Women’s soccer preseason Q&A: Audra Morgan

MILLIGAN, Tenn. (Sept. 14, 2020) – Milligan University women's soccer has wrapped up preseason and enters the 2020 fall campaign intending to maintain the momentum from last season's 10-5 (9-2 Appalachian Athletic Conference) record.

Sophomore Audra Morgan takes a moment to comment on the team's overcoming of challenges this season and playing every game like it is their last. Morgan scored six of the team's 49 goals last season, the second highest scorer on the roster. Beside Morgan, junior forward Ashlen Burch earned All-AAC first team last season, finished with eight assists, and falling just behind Morgan at five goals. Leading on the other end of the field, junior defender Isabella Cranford, named All-AAC second team last season, anchors the team on defense.

Below, Morgan highlights the challenges the Buffs are determined to overcome and the overall goals of this season.

Q: How has preseason been going?

Preseason has been a learning curve for everyone regarding COVID-19 and all the complications that come along with it. With that being said, we have still been improving every day as we should. I really admire that about our team, no matter the circumstances, we always come out with great energy and a will to improve.

Q: What are some of your individual goals this season?

Improvement. Improvement is always one of my goals during a season. Another one of my goals is to work on my fluidity and my focus during a game. Just like in class you can sometimes space out, this often happens to me for split moments on the field. I just hope to utterly improve throughout the season and to be completely switched on during the entirety of a game.

Q: How does this year's team compare to last year's team? In what ways are you better?

This year's team is very different in an amazing way. On the surface of course we have changed our formation which comes with its own challenges and learning curves. Through this change, we have learned to help each other and learned how to best help each other perform even when we are frustrated. This has created an even tighter bond that we have taken onto the field which has made our team even stronger and more fluid than ever before.

Q: How do you think the team will adjust to the shortened season and conference only schedule?

Many of us obviously know that at any point now our season could be over due to COVID-19. I think that has helped us to take every day as a blessing and made us have such a great attitude of work ethic and an utter thankfulness for a season at all. With that, I believe once we do start playing games, that same energy will follow into games because we never know when it all could be over.