Newman women’s soccer heads into Heartland play with high hopes

Newman women’s soccer coach Victor Garcia-Bebek understands mistakes will be made.

He’d just prefer they’re made before the Jets start Heartland Conference play.

“Let’s get (mistakes) out of the way now,” Garcia-Bebek said. “Let’s learn from them and move forward.”

Newman (4-3-1) comes out of its non-conference schedule in pretty good shape one year after the Jets’ first appearance in the Heartland Conference Tournament.

A win over MIAA foe Washburn showed Newman is making progress against higher-profile opponents. Overtime wins over Friends and Southwestern show Newman can close out games in close situations.

Monday’s 4-0 road loss to Southwest Baptist showed the Jets still have plenty of room to improve. Even with that, Newman is three wins away from last year’s season total after the Jets went 7-10.

“We messed up (on Monday),” Garcia-Bebek said. “But we are off to the best start we’ve had in a long time.”

Newman opens Heartland play with back-to-back home games against Texas A&M-International at 5 p.m. Saturday and against St. Mary’s at noon Monday.

The optimism around the program is centered around a pair of high-scoring forwards – seniors Mei-Mei Senthavy and Mari Ruvalcaba, a Garden City native and Butler Community College transfer.

Senthavy was a second-team All-Heartland pick last season after setting school single-season records with 11 goals and six assists. Ruvalcaba was third-team All-Heartland last year with five goals and four assists, including two game-winners.

“We’ve got that year under our belts of playing together, and it seems like much more than that,” Senthavy said. “Mari and I have a really good bond, on and off the field, and it translates to games.”

Ruvalcaba leads Newman with four goals and one assist and was named the Heartland offensive player of the week on Sept. 24 after scoring the game-winning goal against Washburn. Senthavy is second on the team in points with two goals and one assist.

“Before conference play we can get all of our butterflies out of the way, all our little things that we’re worried about,” Ruvalcaba said. “As a senior, being our last year, it’s important to us that we go out on on a good note.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Newman women’s soccer heads into Heartland play with high hopes."