The 2006 season should have earned the women’s soccer team the right to rest on its laurels. The Lions went undefeated in the Ivy League, claimed Columbia’s first-ever conference title, and made the program’s maiden foray into the NCAA Tournament. Add to that an Ivy Player of the Year, a nationally recognized head coach, and a handful of All-Ivy selections.

So coming into 2007, a bit of a swagger might seem justified.

“We’re not ever going to be patient with the quantitative end of things, meaning we expect to win,” head coach Kevin McCarthy said.

But if the Lions are to repeat their success, they’ll be counting on their eight new faces to fill the void left by the nine senior players from 2006. Included among those nine are Shannon Munoz, the Lions’ top scorer and Ivy Player of the Year, midfielder Bailey Schroeder, and defenders Emma Judkins, Meghan Hurlbut, and Cassie Hamar.

While the team looks less experienced than in recent seasons, the current group of players has the unique achievement of a successful Ivy campaign. And all the players who have been with the program less than three years have only ever known winning seasons—the Lions last posted a sub-.500 record in 2004.

“That’s all they know, and that’s all we expect them to know,” McCarthy said.

What isn’t likely to change this season is Columbia’s brand of attacking soccer. “I believe that this team can be an even more attractive playing side than last season’s,” McCarthy added. “We will be a distinctive team in how we play, without changing the basic tenets of the team.”

The Lions will continue to play with three strikers up front, according to McCarthy, in the same style as last year. And so far, junior Allison Leonard appears to have picked up the goal-scoring duties where Munoz left off. In Columbia’s four games, the Lions have scored seven times, and Leonard has claimed four.

Playing alongside her will be one of the most exciting freshmen in the league, Chrissy Butler. McCarthy’s faith in her is already apparent, as she has started three times in four games and scored an impressive goal in the 2-0 victory over Miami (Ohio).

At the back, McCarthy has had to reshuffle his squad. The stingy defenders who only conceded 13 goals last season may be gone, but the new back line is anchored by senior Cathleen Cimino and sophomore Meggie Ford, while drawing in experience from players more accustomed to midfield positions. In goal, after some brilliant performances during the race to last year’s title, Allison Vespa will be making her claim to be considered the top keeper in the league.

She might have to make some adjustments in home games, however. The new springier surface installed at Baker Field over the summer is sure to provide a very different bounce from the old, balding patch the Lions used to call home.

“It’s a great surface,” McCarthy said. “It plays more like grass than any other turf I’ve ever been on, and the players love it.”

Columbia will begin its Ivy schedule at home against Brown on Sept. 28 with the target of another undefeated season. But this time around, the league seems to have some semblance of parity.

“I’m not sure if there’s a clear-cut favorite,” McCarthy said. “Yale is good, Dartmouth’s going to be solid, though they lost some players like we did. Princeton’s going to get their World Cup player back by the time we play them. Penn feels like they’ve got a great team.”

And despite the turnover in the squad, McCarthy insisted that the Lions are not to be underestimated. “I’m sure people are saying, ‘They lost their top scorer, they lost a center back, they lost a center midfielder.’ But I would not want to play us.”