MIAMI (Aug. 9. 2016) -- Tuesday morning's exhibition shutout win over Wagner marks the end of the first full week of training for FIU women's soccer, and the team paused to reflect on the progress made so far in the preseason.
 
With the first regular-season game 10 days away (Friday, August 19 at 7 p.m. at Stetson), the Panthers continue to build with youth and putting different players into places where they will succeed on the field. Today's action was a good test to see where the training to this point has taken them against a live opponent.
 
"We've been trying different people on the back end and I think it has been working better than expected so far, but we have a long way to go," said senior keeper Sophia Trujillo (Miami, Florida / San Diego State). "I don't believe we were playing at this level this early last year. We have a lot of potential and played with discipline today, and it looks good right now. We still need to work, though, on our communication between defenders and keeper, and that will come with experience and playing together.
 
Offensively, the Panthers had to adjust to switching from grass to turf today, but made those adjustments and were able to find the back of the net in the game.
 
"We were trying to find gaps and get the ball through today, which we have been working on," said freshman forward Abby Logue (St. Johns, Florida / Creekside HS). "We're still trying to figure it all out and we are only starting to resemble what we want things to look like. We think we know where we need to be, but a film session always shows us what we should be doing. When we work well together on passes and movement, we do a great job of getting the ball forward. We were all working hard for each other and that's a good place to start as a team."
 
"We've been building in the early training sessions, but we're trying to get our product decent by the start of the regular season, stronger by conference games and well fine-tuned by the time we get to the postseason," said Head Coach Thomas Chestnutt. "Since I got here, watching video has been a really important part of what we're doing. It backs up the things we do on the field. The game itself is the best teacher, but video can help us break it all down and bring the game into focus for them. From the young players to the returners, they have been diligent and have really set a standard, which has been great to see."
 
The Panthers will scrimmage again Wednesday in town before heading back to training for a few days ahead of a weekend trip to Jacksonville for one last tune-up. After a pair of road games to start the season, FIU plays its first home game of the regular season on Thursday, August 25, with a game against Wake Forest, starting at 7 p.m.
  
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football Stadium.

About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.