The UEL Phoenix are feeling optimistic about the upcoming season in the South Eastern Tier 2, and are looking to improve on their first round playoff defeat last year against Worcester.
Building for Success
The previous campaign ended with three wins and three losses in the regular season, which meant they managed to clinch the final spot to progress to the playoffs.
This year the team will be looking to build on that and have done so by recruiting a new group of coaching staff on both offense and defence.
Change for the Better?
Beginning the 2019/20 season in her first full year as captain and president is Tatum Etchegoyen-Springer.
She is very experienced player having played in the USA for most of her life, and will be looking to work with the new coaches to break into the latter stages of the playoffs.
“We’ve brought in some positional coaches rather than having the head coach do everything, which has made everyone pick up the game quicker.”
She is also extremely pleased with how different things are operating in training, and is hopeful a fresh outlook will improve their results.
“We look a completely different team to last year”
Opponents
This year’s opponents for UEL are King’s College, Cambridge, Canterbury Christchurch, Anglia Ruskin, City University and Greenwich.
The division has had a slight re-shuffle which means there are now seven teams instead of four, making it even more competitive for those all-important playoff places.
End Goal
Tatum also spoke about her expectations for the upcoming season:
“The ultimate goal is to make the playoffs. We have done for the past two years so now we need to keep winning, make that first slot and continue past the first round”.
You can see the UEL Phoenix’s first game against King’s College, which will be played away at the University of Greenwich on Sunday 3rd November.
