By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. – It took C.S. Lewis 10 years to finish "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" – the first of what would turn out to be seven celebrated children's books in The Chronicles of Narnia series. But beyond being a noted novelist, Lewis was also an academic and theologian.
 
"Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth," he once wrote in an essay.
 
Though the sentiment probably had little, if anything, to do with sport when it was penned, the Cornell women's soccer program is putting that thought to work in short order. The goal is growth, and the change has largely been put in place program-wide over the last 18 months since Rob Ferguson's promotion to head coach. Now the Big Red is hoping for growth through continuity that starts with a group of upperclasswomen that contributed significant minutes from pre-pandemic days.
 
Part of the Ferguson-led audit of the program following his ascension to the helm in February 2020 was trying to pinpoint exactly how the women's soccer team saw itself.
 
"In speaking to current players, former players and players who have been alumnae for a few years now, this team lacks an identity," Ferguson said. "That's tough, right? As a soccer player, who your team is, what your team does and why you're doing it that way helps you a lot. So now, on the field, we have an identity and we know what it is tactically."
 
Within the goal of achieving over-arching continuity is a new approach on the individual level. It was not uncommon over the last several seasons to see the same player compete in multiple roles within a handful of games – sometimes even spanning from the back line, through the midfield and all the way to the forward positions. It was a matter of identifying a team need and then addressing which player had the greatest probability of fulfilling it – certainly not a rare approach. But, Ferguson deems, it comes at a price.
 
"When you're trying to build something bigger picture, you have to commit to moving away from that. That will never succeed," Ferguson said. "I think now you'll see a team who knows what we want to do and how we want to do it, and we'll have very defined plans, and players will execute it. … Positionally, all 30 of them know what their primary position is. If they have a secondary position, they know what it is. And they don't have a third position."
 
Here is a look at all of the different facets of the 2021 Cornell women's soccer team:

Goalkeepers

All three of the Big Red's goalkeepers may contribute in short order. The most experienced in game action is junior Nicole Shulman, who emerged as the team's primary option as a freshman in 2019 despite missing five games while competing with Israel's national team at the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship. She made six starts for the Big Red and finished as the runner-up for the team's Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year postseason awards.
 
But with injuries limiting Shulman's training since the team's last game action, there is a possible window of opportunity for senior tri-captain Miranda Iannone and freshman Erica Fox. Iannone has made two starts among four appearances in her collegiate career, including a shared shutout of St. Bonaventure in 2019.

Defenders

The back line is likely to look different both in formation and personnel. Versatile fifth-year tri-captain Maddie Hoitink was mainly deployed as a holding midfielder in 2018 and 2019, but she also figures to see time in a central defender's role that she carried when she led all freshmen with 813 minutes in 2017.
 
A handful of the junior class figure into the equation, led by Sydney Waiters. She appeared in all but one of the team's games in 2019, including nine starts, to be one of the squad's oft-used newcomers of the year. Classmates Annika DeStefano, Kendall Patten and Isabella DeLew join her after primarily serving as reserves in their collegiate debuts.
 
Freshman Sydney Malaga is an additional option in the back, while a more experienced one is senior Mofoluke Obiri. The team-voted Most Improved Player in both 2018 and 2019 has developed a reputation as being one of the team's best shutdown defenders.
 
The two newcomers to collegiate competition that figure to see the most time in a defensive role are freshman Alex Brotherton and sophomore Mia Gonzalez. Brotherton is an Ithaca native, having grown up just down state Route 13 in Dryden. Beyond that, her familiarity with Ferguson bridges to their overlapping days on the club level with the WNY Flash. Like Brotherton, Gonzalez has impressed in the early going.
 
"She's a rising sophomore, so she hasn't played a game – but she has all the attributes to be a standout central defender in the Ivy League," Ferguson said. "That's a bold statement at this stage of the season when we haven't played a game, but she does. Now we've got to see if she can take it and do it."

Wingers

In describing the Big Red's new tactical approach, Ferguson noted about three different traditional formations for which it could be mistaken. It can't truly be shoehorned into any of them, but at any time could resemble them.
 
In whatever way it can ultimately be classified, the base formation will rely on a strong presence along the touch lines afforded by a pair of veteran players – fifth-year Naomi Jaffe, who has been a captain since 2019, and senior Victoria Bubrick. Sophomore Jackie Lasseter and freshman Lily Ellingson are two of the newer faces that can also expect to see roles in similar spots.
 
"Then you have (junior) Sara DeGraw, who can go on either side and will do a really good job for us whatever we ask her to do," Ferguson said. "She showed us that in 2019."
 

Midfielders

Perhaps the Big Red's deepest position on the field is square in the middle, where the team will have no shortage of options on either the defensive or offensive side of the ball.
 
From an attacking sense, the group features junior Ashley Durik – who won the team's Offensive Player of the Year award and garnered All-Ivy League honorable mention in 2019 – and senior Evanthia Spyredes – who led the team in scoring with six points on two goals and two assists that year. Sophomores Sophie Weeter and Reagan Pauwels also figure to be part of the mix in their first game action since arriving in 2020.
 
Another key factor figures to be senior Aidan Julia Reineman, who saw only three appearances as a reserve in 2019 due to injury. But as a freshman, Reineman wasted little time in establishing herself as one of the most dangerous attacking players on the field, including a goal in just her third collegiate game.
 
"She can be a superstar, there's no doubt about it," Ferguson said.
 
Senior Jadyn Matthews returns to anchor a holding midfielder's role that she has excelled at over her first two years on East Hill, which included a stint with the Jamaica Women's National Team in its successful run through qualifying for the 2019 Women's World Cup. Junior Emily St. John gives the Big Red two returning starters in the position, while Hoitink and Patten can also shift forward from central defense and fill similar spots.
 
"Then we've also got two freshmen in Reinna Gabriel and Cecily Pokigo, who played at very high youth levels," Ferguson said.

Forwards

Pretty much every aforementioned attacking midfielder that has collegiate experience played as a forward in 2019, and those that remain in the mix up top will be joined by a group of newcomers that have shown promise to be part of the starting mix right away.
 
"We didn't have true forwards," Ferguson said. "When (Spyredes) and (Durik) were there, it was out of necessity based on our roster. We're certainly in a better place with a) the make-up of the roster positionally, and b) the depth of the players on the roster as well. There's no doubt about that."
 
A lot of the team's selections at forward will be made with consideration to complement the midfield group with it. Sophomore Ava Laden has proven to be more of a traditional fit to compete at forward, and three freshmen also join that group – Caroline Kirby, Maddie Leroy and Peyton Nichols.
 
Cornell's season starts at 5 p.m. Friday with a non-league game against Canisius at Berman Field.
 
Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is entering his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.