COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – After two months of practicing in rain, shine, sleet and hail, the Tennessee Tech soccer team wrapped up its spring season with a pair of exhibition games, hosting Carson-Newman and Lipscomb on a sunny day in Cookeville Saturday.

Senior Rebecca Ross scored for the Golden Eages off of a feed from sophomore Ashley Smith to put Tech on the scoreboard against Carson-Newman, but fell 3-1, before wraping up the afternoon against Lipscomb.

The spring session, which began February 10, gave the Golden Eagles a chance to get back on the soccer field, while adding to team chemistry in the off-season.

“The chemistry on this team right now is great,” head coach Becky Fletcher said. “We were able to accomplish a lot of things this spring, and we still have a lot of work to do in the fall.”

The team practiced three times a week for eight weeks, in addition to its regular weight routine, and played exhibition games in Nashville and Chattanooga before wrapping up with a pair in Cookeville.

“We were able to work on a lot of the little things this spring,” said Brittany Rogers, a defender who will be Tech’s only senior on the 2009 team. “We put in a lot of hard work, but we also had a lot of fun as a group.”

With the departure of five seniors from a 2008 team that was already thin on numbers, Tech’s spring was a small group. But things will look very different when the Golden Eagles open up practice in the fall, as Fletcher signed 12 players who will join the squad for the 2009 season.

“We have a great foundation with this group, and we look forward to adding to it in the fall,” Fletcher said.