Scott French
Posted: Saturday, July 14, 2012 2:08 pm

Women's Soccer News: The WPSL Northeast Atlantic Conferenece – A Playoff Primer

The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) playoffs kick off this weekend with openers in the first of four regional tournaments to choose the combatants for the July 28-29 final four, and there are a couple of upstarts in the six-team Northeast Atlantic field looking to knock off established powers.

The big names are Aztec MA, New York Athletic Club and New England Mutiny Reserves, but rising FC Bucks and first-year clubs Maryland Capitols FC and Syracuse Lady Knights aren't backing off.

The tournament begins Sunday with the first-round games – Syracuse at Maryland and FC Bucks at New England Mutiny Reserves – and the top two seeds, Aztec MA and NYAC, are home for Wednesday's semifinals. The July 21 final, on the highest remaining seed's home field, will determine one of the final four berths for the WPSL, a coast-to-coast league with more than 70 teams.

The Maryland-Syracuse game was pushed back a day because of facility availability issues.

Aztec is the favorite, and not just because it's the top seed. They fit into a deep tradition – Aztec Soccer has produced top teams for several years, one of them winning the WPSL trophy two years ago.

They come in with a nine-game unbeaten streak and a possession-oriented game that creates loads of chances. They've averaged nearly five goals per game in their past five matches and have scored at least three in eight of 10 regular-season games.

“I think we're playing great soccer,” Aztec head coach Dushawne (Doc) Simpson said. “We have to stick to who we are and what we do. It's worked well, it's gotten us this far – we're not going to change. We believe in what we're doing, we play the game the way we think it should be played. We ask you to try to stop us.”

NYAC and the New England Mutiny's first team, now in the WPSL Elite, were playoff teams last year, and FC Bucks, from Pennsylvania, came close. Maryland Capitols and Syracuse Lady Knights are new teams in the league.

Syracuse is short-handed, its defensive depth whittled by injury, illness and family issues. “Offensively we'll have all the weapons we have; defense may be our issue,” GM Greg Firenze said. FC Bucks also is unlikely to have its first-choice group Sunday.

The Capitols and Mutiny Reserves hope to start a deep run with home victories.

“You get to the playoffs and sort of take it from there,” said David Jones, Maryland's founder, CEO and head coach. “We've done OK, and we'll take on whoever. Now that we're here in the playoffs, we actually feel we can go all the way.”

New England coach Jill Serafino shares that belief.

“The way things are going with team chemistry off the field, the girls are building a lot of confidence,” she said. “They're all looking forward to making it to the final four. They're not arrogant, not expecting anything, but they really get along, and because they get along, they feel they're going to go the distance.”

Here's a quick look at all six Northeast Atlantic playoff teams:

1. AZTEC MA (Beverly, Mass.)

Record: 8-1-1, 25 points

Head coach: Dushawne (Doc) Simpson

Key players: F Jill Kinter (Colgate), G Erin Quinlan (Hartford), D Jenna Roncarati (Providence), F Maddy Evans (Penn State), F Greta Samuelsdottir (Northeastern)

Rundown: The latest powerhouse out of Aztec Soccer continues the tradition of excellence: Aztec clubs have been No. 1 in the East the past three years, sending five teams to the playoffs in that time, winning one WPSL championship (Boston Aztec, in 2010), and reaching the semifinals last year with the Breakers Reserves, who have since split away. Simpson's Northeast Atlantic-North champions are an offensive juggernaut: They've scored 39 goals in 10 games – fourth-best rate in the league – and netted 5, 3, 4, 4 and 8 in the five-game winning streak they bring into the playoffs. Kintner and Evans are the top scorers, and both attack from the flanks, with the Icelandic Samuelsdottir at target forward. And only four goals have been conceded since the 4-3 loss to New England Mutiny Reserves in their June 3 opener, with much credit to All-American goalkeeper Quinlan and Roncarati, whom Simpson says is “special, one of the best center backs in the country.”

2. NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB (New York)

Record: 7-1-2, 23 points

Head coach: Kim Wyant

Key players: F Laura Weinberg (Duke), M Kristin Stannard (Stanford), G Tatiana Saunders (Dartmouth), M Allison McCann (Stanford), M Alicia Jenkins (Stanford), D Libby Jandl (Duke)

Rundown: NYAC comes into the playoffs on a roll, with five straight wins and an eight-game unbeaten streak – two of the victories over Syracuse to claim the Northeast Atlantic-Mid title. Wyant, the first goalkeeper in U.S. women's national team history, took charge in March, and she's assembled a tremendous collection of college talent, with several players from NCAA champion Stanford and runner-up Duke. Weinberg is the top scorer, and Princeton's Liana Cornacchio and Jen Hoy also have been key contributors. The club finished second in the Mid-Atlantic Division last year and lost in its playoff opener to Boston Aztec, which reached the national semifinals.

