The TCU women’s soccer team will continue its spring schedule Saturday when it plays the North Texas Olympic Development Program, a team the players can honestly say they are not familiar with.”Actually, I don’t know (much about them),” said junior defender Casey Glass. “The coaches want us to treat everybody the same way. He doesn’t want us coming in knowing too much about a team because we’ll adjust how we play.

“We just have to be on the top of our game at all times … not too much information.”

Head coach Dan Abdalla was able to provide more insight on the team and said the high level of competition he is expecting will be a positive.

“This is going to be a good squad,” Abdalla said. “It’s a younger squad, but (it has) some of the best players in not only North Texas but in the country. So, it’s going to be a challenge for us, which will be good, but we need to see that and see how we do under pressure.”

Although the even matches planned for the spring semester will not count toward the team’s fall record or conference standings, Abdalla said, the preseason still has a strong significance.

“I think it gives our players who haven’t played much a lot of experience, and then (for) the players that we have, to get them just more comfortable with the system,” Abdalla said. “It takes some time for them to adapt to what I’m expecting, so from our standpoint, this will be a great opportunity to get an understanding of what were expecting on the field.”

There’s quite a bit of learning left to do for the team, which currently has 14 underclassmen on the roster. Sophomore Lauren Pope said the spring games do not just help the coach’s evaluation, however – they’re also about getting familiar with your teammates and building camaraderie.

“It’s important because (we’re) just getting to know each other and getting to play together,” Pope said. “It’s more fun – not that the games in the season aren’t fun – these are just more to get out there and have fun and see what we need to work on.