TOPSHAM, ME – The road to improve usually means putting in more time.
 
So, for current Alabama State women's soccer twin sister teammates Aaliyah Lewis and Ariela Lewis and recently graduated former player Shelbi Vienna-Hallam, there is no offseason.
 
For a second consecutive summer, Vienna-Hallam will be fine tuning her game in the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), playing for the Seacoast United Futbol Club in Maine.
 
The Alabama State to Seacoast connection was further strengthened with the Lewis sisters joining Vienna-Hallam this summer.

The independent national league's main focus is on developing highly competitive amateur women's soccer teams. 
 
Formed in 1998 and sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) as an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), it's the ruling body of soccer in the United States and FIFA, the world's ruling body for soccer.
 
The collaboration began when Maine Maritime women's soccer coach and former WPSL Seacoast Mariners coach Seth Brown started talking with ASU head coach Jodie Smith. 
 
Brown and Smith had been friends through their time in Georgia when each coached programs there. 
 
In the early 2000s, Brown was a coach at Atlanta Silverbacks Youth system, a pro men's soccer team, while Smith was coaching the women's team at Mercer University.
 
Through the grapevine, Smith reached out to former WPSL General Manager Paul Cameron and it progressed from there as Vienna-Hallam joined the team last summer and had a productive year as a center back, scoring a couple of goals, and making her presence known to the team. 
 
"She had such a great time with our host family that she was going to come back this summer and stay again with them," said Seacoast United head coach and director Andrew Pelletier.
 
"Down in the NSCAA [National Soccer Coaches Association of America] convention in Baltimore earlier this year, we met with Jodie and he mentioned that he had some goal scorers that could help our team out.  Jodie did a lot of work in getting Ariela [Lewis] and Aaliyah [Lewis] up here.  As soon as I found out, I was interested.  It fell into our laps.  Right off the bat, I trusted Jodie after working with Shelbi last year.  I knew that he had something.  I saw some video and knew that the Lewis sisters gave us a different dimension.  I was interested immediately and wanted to see if they were interested."
 
The relationship has been amicable as coach Smith could see that the summer league had been beneficial in heightening his players' skills set and knowledge base. 
 
"It's a great chance to play at a high level," Smith said.  "Coming into the season last fall, I noticed that Shelbi understood more.  It was important as she continued to develop as a player.  There are competitive players in that league so it'll be a good challenge for them all."
 
Scoring prowess is something that all three players have taken pride in at Alabama State as the trio occupies three of the top four spots in career points all-time in Hornets soccer history.
 
Aa. Lewis leads all scorers with 116 career points, while Ar. Lewis has tallied 75 points thus far and Vienna-Hallam racked up 37 points in two seasons with part of her time spent as a center back defender. 
 
Though only three games into the season, they've already begun to make their mark as Seacoast (2-0-1) has already equaled last season's win total and sits perched atop the New England Standings with seven points. 
 
Aa. Lewis tallied an assist on the first goal of the season in a 3-1 victory against Boston Aztec on May 14. 
 
And, Vienna-Hallam hasn't left the field as she has played in every minute thus far.
 
While Ar. Lewis played well in the first game, she was injured and has missed the last couple of games. 
 
All three are starters when they're healthy.
 
Pelletier is hopeful that that Ar. Lewis will be back for Saturday's match against Boston Breakers College at Fitzpatrick Stadium at 5 p.m. CT. in Portland, Maine. 
 
Boston Breakers College is traditionally a powerful team as they have players from Harvard, North Carolina, Boston College currently on its roster. 
 
Check Twitter updates @SUSCMariners for in-game updates. 
 
The 10-game schedule runs until July 16 and the top two teams in the division will make the playoffs. 
 
"It's usually a summer workout for college players," Pelletier said.
 
"Our oldest player is 27 years old and our youngest player is 16.  The biggest thing that we see are college juniors who are going to be seniors in the fall.  They want to keep up their fitness level in order to have a big year.  We bought nine girls in with some from West Alabama, Gardner-Webb and some girls from Italy.  It's been pretty easy for them to acclimate themselves to the other girls on the roster.  They spend time in Portland, go to the beaches and spend time together in Samford, Maine, so it's been a rather positive experience. And, they're getting to play a high level of soccer up here."
 
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