UAPB soccer prepares to make home debut

The Arkansas-Pine Bluff soccer season has been going on for over a month. The team has yet to play a home match, though.

That will change this weekend when the Golden Lions welcome Alabama AM at 3 p.m. Friday to Pumphrey Stadium. UAPB will then face Alabama State at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Lions enter the game off a solid weekend to start Southwestern Athletic Conference play. UAPB fell 2-0 to Prairie View AM before beating Texas Southern 1-0 to enter its home debut with a 2-6 record and 1-1 mark in the league.

The win over TSU, thanks in large part to Cierra Fenwick’s second goal of the season, came on the heels of three straight defeats — two of which saw UAPB’s opponent put eight goals in the back of the net.

“I think we’ve started to head back on the right track,” head coach Jamie Hutchison said on Wednesday. “The last two games are very encouraging. The ladies worked hard and kept their focus. It was very pleasing.”

Friday’s game not only serves as the first home game for Hutchison, who was hired earlier this year to turn around a program that had fallen on hard times after winning the SWAC championship in 2011 and 2009, but also for all but two of his players. Tierra Poyner and Kristen Moore are the only returnees from the 2014 squad, leaving Hutchison to fill a roster with basically just freshmen and junior college transfers.

The hodgepodge group seemed to be playing well together early in the season, suffering a pair of one-goal defeats to Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe before the rough patch started in the second half of an 8-1 loss to Oral Roberts. Although the team earned its first win the next time out against Lyon College, blowout losses to Little Rock and Mississippi Valley State (in a nonconference game) were on the horizon.

Hutchison said he couldn’t really explain what led to last weekend’s revival, but he’s also not questioning it.

“I’ve always had belief in this team, and I’ve always remained faithful,” he said. “We were trying to be patient because it was a new group; however, we said to them, ‘The honeymoon’s over. We’ve got to start performing now.’ …

“To be honest, I don’t really care exactly why or what it took, maybe, for us to put those performances together, as long as it keeps happening.”

They’ll look to keep it happening this weekend in front of the home fans for the first time this season. UAPB should enjoy a home-field advantage, but the team also might have to fight some extra nerves on Friday, too.

“We just said to the ladies (Wednesday) before practice, ‘It’s only home-field advantage, if we take care of it and take advantage of it,’” Hutchison said. “Of course, it’s always nice not to have to travel, so you don’t have those travel legs. Looking forward to playing in front of some of the community within the college and Pine Bluff area, but because we haven’t played at home, it’s almost going to be a new experience for us.”