The Bobcats have a Canadian-sized void on their roster.
Defender Rachael Goulding is in Chile playing for the U20 Canadian National Team, and will be redshirting this year. That leaves a major vacancy on defense, but coach Stacy Strauss is confident that she has athletes able to fill it.
I think that there's a number of people who can do it
Strauss said. We certainly have some freshman who play in the back and who played in the back for us against Minnesota.
Two of the freshmen that may be called on are Rachael Philpot and Remi Famodu. Philpot started against both Minnesota and Northeastern, while Famodu started against Northeastern.
Both said that whomever gets the start today will not only benefit from a week of practice, but also from being at home G said Strauss.- especially for our freshmen. And for them to be able to sleep in their bed always helps.
Famodu and Philpot also have the advantage of being able to compete against and with each other each day in practice, which allows them to work on their 1-on-1 defending, among other things Famodu said.
I think we work well together and I think we will both challenge each other to get better
said Famodu, a native of Bloomington, Minn.
The two defenders that either Philpot or Famodu will join are sophomore Sarah Brown and junior Elyse Merchant, the only two defenders on the current roster that aren't freshman. Brown missed some practice time this week, but Strauss said she expects her to play.
Merchant, the anchor of the defense, is confident that Goulding's replacement will fit in fine.
Both players
Remi and Pots
were very receptive to my instructions and I think that during this week with practice we'll get used to each other
Merchant said.
Philpot said that whichever player earns the spot will have to work hard to keep the starting spot because there are many talented defenders on the team.
But right now, the bottom line is somebody has to play, and they are going to have to play well
One of us has to live up to Rachael's role because she's a great player
Famodu said.
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