After making it to the quarterfinals of the elimination round last year at nationals, the ISU Women’s Soccer Club hopes to pull off at least a repeat performance.

“Our goal is to get back to the second round,” said head coach Rafael Geronimo. “We would like to repeat that or go farther this year.”

The tournament consists of two rounds. Twenty teams start out in pool play before the field is trimmed to eight teams for the single elimination tournament.

The women’s soccer club will take on higher competition than what it’s used to. Included in its pool are James Madison, UC Santa Barbara and Kansas.

The players are looking forward to the competition they will face at nationals.

“We will be going up against higher competition, so we’ll see how far we’ve improved this year,” said Jessica Carithers, sophomore in biochemistry.

Kimberly Allen, freshman in aerospace engineering, is also excited for the competition ahead.

“It’ll be lots of fun playing good teams rather than mediocre teams like we’ve been playing,” she said. “The ultimate goal would be to win it all, but we’d like to get to the next round at least.”

Most of the club’s opponents during the season have been local teams, such as Iowa, Drake, Grand View and Kansas. Other than Kansas, all the games will be significantly tougher than what it’s played this season.

Geronimo, who is in his fourth year as head coach, said that one of the keys to success has been the talent that makes up the team.

“We have a good team, good players and the depth of our team is pretty good. We can play up to 28 players,” he said.

Geronimo also said his players show great dedication to the team even with busy schedules.

“We have a good group that’s committed to play,” he said. “With work and school, they have a lot to do, and they also have to pay their own expenses.”

However, due to other arrangements with school and work, some of the players will not be able to make the trip. Only 14 will travel down to Tempe, Ariz., for the tournament.

“With not so many subs, we’re hoping to do the best we can with what we’ve got,” Carithers said.

With the club being so understanding about the demands that come with school, work and other obligations, there is less commitment and the players believe that makes playing for the club more enjoyable.

“People are serious, but we make it fun. They’re lenient on study time and availability,” Carithers said.

Allen mentioned the difference between playing on her high school team and playing with the club.

“Coming straight from high school, I noticed there is less commitment here, and that makes it fun,” she said.

While the team will concentrate primarily on the games, its will also have a little fun of its own down in Arizona.

“We’ll look to keep concentrated, but we’ll also go to the movies or go bowling and also go shopping for the girls,” Geronimo said. “The guys will be down there too. We will try and support them, but a lot of the time we’ll be playing at the same time at two different complexes.”

The tournament will get underway Thursday with the start of pool play. Pool play will wrap up Friday morning and the quarterfinals will be Friday afternoon. The final two rounds will take place on Saturday.