After last year's disappointing end to the season, the Eastern Michigan women's soccer team focused on getting depth at every position to avoid facing the problem of a depleted roster once again during the stretch runs before the playoffs.

According to coach Scott Hall, the recruiting team worked very hard at getting to know the players and their families before making a decision. Of the seven new women, five are from Michigan. Hall said the coaching staff has watched some of these players grow up from the age of eight or nine because of the clubs they played at.

The team added seven girls onto the roster that are all adept at more than one position. Hall said the team really needed to add depth because the team had many holes due to injured players, and really feels the team has been able to fill those holes.

"We really needed to add up front," Hall said. "I also think we needed to add at the wide and midfield positions and we needed more who can play in the back. We have players who can play out and mid, and even if these freshmen don't start, they can give us some minutes there."

With spring practice in session for the past month, Hall said he is impressed by these freshmen because they are all working hard, but it will be very difficult for them to crack the starting line up.

"The crazy part is there are four to five who could create a stir right away," Hall said. "It'll be hard for them to break the starting line up, but they are working hard to stay fit and ready to play. Like I said before, they give us more depth and will definitely fight to start."

The most surprising decision was the new goalkeeper. Monique Budani, a freshman last season, had a spectacular season and bulked the majority of the minutes despite having a back up. Hall said most college teams have at least three, and some even have four goalkeepers.

"The year before we have one goalkeeper, and had to develop a field player so we brought in two last year," Hall said. "In 2009 we want to bring one more so we will have depth at that position."

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