Despite its last couple of preseason games, the women’s soccer team will try to improve its struggling midfield against Grossmont College tomorrow at Murdock Stadium at 4 p.m.

“We’re going to have to work really hard at practice and really hard at the games,” coach John Britton said. “We want to compete at the highest level.”

Of the past six preseason games, the Warriors have only won one game against the San Bernardino Valley College Wolverines. They also tied Moorpark.

“We’re struggling a little bit in the midfield and we are quite solid in the back. We’re making adjustments constantly to try and bolster it,” Britton said. “We’ve been struggling the last few games to score because our forwards have been hurt,” he said.

Along with its midfield, the team has also had some setbacks with all the injuries it has accumulated just during the preseason.

“We played decently in the preseason and I think that when it comes to the actual season, we’re going to pull together and the injuries won’t be a factor,” sophomore team captain Britani Bresee said.

In last Friday’s game, the Warriors were defeated 3-0 by the Chaffey College Panthers. It was the team’s second shutout of the preseason.

“We need to work on a little bit of team unity,” Bresee said. ” We really need to move as a unit.”

But the Warriors are not discouraged. They have a lot of new faces on the team.

Some of the star players this season include freshman Emily Rodin, a goalkeeper who also plays the position of halfback.

Another outstanding goalkeeper is returning sophomore and team captain Shawna Alyea, who has played 430 minutes this preseason and has had 41 saves.

“When Shawna is not goalkeeping, she is a very good forward who can score goals,” Britton said.

Another strong player who has contributed to this team is sophomore Alexis O’Neill, with four goals and an assist.

“She is currently the leading scorer of the team and is a very strong and aggressive player. She is creating scoring chances for us,” Britton said.

With a 2-1 loss to the Santa Monica College Corsairs Tuesday, the Warriors are looking for victory in their last two preseason games. Alyea scored the Warriors’ only goal off of Bresee’s assist.

“It was a disappointing loss, but every game we seem to be showing improvements; we really hustled the whole 90 minutes,” Britton said. ” The midfield played the best game they played out of the five games we’ve played this year.

“It was just unfortunate the last 12 minutes that Santa Monica’s first goal was a rather lucky one.”

With the regular season starting Sept. 30, the Warriors’ first couple of games will be pretty tough. They face two of the best soccer teams of last season: Mt. San Antonio and Long Beach City College. However, Britton is not too worried.

” All in all, I’m pleased with the improvement we’ve made,” Britton said. “The competition only gets harder, but hopefully we will just get better.”