Posted: Jun 16, 2015
Head coach Phil Benne finishes his 25th season at the helm of the program with a career win total of 298, ranking among the top-12 active coaches in the NCAA Division III. Benne entered this season as the 20th all-time winningest coach in Division III. In Benne's 26 years as women's soccer coach, he has coach the Maroons to 22 10-win seasons, an unprecedented accomplishment.
The Maroons got off to a hot start in 2014, winning the Lynchburg College Shellenberger Classic. Roanoke won its season opener in the tournament against Averett, trouncing the Cougars 7-0. The Maroons came off of that win to defeat Southern Virginia 2-1. With the two wins, the Maroons started their season off with a 2-0 record for the first time since 2011. The squad went on to win the first game of the Roanoke Invitational, beating Frankling & Marshall 1-0 in double overtime. Roanoke's first loss of the season came from #5 ranked Johns Hopkins University in the second game of the Roanoke Invitational.
After the initial loss, Roanoke bounced back to top Meredith College, before hitting a three-game losing streak spurred by a loss to regionally ranked Christopher Newport. The other two losses after CNU came in the start of ODAC play to Washington & Lee and Bridgewater. However, the Maroons got out of the slump and put another three-game win streak together, besting Emory & Henry, Randolph-Macon and Eastern Mennonite, by a combined score of 7-2. Roanoke took a tough 1-0 loss to Virginia Wesleyan, before falling to Lynchburg 2-0 on October 10th.
The Maroons made a stellar run to close out the ODAC regular season, finishing the last five games 4-0-1, winning by a combined total of 18-1. Roanoke started with a 5-0 victory over Sweet Briar, which was followed up by an 8-0 romp over Hollins, the largest Maroon win of the season. The Maroons went on to shut out both Randolph and Guilford, while tying Shenandoah 1-1. Roanoke's ODAC record of 7-4-1 gave the Maroons a #5 seed in the ODAC Tournament, which sent the squad back to Virginia Beach to play in the ODAC Quarterfinals against the Marlins. However, a pair of set pieces proved beneficial for Virginia Wesleyan, as the Maroons fell 2-0 in the ODAC tournament.
Marlana Barnard led the Maroons in scoring, netting nine goals during the season. Her goal tally ranked seventh in the ODAC. She was also fifth in the conference in game-winning goals (3) and sixth in total shots (63). She was followed by Ashley Barnes who tallied six goals in 2014. She also ranked fifth in the ODAC in game-winners, netting three of her own. Abbe Guarino and Taylor Sayegh led the Maroons in assists, dishing out four apiece. Barnes, Linnea Kremer and Meagan Ryan each finished the season with three assists. 13 different Maroons combined for 28 assists during the 2014 season, while 14 players combined for 39 goals.
Carolyn Sarbacher and Sarah Dvorak split time in the net this season, playing in 12 and 13 games, respectively. Sarbacher finished the season with 886 minutes of play, making 42 saves with a save percentage of .792. She ranks sixth all-time at Roanoke college in wins (21) and saves (167), as well as seventh in goals against average (0.97) and eighth in shutouts (8). Dvorak finished the season with nearly 700 minutes played in net, tallying 22 saves. She had a goals against average of 0.90 and a save percentage of .759.
