8/16/2023 other sports Edit

FSU soccer opens 2023 season with road trip to Texas

Jody Brown played for Jamaica in the Women's World Cup. (FSU sports information)

Ariya Massoudi • TheOsceola

Director of Creative Media

No. 6 Florida State soccer returns to the pitch for the start of the 2023 season Thursday at Texas A&M (8 p.m. ET on SEC Network). A year removed from reaching the College Cup for the 13th time in school history, the Seminoles return an experienced squad that mixes veterans and new faces.

Brian Pensky’s task in year two at the helm will be to mesh all the ingredients as FSU takes aim at realizing what are lofty expectations each and every year in Tallahassee. Here are some notes from meeting with the Pensky prior to his team’s flight to College Station:

— The team had a great exhibition last Friday at UCF that allowed them to work on several things against a competitive team. The Knights are ranked No. 24 to start the year and are debuting in the Big 12 this season. FSU won the match 4-3 and Pensky mentioned newcomers Leah Pais (Pitt) and Lily Farkas (Michigan) both scored for the Seminoles in the win. Neither Onyi Echegini (Nigeria) nor Jody Brown (Jamaica) were available for the match due to being with their national teams for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia. Leilanni Nesbeth was also kept out of the match, meaning many newcomers received extensive playing time.

"I didn't really appreciate how beneficial it was going to be until it happened," Pensky said. "And then even afterwards. We had a couple kids with some nicks, we wanted to protect them. We only had 14 field players, and seven of those were new players. Whereas we came in last year and everybody was a returner minus Echegini and one or two freshmen sprinkled in there. It was a veteran team. They all knew what to do. Preseason is short and you need games like that. We had a lot of video, a lot of individual video, a lot of team video. Massive for us. We would be in a totally different place if we didn't have that experience."

— Organization on set pieces is an area the team is still trying to fine tune. The Seminoles are in need of someone to take over for Jenna Nighswonger, who was spectacular on set-piece deliveries in 2022. Pensky noted Taylor Huff (Tennessee), Ran Iwai, and Maria Alagoa as possible takers and those who took most of the set pieces in the exhibition at UCF. The Knights scored on a corner kick, per Penksy, highlighting the need to improve before the season officially kicks off.

— The availability of Echegini and Brown will be monitored throughout the week as they both just returned to Tallahassee. Pensky wasn’t sure how many minutes each player could realistically give the Seminoles this week against the Aggies or on Sunday at No. 9 TCU. Chances are there’s a better shot they can contribute against the Horned Frogs, but it’s something to keep an eye on as they are two of the most important players on the team.

— The team has been focusing on defensive shape and pressing this week, especially in the midfield. Pensky touched on how they dealt with adapting a bit last year to the way FSU pressed under Mark Krikorian and how he’s tweaking a few things to better suit his style of play. He ultimately wants every player to be comfortable in their assignments and responsibilities, but the Seminoles want to be more up-tempo this season in their counter attacks.

— Pensky previewed the Aggies as an athletic group that will look to press and create pressure on the Seminoles. He said the keys to the game were to be in control of the tempo of the match, strong in one-on-one defending, keeping the ball, and finishing chances. The Aggies are receiving votes for the Top 25 and were picked to finish fifth in the SEC Preseason Poll. Pensky also noted that TAMU has a very good crowd and the environment is something the team feeds off of, mentioning FSU would have to handle that aspect of the game well.

— The Seminoles will stay on the road following the match and head to Fort Worth to take on the Horned Frogs on Sunday (8 PM ET, ESPN+). TCU is led by a former FSU assistant under Krikorian, Eric Bell.