Plum grad Jamie Seneca confident of having strong 2nd season for Gannon women's soccer

One of Jamie Seneca’s greatest assets always has been her speed. It allows the Plum grad to be a prototypical box-to-box midfielder on the soccer pitch.

But during Seneca’s freshman season at Gannon in 2021, coach Colin Petersen asked her to pump the brakes.

He didn’t want to rein in her speed. Rather, he wanted her mind to slow down so she could be more composed with the ball at her feet.

“I think the biggest adjustment for any player coming from high school into college level is the pace of the game,” said Petersen, now in his 23rd season with the Golden Knights. “Jamie didn’t take very long to adjust to that. In actual fact, we had to kind of slow it down a little bit in terms of her decision-making, a little more patience.”

Seneca went on to produce a solid freshman season, appearing in all 19 matches, including seven starts. She registered two goals and an assist while averaging about 45 minutes of action per match.

Year 2 has seen Seneca get off to a solid start despite being hampered early on by a quad injury. After sitting out the Knights’ first two games — one of them a 3-2 loss to then-No. 12 Concord — Seneca has played in all four since, making three starts and scoring a goal.

She said the quad is feeling good, and she is ready to have another productive season.

“I am very pleased with it,” Seneca said about her start. “I think I started off on a strong foot. I definitely need to work on things throughout the season, but that all comes with each game and learning from each game.”

Last season, Seneca had the benefit of on-the-job training from senior midfielder Laurel Prokopchak. An All-PSAC West first-team selection in 2021, Prokopchak showed Seneca the ropes of playing the position at the college level.

“She always had effort and never stopped,” Seneca said. “She always kept the game under control and was always there for us, really made us all want to play better.”

Petersen said he can see the improvements from last season, and he expects Seneca to make even bigger contributions at both ends of the pitch.

She came in better conditioned than last season, he said, which will help her navigate between the boxes to shore up Gannon’s defense and trigger its offense. Petersen said he admires her instinct for pushing into the attacking third, and he is eager to see her do more scoring as well as setting up her teammates.

“I think she’s well on her way now,” he said. “Technically, she’s very good. Just a matter of confidence level, and the more she does that, the more goals she’s going to get on the scoresheet, for sure. … I know that she’s got a ton of potential.”

Said Seneca: “I really wanted to be a playmaker but also score more goals. I really want to be a threat in the middle of the field and help control the game. I think I have a nice mixture of (offense and defense). I like to help out in the back, but I also like making runs in the attacking third and connecting with the forwards.”

Gannon was picked to finish second in the PSAC West after going 11-2-3 in the conference last season and reaching the PSAC semifinals, where it lost to Millersville. The Golden Knights are 4-1-2 (3-0-2 PSAC) this season after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Seton Hill.

Archrival Mercyhurst was picked to win the West Division, but Seneca said she believes her team will have something to say about where the PSAC championship trophy winds up.

She has grown more confident in herself as well as her team.

“Each game is an opportunity to work on something and improve in some way,” she said. “I think we have a really great team this year, and I think we work well together.

“We’re getting better each day. I think we have a good chance of doing pretty well.”