Podcast: Providence’s Sam Lopes on his program’s strong start to the season

Providence women's head coach Sam Lopes joined 'The Goal.' (Providence Athletics)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is Providence women’s head coach Sam Lopes.

Lopes is in his 10th season at the helm for Providence. His program has finished with a winning record seven times and earned an at-large bid into the Division 1 NCAA Tournament in 2021. 

This season, Providence is off to an impressive 6-2-0 start and already has five shutouts to its credit. The Friars won their Big East opener last Thursday, 3-1 over Seton Hall.

Lopes, who played at Quinnipiac and has had various other coaching stints throughout New England, joined host Matt Langone to discuss the Providence program and the keys to the team’s success thus far in 2023. 

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion with Lopes:

On how he feels about the team through the first eight games:

Lopes: “We’re in a good place, in terms of how we want to play the game with and without the ball. Hopefully, that can continue going into conference play.”

On splitting playing time with two goalkeepers:

Lopes: “it’s interesting. It’s not something that’s ever been part of my philosophy. I think when you have someone who’s the No. 1, you continue to keep that goalkeeper as your No. 1. But we obviously have four goalkeepers on the roster. I think all four are capable of doing the job. We have two that have won those two spots, I guess, so to speak. We ended up bringing in Katherine (McElroy), who’s doing her grad year (after playing at Michigan), but actually has two years left. So, she’ll also be with us next year. So will Emma (Bodmer). They’re just both really talented and the conversation with both of them prior to making these decisions was that they would have to compete to share time. If it got to a point where we felt somebody was the clear No. 1, we would go in that direction.”

On why last year’s team finished just 4-9-5:

Lopes: “It was just an odd year. We would win games we had no business winning. We would lose games that we had no business losing. And then I think what ends up happening when you have such a compressed season, you can just find yourself in a hole. It did not help that we had some key injuries for a good portion of the start of the season.”

On setting goals for the season:

Lopes: “We don’t do captains. We don’t do goal-setting. … I think if you were to ask anybody, the expectations of where we are now in terms of the progression of the development of our program is we want to fight to win the Big East. We want to be in the conversation and have stability. So, we don’t do any kind of goal-setting in terms of putting stuff on paper. I think we’ve always been a program — anyone who has followed us closely knows — it’s fairly simple with us. The process is always about how can we be just a little bit better today, based on what yesterday taught us.”

he Goal” podcast is brought to you by the New England Revolution.

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