By Gio Annatelli - COLUMNIST

From the outside looking in, the common fan or reader wouldn’t think that the Hofstra Pride women’s soccer team is having any problems. The team is first place in the conference and has never lost by more than one goal in each of their losses. But there is a problem with this team: the goalkeeping.

The current starting goalie for the Hofstra women’s soccer team is, and has been since last year, Germany-native Friederike Mehring. How could a goalie who has led her team to 11 wins and has a goals against average of 1.22 be a problem? I’m not saying that Mehring is a bad goalie; she’s quite good. She is just inconsistent, and could potentially be a liability going into the conference tournament.

Mehring has not stepped into the role of what is expected of her. On multiple occasions, Mehring has blown the lead for her team and almost lost it overall. In the game against Fairleigh Dickenson, the team had a 1-0 lead before Mehring allowed two goals before and after the half. Hofstra then took the lead and Mehring let in another goal for FDU to tie the game before Leah Galton put the game away in the 81st minute.

Then in the game against Yale, Hofstra had a 3-2 lead with three minutes to go before a shot was sent in from 20 yards out. Overall, that game was a sloppy one from Mehring and she got lucky that her offense was able to bury the ball into the back of the net so often.

One of the recurring themes that has been helping Mehring out is the offense being able to bail her out when she gets into trouble. In most of the games where it was decided by overtime, the Pride held a lead at some point during the game.

Hofstra would have a one-goal lead and smooth sailing to victory, but Mehring would crack under pressure and let in a goal to tie the game up. Now, because of that, the offense has to go in all-attack mode in order to take the lead again instead of being conservative and not taking risky attempts or going with a more focus on defense.

Not only is the offense bailing her out time after time, but the defense gives her some extra help. There have been multiple occasions where the defense has limited opponents to minimal shots and an even smaller amount of shots on goal. Yet, even with that, you still have to be wary about the little shots that do go on net because there is no promise of a save.

In the last game against Northeastern, the Pride defense was brilliant in only allowing the Huskies to take six shots, one being on goal. The game finished 2-1 and had to be decided in overtime.

“Freddi’s been good, but inconsistent. Good one game, and the next game, and she needs to get better mentally on that side as well,” head coach Simon Riddiough said earlier in the year.

For the rest of this year, the Hofstra Pride will most likely stick with Mehring. Unless she suffers from some big problems in the last two games of the season, then she should get pulled. For next year, however, don’t expect to see Mehring stopping shots.

Transferring from Mississippi State, Ashley Wilson is ready to push her out of office and take over. She was out of soccer for 18 months due to an injury and surgery, and in the one game she appeared in this season she started against Fordham and allowed a goal and had three saves in 15 minutes of play. Once she’s settled in and fully healthy, then Wilson will be ready to take the starting job from Mehring.