Oct. 4, 2000

Each week, GoBaylorBears.com features a different guest in "Ask the Bears." This week's guest was head soccer coach Nick Cowell.

As I have watched my older sister Alyson Miles play at Baylor, it seems as though the offense has lessened and the defence has increased. Why isn't our offense as strong?
Erin Miles, Austin, Texas

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. We have graduated two outstanding offensive players such as Courtney Saunders and Nikki Hales, these are two of the top offensive players in the nation. We feel that the recruits that have already comitted for next year will address this problem.

2. We have a number of people who cannot play right now: Barbara Torres, Janae Potter, Katie Peterson, Dani Gurney (recently injured) and Rachel Kacsmaryk (recently injured).

3. Molly Cameron, who is an excellent player, has been beset by one injury after another.

4. Megan Townes decided not to play this year.

It seems like Baylor is playing a lot of freshman this year. How do you balance trying to win this year with trying to build a program for next season?
Joel Evans, Houston, Texas

We are not balancing trying to build a program for next year, we are solely concentrating on trying to win this year. Our injury/eligibility situation has necessitated our playing freshmen before we anticipated. If a by-product is making us better for next year, then great, but that has not been the goal of playing the freshmen.

With Molly [Cameron] and Dawn [Greathouse] graduating this year, what will next year's team look like? Who will lead the offense, and who will we see in goal?
Christy Nelson, Dallas, Texas

Well, offensively, we will have the aforementioned players (Peterson, Torres, and Potter) back for next year. In addition, we have commitments from two VERY fast forwards from the DFW area and an offensive-minded midfielder from Arizona.

In goal, we will have competition among our current players, Emily Koch (transfer from UCLA), Kedryn Baskin, Jill Dreyer, as well as a big-time freshman keeper who is considered one of the Top 8 goalies in the nation.

Coach, I've been to several games this year and really enjoyed them. I was curious who is your team MVP this year? Who has improved the most? Which freshman has been the top newcomer?
Judy Brown, Waco, Texas

I think it is a little too early to be selecting MVPs with 6 regular season games still to go. However, we have been really happy with the way that Melissa Humke has played in the back. She is only a freshman, but has shown tenacity and a will not to get beaten. Cameron has scored some critical goals. [Cookie] Day has started to get some more playing time. [Candace] Reilly has been pretty consistent. [Gina] Castellano has also been a dominant force.