CCU women’s soccer ready for postseason push

The Coastal Carolina women’s soccer team was in contention down the stretch for the Big South regular-season championship before ultimately finishing second in the standings.

But the real prize for the Chanticleers still remains.

The Coastal Carolina women have never made an NCAA tournament appearance and have that goal in mind as they open the Big South tournament Sunday with a home quarterfinal matchup against Charleston Southern.

“I think for our kids, the focus has still been the conference tournament because that gets you to the NCAA tournament,” Chants coach Paul Hogan said. “We felt after last year we had a taste of it [before] a tough loss to High Point [in the semifinals], so our kids are really excited for this part now. I think we’ll have their attention, I think we’ll have their best efforts going forward.”

The Chants have been a program on the rise under Hogan, who was named the Big South Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

Since a 2-15-2 finish his first season in 2011, the Chants have won 10, 10 and 11 games the last three years and now take an 11-6-1 mark into the conference tournament, where the winner will punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament.

“It would be huge for the program,” Hogan said. “We’ve never done it before. Being around all the other teams here who have done it, you want to get into that mix. But it would be huge, I think, for the senior class, for the kids coming in next year, the returners, I think it would be huge for our alumni. So that’s the goal.”

It’s not one he has to over emphasize to his team, though, he said.

“We don’t have to talk about it so much because they see it,” he said. “They go to the [NCAA] tournament games when the men are here. Everybody was excited for basketball season last year, so there’s always those things that our kids can look at. Just being around it all the time, in the weight room, just being on campus, being friends with those guys, they see it and want to get there.”

The Chants will look for a continued spark from their offensive duo of sophomore forward Daniella Famili and freshman forward Kayla Christian, who each finished the regular season with eight goals and three assists.

Famili was named first-team All-Big South while Christian was voted second-team and named the Big South Freshman of the Year.

Famili had a goal and an assist last Tuesday as the Chants beat this same Charleston Southern team 3-0.

“I thought that’s the best we’ve played a full 90 minutes in a couple weeks so I was really happy with how they came out,” Hogan said.

“... Dani’s been great. She’s probably our best soccer player. She’s not a crazy athlete, she’s just a really good soccer player. Really, really good with the ball and more often than not when the ball’s on her foot we’re going to be OK.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 7:25 PM with the headline "CCU women’s soccer ready for postseason push."