The UNK soccer team is undefeated through four games for the first time in program history. Outscoring their opponents 8-1, the team has won three out of their first four games on their way to the best start in program history.
Senior Dolcie Hanlon is one of the three longest-tenured Lopers, dating back to the 2021 season, the last season before Rob Breton took the program’s reins as the coach.
“It really is such a good feeling just to look back to my freshman year and, you know to go through that coaching change,” Hanlon said. “I was like should I transfer, like is this the program for me? I just had so many doubts and then to just to like stick with the program and to get the results just feels amazing and such a great accomplishment.”
Hanlon is also the only player to play all 360 minutes from the first two weekends, leading the back line.
“We truly are starting to believe in ourselves which for the longest time I think that was really setting us apart,” Hanlon said. “We had a good group of girls, but we were just missing like the one piece. I think it really was just like belief in ourselves that we could really get these results and now we truly believe, and we have that final piece.”
The offense has been a big story for Breton’s squad, scoring eight goals in the team’s first four games after scoring 13 all last season, their most in a season since 2018.
“We have players that are hungry, and that was part of the recruiting process, part of the belief of what we are doing now is we want players who want the ball and who want to go forward,” Breton said.
Freshmen have made an impact for the Lopers so far this fall with goals from Camrynn Nitta and Daniella Iaquinta and valuable minutes by Billie Forrest, Chloe Edmunds and Serene Hamzeh.
“That is so exciting, just to see freshmen come in and truly make an impact, you know because it is hard,” Hanlon said. “My freshman year too, I felt like I deserved to have that spot, but you do, you get scared.”
The Lopers will be back home next weekend with another tournament before getting into conference play.
“Now that we are getting the results, it’s building that momentum in the right direction so that way we can go into conference with confidence, with a little bit of cockiness to us, but also we have to learn how to remain humble and understand that this is only the start,” Breton said.
This weekend, the Lopers will play Western Colorado on Friday and Black Hills State on Sunday. Both games will kick off at 2 p.m. with coverage on the MIAA Network and KLPR.
