“This is probably — in the first couple weeks of the season — more than I’ve ever (substituted players) before,” Saxton said. “Part of it is just some of the uncertainty as to who the best options are to start out there.”

In professional soccer under the FIFA Laws of the Game, a team is given a limited amount of substitutes, whereas in collegiate soccer, substitutions are unlimited, the only restriction being a player cannot return in the same half they left.

After graduating some key seniors from the 2009 squad, Saxton is giving all his players a chance to make an impact early in the 2010 campaign, utilizing 17 against No. 1 North Carolina last week and having 21 players make appearances this season.

With each player having a different playing style and the offense not yet clicking on all cylinders, the substitutions might be affecting the team’s rhythm.

“(Substituting) certainly can make (things) tough early and that’s one of the things we talked about in our staff meeting this morning,” Saxton said. “This is part of the growth process early in the season and if you ask me going into this week if I want to have things solidify a bit more — absolutely.”

Senior defender and co-captain Samantha Cook said the continuous swapping of players hasn’t affected the team on the field.

“Our team is so deep that it doesn’t affect our chemistry whatsoever,” Cook said. “We all get along really well this year and it’s just clicking. If anything, it makes our speed of play quicker than normal with fresh legs in there.”

Saxton said he never likes to gamble with the health of his players, which adds to the reason for the subs, especially just a few weeks away from entering the strenuous Big Ten Conference schedule.

“I’ve always been very conservative with injuries,” he said. “This is such an intense running sport and when you combine having to serve balls with your feet and heading.

“When you have lower, below the waist strains, it’s really difficult without rest to get back to 100 percent.”

Both senior midfielder Cara Freeman and junior goalkeeper Jill Flietstra went down briefly against Western Michigan on Sunday. Flietstra bounced back up, but Freeman temporarily was removed from the game and received some attention from the trainers.

“I just got a muscle cramp,” Freeman said. “It was just so hot. I’ll be fine.”

Freeman also insists the subs are not hurting the team, and the senior captain cites her experience as the reason she is able to quickly adjust.

“With me being a senior, I’ve played with a lot of these girls for a long time now so you get a feel for how they can play, what they can do and what they’re good at,” she said.

“When it comes to game time, everyone just plays.”

It’s no surprise that midfielders do the most running in any given soccer match because they play both offense and defense. Although Saxton will continue those changes at midfield, he said the team is close to figuring out the puzzle of which attackers work best together.

“We’re starting to establish things in the central midfield, which is good,” Saxton said. “I think we have a natural rotation there. That is a position where we will continue to give starters a rest, especially during two-game weekends. How we use Laura Heyboer and Olivia Stander is also starting to take shape and that was a big question for us too coming in.”