In 2008, the Marquette women’s club soccer team fell one game short of reaching Nationals after an 11-1 regular season, assistant coach Mo McGreal said.

The 2008 team won the Great Lakes Division regular season title but lost 1-0 to No. 1 Michigan State in the Women’s Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference Regional Tournament.

“The ideal goal for this year is to make it to Nationals,” McGreal, a member of the 2008 team, said.

The 2009 team will need to fill the void left by five graduating seniors, including forward Susan Angel and center-midfielder Brittany Obert.

“We will miss Brittany’s leadership,” senior captain Lizzie Traudt said. “She always made sure other players knew where they should be and who they should be guarding.

“Susan had great field vision, which opened up scoring opportunities for other players as well as herself.”

McGreal said the team should have good leadership on defense, with three of four defensemen returning this year.

“The defense is going to set the example for how we need to play,” McGreal said. “I have a lot of faith in them.”

Traudt said Mike Plager, a former Marquette soccer player and a current senior, will be the team’s new coach because last year’s coach, Pat Valletta, graduated from Marquette in the spring.

“Mike’s coming to us with a lot of knowledge of the game,” Traudt said. “He’ll work us hard, but we’ll have fun too.”

McGreal said tryouts for the team were held Tuesday and Wednesday nights, which gives the team little time to mesh before this Saturday’s game at Western Michigan.

“Every time you have young players, you’re afraid of how they’re going to click,” McGreal said. “It has to happen quickly because we’re jumping right in on Saturday.

“We need to rebuild that team chemistry and family feel from last year,” she said. “We need to play for each other.”