The game we had been waiting for came last Wednesday- EMU. EMU has always been at the top of the conference; the team to beat. The day before the game, we had a preparation practice for EMU to get us ready for their style of play. We worked hard to prepare, and at the end of practice we knew we were ready. We all went to class on Wednesday with instructions to think of the game and how we wanted to play. This was the one day Coach allowed us to not pay attention in class and only focus on the game. it's all I could think about that day, and I'm sure it was the same for all the other girls. In the locker room, we were all getting focused, thinking about everything we needed to do to beat EMU. From the time we stepped on the field, we hung with EMU; although the scoreboard showed 3-0 at halftime, we played well. We came out from halftime with the mentality to win, and scored three goals by the end. Despite our efforts, EMU managed to slide past us by one goal. We were happy that we played with them this year, as our score from last year was 5-1, but we were disappointed that we didn't win.
Taking a break from conference games, we played Wilson College on Friday. We didn't think we played as well as we should, I think we may have taken them a little too lightly, but we pulled out the win in double overtime 2-1. it's been a tough week for everyone, I know we all have had a lot of school work and lots to focus on. The break over the weekend helped everyone to refocus on the games we have coming up this week. Important conference game today against Sweet Briar; we're expecting a win :) ( note BC defeated Sweet Briar 5-0)
- Kristen
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Blog #4
On Saturday, we played Virginia Wesleyan, a team we had a tough battle with last year that led to an overtime victory for us 2-1. This year, we had the same back and forth game. Virginia Wesleyan scored early in the first half, and for about the next 15 minutes, they kept that lead. We scored very late in the half to tie the score going into halftime. Tying the score was important in this game, because it was like a fresh start for us, our mentality was that it was now a 0-0 game, anyone's game. At halftime, we wiped the slate clean; all the mistakes we had made in the first half were behind us.
We promised ourselves that during the second half we would step up our play, and fix the things we knew we had to work on from the first half. Coach made sure to reinforce the importance of doing the little things that we lacked in the first half, and the importance of coming out from halftime ready to score. We definitely listened to what Coach said, and managed to create many opportunities for ourselves, we just had trouble finishing with goals. Virginia Wesleyan also came out ready to score, like we had anticipated, scoring a goal midway through the half. Frustrated with the way we were playing, knowing we could do better, Coach called a time out to get us pumped up.
She said that we should stop at nothing to put the ball in the goal, which should always hold true. About 50 seconds after the timeout, we scored a goal. We worked the ball well up the field, and used our forwards to get in front of Virginia Wesleyan, tying the score yet again.
We played hard, but Virginia Wesleyan ended up scoring in the last minutes of the game to grasp the win 3-2. We took this loss pretty hard, and let's just say it was a long bus ride home.
We had Sunday off, but will need to be ready for our game against EMU on Wednesday.
We promised ourselves that during the second half we would step up our play, and fix the things we knew we had to work on from the first half. Coach made sure to reinforce the importance of doing the little things that we lacked in the first half, and the importance of coming out from halftime ready to score. We definitely listened to what Coach said, and managed to create many opportunities for ourselves, we just had trouble finishing with goals. Virginia Wesleyan also came out ready to score, like we had anticipated, scoring a goal midway through the half. Frustrated with the way we were playing, knowing we could do better, Coach called a time out to get us pumped up.
She said that we should stop at nothing to put the ball in the goal, which should always hold true. About 50 seconds after the timeout, we scored a goal. We worked the ball well up the field, and used our forwards to get in front of Virginia Wesleyan, tying the score yet again.
We played hard, but Virginia Wesleyan ended up scoring in the last minutes of the game to grasp the win 3-2. We took this loss pretty hard, and let's just say it was a long bus ride home.
We had Sunday off, but will need to be ready for our game against EMU on Wednesday.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Blog #3
Last Thursday, we suffered a tough loss to Mary Washington. The game itself was not that bad, however the scoreboard didn’t reflect how we played. The scoreboard showed 5-0, but to be honest, I think it should’ve been a 1-0 game. Since this was our first loss on the season, it was kinda tough, but we quickly bounced back, and prepared ourselves for the games to come.
This past weekend, we had our Second Annual Mapp Invitational, a tournament where we invite three other teams to come play on our field. On Saturday, we played St.Vincent College, a team that we didn’t know much about ahead of time, so we came our ready to play our best. We ended up doing just that, bringing our “a” game, and using what we learned from the Mary Wash. game to step up our game. We ended up winning the game against St. Vincent 7-0, meaning we had made it to the championship game which was to be played on Sunday at 3:00.
