The 2012 Georgia Southern Women’s Soccer season got underway on Thursday afternoon with an intersquad game at Eagle Field. The session was delayed by about an hour due to thunderstorms which rolled through the area and dropped temperatures into the mid-70’s.

 “It was a good first day,” said Head Coach Lindsey Vanderspiegel. “With such a large group there is going to be a lot of competition right from the start, and that’s what we wanted. Our intensity was very high, at times the game looked frantic, but that’s to be expected on day one.”

The team spent most of the summer together while taking summer classes in Statesboro.

“With our team having 21 freshman, I’m glad that they were able to get acclimated to Statesboro, the weather around here and come by to talk with us as coaches,” said Vanderspiegel. “Today was meeting one, but really for them, they’ve known each other for well over a month.”

The 2011 Eagles finished the year with a 7-11-2 mark, reaching the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament for the first time since the 2006 season. The seventh-seeded Eagles knocked off second-seeded UNCG in the first round of the tournament with a 2-1 win over the Spartans.

Georgia Southern returns its top-two goalscorers from last year. Courtney Collins found the net eight times a year ago while Alex Murphy scored six goals in the 2011 campaign.

“We have some key returners from last year’s team that will build the cornerstones of the program,” added Vanderspiegel. “We have some young blood, but I’m excited about what we have in store for us this year, and we’ll continue to build on what we did last year.”

The Eagles are preparing for their only exhibition before the 2012 season on Sunday, August 12th at home against Winthrop. The preseason friendly starts at 4 p.m. from Eagle Field. The season opener is on Sunday, August 19th, at Stetson.