Written By: Kristin Whitman

Your attention please, your attention please I would like to introduce you to first year coach Rebecca Nolin and her playoff-bound soccer team.

VSU will be headed to the Gulf South Conference Tournament starting with a game of revenge against the West Florida Argonauts on Friday, Nov. 7.

After a rocky start to the season, the Blazers soon came together to finish out the regular season with a conference record of 9-2-1.

Nolin gives all of the credit to the team. “This whole season has been because of those girls,” Nolin said. “They continue to surprise me and have a motivation to win that just comes natural.”

The team says however, that the coach has a lot to do with their success and keeping them fresh.

“I could not have asked for a better coach my senior year,” Olivia Mills, senior goal keeper, said. “Her positive and outgoing personality brought a lot to the team this year. I learned so much from her so quickly.”

Since the beginning of the season, Nolin’s goal has been to make it into GSC tournament play.

“Ideally we are looking for a conference win, going to the national tournament and going as far as we can go for each and every one of these players on our team,” Nolin said.

Now that the team has made it, she hopes to continue to push the team all the way for the first conference championship in school history.

After the Blazers clawed their way past West Alabama 2-1 Sunday afternoon to clinch a tournament berth, they were able to sit back and wait alongside top-seeded North Alabama as the two teams waited to see how the rest of the GSC played out.

Nolin was relieved to see her team not have to have the stress of making it to postseason.

“I could not have had a better first year as head coach,” Nolin said. “This team really made it worth every stressful moment and it is only good stress when you get results like we have.”

The next stop for the Blazers will be in Pensacola, Florida as they take on UWF on Friday at 1:30 p.m. hoping to come back strong with a win after falling to the Argonauts 1-2 only a week ago.

“The last game with West Florida was a battle, a real physical challenge and we are going to up our performance this time around,” Nolin said. “We all really want this championship.”