Every team wants to have some kind of distinguishing characteristic that separates it from all of its opponents.

Some teams try to be tough and physical. Others focus on being crafty and efficient. After losing a strong group of seven seniors last season, the women’s soccer team is striving to create a new identity.

“Teams have personalities,” Head Coach Mindy Quigg said. “It’s not always what you’re good at, but what units are working best together. It takes time to develop.”

Most of the time, those characteristics don’t come very easily. Teams can go through weeks of preseason practices or even the entire season without finding out what makes them unique. The latter of these situations usually results in a disappointing year.

The best teams, though, look for a way to find themselves as the season goes on. Senior Chelsey Feldman said this season, the Bombers are still working on discovering their distinctiveness, but they are getting close.

“I don’t think we have one yet,” she said. “We have plenty of things to work on and plenty of things we can just further improve.”  

She said improving mentally and getting closer as a team will result from playing together in actual games.

In its second game of the season, the South Hill squad defeated Eastern University 3–2, and the Bombers showed that it is the nature of competition that builds the characteristics of a team.

After tying rival SUNY-Cortland in the season opener, the entire Bombers team traveled to Ewing, N.J., to take part in the Adidas Classic at The College of New Jersey.

Once they got there, Tropical Storm Hanna wrecked any chance of playing the two games they had scheduled that weekend.

After taking the field on Sunday, the Blue and Gold then overcame two leads by Eastern to earn the win.

The way the team was able to rally around each other after the storm passed to earn the victory caught Quigg’s eye.

“We showed a lot of maturity against Eastern,” she said.  To come from behind shows some personality.”

That win gave the team something to build on, showing its opponents and itself that these players have the heart and courage to keep going in the face of adversity.

Senior defender Lauren Koppel said the team will try to hang on to those kinds of characteristics as it goes through the season.    

“Each game we play, we come closer to establishing our identity,” she said.

All successful teams don’t have the same personality, though, as many different kinds of teams can win championships.

Quigg said she is looking for her team to play with a confidence and consistency that will create a fear of failure within every opposing athlete on the field.

At last weekend’s Heron Cup Tournament at William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y., the South Hill squad showed it is getting closer to having the offensive instincts it desires.  

After losing its first game of the season at the tournament against host William Smith 2–0, the college roared out of the gate against the College of Mount St. Vincent, scoring seven first-half goals on the way to a 9–0 victory. Feldman led the offensive explosion, scoring a hat trick in the game’s first seven minutes, quickly putting the game out of reach.

The Bombers are still searching for their personality, but as a senior, Feldman said she knows what it takes in order to have a successful season.

“We want teams to know that whenever and wherever we play, we are going to show up ready to play hard and win,” she said. “No matter what our identity is, we will still be ‘The Ithaca women’s soccer team.’”