After our game, Coach made us stay for the first half of the Drew College vs. Sweet Briar game to see who we were going to play. At the end of the first half, Drew had a 3-0 lead, so we made the assumption that we would be playing them in the championship game. We watched them closely, and made sure to note the abilities of each player, especially the things that stood out.
The next day it was time to put those notes to good use. We had a good long speech in the locker room from Coach about the importance of winning this game, and the ways that would allow us to do so. Always move to the ball, make good passes, shoot whenever you have a chance, etc. From the first whistle, we worked harder than ever, and managed to pull away with a 3-0 lead at halftime. However, knowing the abilities of Drew, we had a feeling they fight hard to make a come back. Sure enough, they scored three goals before the end of regulation, making the game a 3-3 tie and sending us into overtime. By this point, everyone was exhausted and somewhat frustrated that we had allowed them to make that come back, but we knew it would be worth it to give overtime everything we had.
We had a couple opportunities during overtime and got a couple of shots off, but we couldn’t manage to get them in the goal. With only 7 people on the field in overtime, it made it hard on everyone; it’s a good thing we have a lot of depth so that whenever someone needed a break they could be taken out. Despite our hard work in overtime, we couldn’t manage to score, so this meant that we would play another 15 minutes of play called “Sudden Death”, meaning that the first team to score would win. Both teams fought very hard, but the 15 minutes ended and still no one had scored. From that point, the only thing left to decide the game was strokes, a one on one shot, sort of similar to a penalty kick in soccer.
We picked five people from our team to take the strokes, as well as the other team. Our goalie Biz made some great saves, preventing the other team from scoring, and we were able to get some shots past the Drew goalie. All of our hard work paid off, and we ended up winning 4-3, and so our record improved to 4-1. ODAC games start this weekend, so we will have to work extremely hard this week to prepare ourselves for Virginia Wesleyan.
--Kristen
P.S. CONGRATULATIONS CHRISTINA FOR BEING ODAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK!!!
This past weekend, we had our Second Annual Mapp Invitational, a tournament where we invite three other teams to come play on our field. On Saturday, we played St.Vincent College, a team that we didn’t know much about ahead of time, so we came our ready to play our best. We ended up doing just that, bringing our “a” game, and using what we learned from the Mary Wash. game to step up our game. We ended up winning the game against St. Vincent 7-0, meaning we had made it to the championship game which was to be played on Sunday at 3:00.
After our game, Coach made us stay for the first half of the Drew College vs. Sweet Briar game to see who we were going to play. At the end of the first half, Drew had a 3-0 lead, so we made the assumption that we would be playing them in the championship game. We watched them closely, and made sure to note the abilities of each player, especially the things that stood out.
The next day it was time to put those notes to good use. We had a good long speech in the locker room from Coach about the importance of winning this game, and the ways that would allow us to do so. Always move to the ball, make good passes, shoot whenever you have a chance, etc. From the first whistle, we worked harder than ever, and managed to pull away with a 3-0 lead at halftime. However, knowing the abilities of Drew, we had a feeling they fight hard to make a come back. Sure enough, they scored three goals before the end of regulation, making the game a 3-3 tie and sending us into overtime. By this point, everyone was exhausted and somewhat frustrated that we had allowed them to make that come back, but we knew it would be worth it to give overtime everything we had.
We had a couple opportunities during overtime and got a couple of shots off, but we couldn’t manage to get them in the goal. With only 7 people on the field in overtime, it made it hard on everyone; it’s a good thing we have a lot of depth so that whenever someone needed a break they could be taken out. Despite our hard work in overtime, we couldn’t manage to score, so this meant that we would play another 15 minutes of play called “Sudden Death”, meaning that the first team to score would win. Both teams fought very hard, but the 15 minutes ended and still no one had scored. From that point, the only thing left to decide the game was strokes, a one on one shot, sort of similar to a penalty kick in soccer.
We picked five people from our team to take the strokes, as well as the other team. Our goalie Biz made some great saves, preventing the other team from scoring, and we were able to get some shots past the Drew goalie. All of our hard work paid off, and we ended up winning 4-3, and so our record improved to 4-1. ODAC games start this weekend, so we will have to work extremely hard this week to prepare ourselves for Virginia Wesleyan.
