Women's Soccer | August 30, 2017

SEASIDE, Calif. — Cal State Monterey Bay's Laura Van Wart believes in the "right place right time" mantra when describing her first year as the Otters' women's soccer head coach.
"I think I'm lucky to come in at to the school at this point in time. The program is gearing up for the next competitive phase of its life. It's good to be a part of it."

A former player at Cal and seasoned coach with stops all over the Bay Area, Van Wart had no trouble motivating her charges to work with her in building a new culture in Seaside.
"They are very competitive and bought in to what I'm trying to do as a program. It's a joy, honestly," Van Wart said.

Coming off a 6-11–0 campaign last year, Van Wart said her team had a great spring putting in the building blocks of what she thinks will be key to a breakout season.

"We spent a lot of time building our culture and chemistry.  We also got a spring to develop our style—our brand—of soccer," she said. "Hopefully all we did in the spring will be apparent in the fall."

The Otters return 2016's leading scorer Ashley Cortez (Trabuco Hills HS). The senior banged in five goals last season and Van Wart is counting on more from her.

"Ashley is a very athletic center forward. She has great vision and playmaking abilities," Van Wart said. "My job was to bring in players around her so we can both highlight her abilities and so she doesn't have the bulk of the scoring."

Junior Madison Aguirre (Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde HS) is back looking to add to the one goal and two assists she tallied in 2016. Van Wart describes Aguirre as a player who is "a big attacking threat for us as a wide striker."

Three transfers come in to the Otters who are expected to contribute. Haydn Gabbert (Spokane,Wash./Lewis & Clark HS) comes from Sacramento State. Van Wart is looking forward to her anchoring the backline and having great partnership with returning senior Karlee Neer (West Torrance HS).

"Hayden is gritty tenacious defender who displayed her leadership from the first moment on the field," Van Wart said.

The other two transfers are redshirt sophomore Haley Nishamoto (Oakland/Bishop O'Dowd), who started as a freshman at Division I Middle Tennessee and Jenna Viss (Enochs HS/Waterford HS), a towering forward from Modesto who played one year at Sonoma State.

"Haley is a technical attacker with an incredibly high soccer IQ and impeccable service nose for goal," according to Van Wart. "Jenna is an athletic forward who covers a lot of ground, and has an attacking mentality which is a really great balance to rest of the team."

Another new recruit is freshman Dionisia "Dio" Ruiz (Oakland Technical HS), a midfielder Van Wart describes "capable of controlling the rhythm of games. A true playmaker."
Overall, Van Wart believes her team is ready for the challenge of the season.

"This team is looking forward to competing every day. They are excited for the program's new beginning."