School) who missed last year because of injury. As a freshman in 2012 she scored a pair of goals.

"While we like to see multiple players in the scoring column," he said. We're still searching for that player that's willing to step up and set themselves apart in the scoring column and not afraid to be more goal hungry around the goal. I think we've got a lot of people that are capable of doing that and we've got to tailor our attack around those player's strengths and give them the opportunities for those chances and see what they come up with.

S&T will open its season facing a pair of teams from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association before beginning conference play at Wisconsin-Parkside on Sept. 12. McCauley says these games will be very meaningful in finding the right combination of players, trying to get players ingrained to what we're doing and to set the tone for what the rest of the season will be like.

The Lady Miners kick-off their 2014 season this Saturday at 2 p.m. against Missouri Southern in Springfield, Mo., at Drury University. The home opener for S&T takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 9 against Lindenwood University at 7 pm.