--Kristen
P.S. CONGRATULATIONS CHRISTINA FOR BEING ODAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK!!!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Blog #2
Throughout the few weeks we've been together, we've all began to bond; this bond created by our common goal, to win ODACS. This team has a lot of heart and a lot of motivation to win. We made it clear to everyone on Friday that we would stop at nothing to win. Suffering from a 1-0 deficit to Dickinson after the first half of play, the team knew we had to step up our game.
Coach gave us a speech at halftime about the things we were doing well, but also the numerous things we needed to work on and fix if we hoped to win. All I remember hearing, and what was drilled into my head during the speech was "MOVE YOUR FEET ON DEFENSE". Coach made a very good point, we were getting beat on defense when we didn't move our feet. This made it easy on the Dickinson attackers because they could read this and use their quick stick dodges to get past us.
So we finally made the adjustment, and we began to move our feet on defense, which soon enough allowed us to keep the ball on our offensive half. By keeping it down there, it gave us multiple opportunities to score. We fought hard and finally scored 2 goals in the second half to lead us to a 2-1 win over Dickinson. This was a big win for us, and gave us momentum going into our game the next day against Hood College.
From the game against Dickinson, we quickly learned each others abilities and it began to be easier to read our teammates on the field. We worked well with each other, making sure our passes were good, making sure we were moving our feet, etc. The final score of this game was 6-0; Bri led the team with three goals, Christina followed with two goals, along with Kalah who also had a goal. The team worked hard to assist them in moving the ball up-field and to create opportunities to score. As a result of our teamwork and heart, we are now 2-0!
Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into our game on Thursday against Mary Washington, a team similar to Dickinson. I'm sure this week's practices will be very tough, and require a lot of concentration to fix the things that will make us better. I know we have what it takes to beat this team, so all that's left is to prove it to ourselves :)
Coach gave us a speech at halftime about the things we were doing well, but also the numerous things we needed to work on and fix if we hoped to win. All I remember hearing, and what was drilled into my head during the speech was "MOVE YOUR FEET ON DEFENSE". Coach made a very good point, we were getting beat on defense when we didn't move our feet. This made it easy on the Dickinson attackers because they could read this and use their quick stick dodges to get past us.
So we finally made the adjustment, and we began to move our feet on defense, which soon enough allowed us to keep the ball on our offensive half. By keeping it down there, it gave us multiple opportunities to score. We fought hard and finally scored 2 goals in the second half to lead us to a 2-1 win over Dickinson. This was a big win for us, and gave us momentum going into our game the next day against Hood College.
From the game against Dickinson, we quickly learned each others abilities and it began to be easier to read our teammates on the field. We worked well with each other, making sure our passes were good, making sure we were moving our feet, etc. The final score of this game was 6-0; Bri led the team with three goals, Christina followed with two goals, along with Kalah who also had a goal. The team worked hard to assist them in moving the ball up-field and to create opportunities to score. As a result of our teamwork and heart, we are now 2-0!
Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into our game on Thursday against Mary Washington, a team similar to Dickinson. I'm sure this week's practices will be very tough, and require a lot of concentration to fix the things that will make us better. I know we have what it takes to beat this team, so all that's left is to prove it to ourselves :)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
First Blog
With preseason out of the way, I think I speak for all when I say it’s been a fun experience, even though mental and physical exhaustion have begun to set in. The first couple days we had fitness testing, which allowed us to see where we were in comparison to where we should be. We all came in with a higher fitness level than the team in general last year, and exceeded the expectations of the coaches.
We all blew through our fitness tests, making it easier on the coaches. Because of our competitive freshman class and vast amount of returning players, everyone has been working their hardest to earn a spot on the field. Along with the fitness testing, we had a ton of stick work skills tests. As the coaches have noticed our skill levels rising with each practice, they continue to challenge us more and more.
We have five freshman joining the team this year, and after try outs our team has been set at 18. Everyone on the team is very versatile, every player can play basically any position, making us a better team and more optimistic about this season. Last year was a very important year, because we accomplished something that we had not done in 23 years; we had a .500 record (10-10) and made it to the second round of ODACS. It was a fundamental year, and a building block for the years to come. We know we only have room for improvement this year.
We have our first game on Friday against Dickinson College, a team that has always been considered one of our rivals and one of the better teams we play. Everyone is anxious about the game because it will set the tempo for the rest of the season, and give the coaches more of an idea of where we are as a team, and help determine positions. The last couple days of practice we will have to continue to work really hard to prepare for this game, and hopefully after Friday our record will be 1-0 :) LET'S GO EAGLES! BEAT THE RED DEVILS!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)