The Journal

One game does not make a season.

That adage is popular among coaches of any sport at any level. But it doesn't necessarily mean season openers can't be indicative of things to come.

Unlike many NCAA Division I college athletic programs, Webster University and other Division III schools rarely schedule cupcakes to open their season.

These top-shelf athletic programs customarily will schedule early-season games against smaller, under-developed programs that allow them to start the season off on the right foot.

These games are normally inconsequential in a team's final ranking.

(That is, unless you're the University of Michigan and schedule Appalachian State for your football home opener).

At small schools, teams rarely have the luxury of starting the year with sub-par competition. With that being the case, early-season wins and losses at this level can more clearly indicate long-term successes and failures.

If the WU men's soccer team opens the season on a 6-0 run, it will hold significantly more meaning than the University of Florida's football team beginning the year with wins over Charleston Southern and Troy Universities.

Yet, it's important not to read into these early games too much. Certainly, a soccer or volleyball team in November is vastly different than that same team in September. The same goes for the competition.

However, when the WU men's and women's soccer teams took on Millikin University to open their seasons this week, they each faced a team that was on relatively equal footing with regards to recruiting and conference strength.

Even the WU volleyball team, who played a new Division II team in Maryville University, saw a team with similar ability to its own.

Before this season, Maryville was a conference rival in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. (Maryville moved to Division II competition this year, and will participate in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.)

Due to the comparable competition WU sees in the beginning of the year, it is encouraging to see the favorable early-season pedigree of the women's soccer team and volleyball team.

The women's soccer team has won each of its past five season openers.

The volleyball team was victorious in its first match of the season in each of the past two seasons, both of which ended with a conference title.

However, the men's soccer team has also proven the other end of the hypothesis can often be true as well.

The men's team lost its opener each of the last two seasons and followed the pattern by finishing with a losing season each year.

So as WU opened its seasons this fall, it would not be surprising if its early successes and failures perpetuate as the season continues.

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