3. MARYLAND CAPITOLS FC (Landover, Md.)

Record: 7-1-2, 23 points

Head coach: David Jones

Key players: F Ali Andrzejewski (Maryland/Loyola, Md.), M Kara Frederick (Virginia), D/M Emily Janss (Maryland), F/M Kaley Blades (LSU), D Anibel Jimenez (ex-Bay Area Breeze), F Diana Barrera (Albany)

Rundown: Jones, an English former pro, used to run a WPSL club in Philadelphia that evolved into the WPS's Philadelphia Independence. Now a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he returned to the league this season after a half-dozen years away with the Capitols, who captured the North Atlantic-South title by six points. There's a couple of real big names: Andrzejewski, a tall, skilled forward, and Jimenez are Washington Freedom alumni. So is Janss, who before that played for the New York Power in the Women's United Soccer Association. She'll make her season debut Sunday. Frederick adds attacking dimensions, and Blades has starred on all three lines and “can easily in a heartbeat step up to the next level, no doubt in my mind,” Jones says. They give up goals, at least two in three of the last four games, but can score in bunches, netting five or more three times.

4. NEW ENGLAND MUTINY RESERVES (Indian Orchard, Mass.)

Record: 6-2-2, 20 points

Head coach: Jill Serafino

Key players: G Steph Gordon (Massachusetts), M Amanda Hamilton (Syracuse), F Rachel Ugolik (Hamden, Conn., HS), D Alessia Viscomi (Wheaton, Mass.)

Rundown: As the name says, this is the reserve side for the WPSL Elite team, and it's in championship form as the postseason kicks off. The Mutiny have posted four straight shutouts and five in their last six games and have conceded just three goals in eight games against clubs other than top seed Aztec. Gordon and veteran newcomer Viscomi, from 2011 semifinals Boston Aztec Breakers Reserves – Serafino calls her “our voice in the back, 100 percent our team leader, with a ton of personality” – are critical to the defensive success; the balanced attack is led by a high-schooler, the highly regarded Ugolik. They're the only team to beat Aztec this year, but that was paid back with a 5-0 disaster. Since then New England is 5-0-1, a product of uncommon chemistry.

5. FC BUCKS (Richboro, Pa.)

Record: 4-1-5, 17 points

Head coach: Ed Leigh

Key players: F Colleen Williams (Dayton), F Renee Washington (La Salle), M Kaitlyn Kerr (Duke), D Taylor Houck (Villanova), Julianne Oberholzer (Hartford)

Rundown: FC Bucks, affiliated with the Pennsylvania youth club powerhouse, just missed the WPSL playoffs in its first year in the league, but it pipped Penn Legacy Inferno at the finish this summer for the second spot in the North Atlantic-South. The team is loaded with returning Bucks talent – with five players from the U-18 team that won a national title three years ago. That group includes two-time college All-American Colleen Williams, a striker from Dayton who leads the WPSL side in goals and assists. Two more All-Americans are on the roster – La Salle forward Renee Washington and Duke midfielder Kaitlyn Kerr – and there's plenty of depth, but missing players will make the assignment tough against New England.

6. SYRACUSE LADY KNIGHTS (Baldwinsville, N.Y.)

Record: 5-3-2, 17 points

Head coach: Tommy Tanner

Key players: M Jill Arnault (Colgate), D Nicole Close (Monmouth), G Ashley Walsh (Colgate), G Steph Senn (Penn State)

Rundown: The Lady Knights, a partnership between Empire United Soccer Association and the Syracuse Silver Knights pro indoor team, were in charge of the North Atlantic-Mid until July arrived and a series of injuries played havoc with their form. They've lost three in a row after a 5-0-2 start, two of them by huge margins – 4-0 at NYAC and 8-2 at FC Bucks – and then a 2-1 decision to NYAC. Illness and a family issue will deprive them of three more defenders for the playoff opener, and the aim could be to outscore Maryland. There is a lot of attacking ability – Arnault, a postgraduate student, has been critical in central midfield and leads the team with five goals – and good depth from the Empire United programs.

Related Articles: WPSL on SoccerNation