Kari Gibb/MDN MSU women’s soccer head coach TJ Perez explains systems drills to the team during practice on Wednesday, Aug. 21, in preparation for the season.

“I love this time of year!” said TJ Perez, head coach of the MSU women’s soccer team. “It’s great to get back to work and see the players coming into town to start training and getting ready for the game!”

Minot State University (MSU) has 18 players returning from last season, ten of whom are seniors. MSU has also added ten new players to the roster for 2024.

“We had a lot of new players in 2023,” said Perez. “We didn’t start to sync up until later in the year. In the last five games we started to see what we have, and in the last few games we have had more shots on goal than the opponents.”

Getting more shots on goal than the opposition will be part of the goal package for this season. The 2023 team (6-8-4, 3-7-4) scored 16 goals on 206 shots on goal. They averaged 11.4 shots on goal per game. They scored 0.89 goals per game on the season.

The goal is to have at least 15 shots on goal per game.“, said Perez. “Some teams will limit that because of their solid defense, while others will have us getting 30 shots in those games.”

Having so many student-athletes return to MSU allows the team and coaching staff to pick up where they left off last season and make progress this season.

“We are already seeing the difference as the players are now in the ‘groove’, as opposed to what took so long last year,” said Perez. “We can now be very specific and detail-oriented in drills, training and film sessions to help them (the players) recognize the right moment, the window of opportunity to take the shot instead of hesitating.”

The training exercises are based on statistical analysis. Taking shots but not completing them is not helpful. Sensible shots at the right moment increase the chance that the shot will end up in the net.

“We would like to achieve 50 percent of the shots going into the net,” said Perez. “It is a goal, but the goal must be ambitious and then the practices must be worked out in detail to achieve that goal within our capabilities.”

MSU hosts the University of Regina on Friday, August 23 at 5 p.m. and Concordia College of Minnesota on Saturday, August 24 at 3 p.m. in non-schedule exhibition matches. After those two games, the team has an exhibition match against the Magic City Legends on Wednesday, August 28 at 7:30 p.m. before traveling to Nampa, Idaho for the non-conference season opener at Northwest Nazarene University on Thursday, September 5.

By the end of the week, the coaching staff will have a much better idea of ​​how things are shaping up heading into the start of the 2024 season.