1999 Jennies Soccer Preview

For the U.S. Women’s World Cup Champions, it was a trip to Disneyland. Coach Al Iantorno’s 1999 Jennies would be happy with a trip to the NCAA Division II tournament.

With steady improvement shown in each of the program’s first four years, Iantorno feels the NCAA tournament goal definitely is a realistic one in year five for his still young, but veteran squad. The Jennies were 10-4-2 last season and climbed as high as eighth in the Central region rankings.

Only one senior is among the 10 players who started at least nine matches a year ago and who return for the 1999 season. Sophomore goalkeeper Carrie Payne tops the list of returnees. Playing every minute of the Jennies’ 16 matches, Payne recorded 11 shutouts (one was a scoreless tie) and allowed just nine goals, while producing a minuscule goals against average of 0.55 that ranked as fourth best in Division II. Four of the nine goals she allowed came in a 4-1 loss at Division I University of Kansas. She did not allow a goal in any of the Jennies’ 10 wins.

Offensively, the Jennies return last year’s leading scorers, Amy Krumm and Jessica Rausch, as well as career scoring leader Molly McCain. Krumm, a junior, and Rausch, a sophomore, each scored eight goals last season. After a school-record 16 goals as a freshman in 1997, McCain saw defenders double-team her last year and her goal scoring output slipped to five, but she’s still the Jennies’ career leader in goals with 21.

Midfielder Lorri Cange, who is the team’s only senior, junior Sabrina Sanders and sophomores Megan Heideman and Jancy Comer all were regulars in the Jennies’ lineup for much of last season, as were defenders Kristen Janky, a junior, and Shaunita Sharpe, a sophomore.

Iantorno has tremendous confidence in his talented group of newcomers -- so much so, in fact, that he thinks several of last year’s regulars may be hard pressed to keep their starting jobs. Joining the Jennies from the soccer-rich St. Louis, Mo., area are defender Melissa Layton from Fort Zumwalt South and midfielder Jessica Goedecker from state champion Incarnate Word Academy. Two other defenders expected to see plenty of playing time are Megan VanderTuin from Ft. Collins, Colo., and Beth Monnig from Blue Springs, Mo. All four are freshmen. Jennifer Childers, a sophomore, is a transfer from University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, where she scored 24 goals and had six assists for that school’s 13-7-0 first-year program.

In addition to their goal of making the NCAA tournament, the Jennies have another incentive this season – the first-ever Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association women’s soccer championship. The MIAA will sponsor a women’s soccer championship for the first time in 1999, as six of the league’s 10 schools will field teams. The already-established programs at CMSU, Truman State University, Southwest Baptist University and the University of Missouri-Rolla will be joined by Missouri Southern State College and Northwest Missouri State University, which have elevated their programs from club status to varsity level for 1999.