Sunday, April 28, 2013

at UVM 28Apr2013

Blue sky, 20C/70F, fans! Christine's dad, Mila's aunt and uncle, maybe others! Wonderful to see fans for a late Sunday game.

We got there an hour ahead of 4pm, so we were ready, but UVM said they had told their officials 4:30! We actually started around 4:20, I think -- not very upsetting to the team since it was so nice out!

Without Hannah we had amazing back-up keepers! Lindsay and Mila were superb, keeping our score sheet clean!

UVM pressured us the whole game, playing an often-frenetic long-ball game that made us run a great deal. We had 5 subs to their dozen (?), so we could have gotten worn out if we were not in such good shape!

UVM almost scored on their second corner in the 3rd minute, but Collin cleared their attempt off the line! Reminiscent of Christine Lilly in Women's World Cup!

Christine, Molly, Lindsay, Caroline and Collin all had scoring opportunities in the first half. Lindsay came up HUGE in the 40th minute with a big save!

We played more balls in the air than usual, making it hard for us to keep the ball, but we created about as many on-target attempts as UVM had. 

At half-time we spoke about trying to keep the ball on the floor in order to prevent us from having to run so much. We improved over the first half and almost converted on a header late in the game that just missed Julia's head. Lindsay and Mila made four more saves in the second half that kept us even with UVM.

Given UVM's home-field and fan advantage, we did well not to allow them a victory! Our defense was unwavering! We had trouble getting the ball into UVM's third -- credit to them! While they out-shot us, the majority of their shots were off-target. 

We exhibited a great deal of flexibility in our positioning, with non-usual goal-keepers and defenders. Every player worked unusually hard, and it seemed like a well-earned draw that capped our spring season and four years for seniors who leave us in June -- BOO HOO! 

Shots 7:15  Saves 5:5

GK: Lindsay+Mila (AWESOME, both of you!)
OD: Annie+Christine, Liz, Natalie+Julia
CD: Tessa+Collin rock-steady!
OM: Jenn+Mila, Ginny+Katherine
CM: Molly+Julia, Liz+Allison
F: Courtney+Natalie, Caroline+Lindsay

3 UVM corners (two) -- Collin cleared the 2nd!
7 UVM corner
9 UVM shot over
14 D corner
16 Christine shot (maybe cross?) saved
20 Molly shot saved
23 UVM corner
28 Caroline+Lindsay shots blocked --> corner
29 UVM shot wide
38 D corner
40 Lindsay shot saved
41 UVM shot over
45 Collin free kick
46 UVM shot over
47 UVM shot wide
48 Molly free kick wide
50 UVM shot Lindsay huge save
57 D corner
61 UVM shot over
62 UVM corner, header cleared
64 UVM shot saved by Lindsay
67 Julia shot wide
69 UVM shot over
73 UVM corner
80 UVM rolling shot saved by Mila
81 UVM shot wide
82 D perfect corner almost found Julia's head
88 UVM shot wide
89 UVM shot saved by Mila
92 UVM shot wide

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Brandeis Tournament 20Apr2013

We expected the tournament to be postponed because of the lock-down after the Boston Marathon bombing. But once the suspects were found, we were back on! 

The day was glorious! Sunny, 60F/15C. 


A HUGE group of fans came! Hannah's dad and sisters (and amazing goodies!), Julia's folks and grandmother, Molly's parents and aunt, Kate's mom, Caroline's mom (who brought salads for everyone!), Courtney's folks and sister, Christine's mom, Lindsay's grandparents.


We arrived a little later than expected and our host wanted us to start ahead of time since Bentley had sent their players home and could not attend. So we were not quite warmed-up but were happy to be outdoors playing!


Babson had already played a game, so they were prepared! We had some trouble with their crosses from the sides, and in the 18th minute Babson got lucky to beat us in a breakaway. 


Emmanuel was more tame -- we out-shot them 4:1 and their GK made all four saves! It was great that all of our shots were on target!


Azzurri, the club team of former varsity players, showed their passing talent, and that seemed to convince us to play our best soccer ever! We out-shot them and were rewarded by Courtney's goal in the 12th minute. Both GK'ers were excellent, making five saves each!


Brandeis, the proud host, usually finds us easy to beat, but we were strengthened by our good passing and put up a good fight! They showed their high quality on one out-swinging corner kick that they headed into our net. We worked hard and had the ball in their half the majority of the time after that but couldn't equalize. 


GK: Hannah N

OD: Blythe+Kate, Annie O
CD: Collin+Tessa, Julia, Lindsay
OM: Jenn+Mila, Amanda W+Sophie
CM: Julia+Molly, Kristin+Christine, Molly+Kristin, Julia+Allison
F: Courtney+Natalie, Caroline+Allison, Caroline+Lindsay

v Babson 0:1

Shots 2:2   Saves 1:0

4 Babson shot saved
15 Mila shot wide
18 Babson on breakaway --> 0:1
20 Babson corner
23 Amanda shot saved

v Emmanuel 0:0

Shots 4:1   Saves 0:4

2 Emmanuel shot wide
3 Dartmouth corner
5 Dartmouth corner
7 Molly shot saved
13 Dartmouth corner
14 Kristin shot saved
15 Molly shot saved
16 Blythe shot saved

v Azzurri 1:0

Shots 7:4   Saves 5:5

2 Jenn shot wide
5 Azzurri shot saved, hit the post
6 Julia shot saved
7 Julia shot wide
8 Allison shot saved
11 Julia shot saved
12 Courtney scored! --> 1:0
14 Dartmouth corner
16 Azzurri shot saved
20 Azzurri shot saved for a corner
21 Azzurri shot saved
26 Sophie shot saved

v Brandeis 0:1

Shots 0:3   Saves 0:0 (?)

3 Brandeis corner
6 Brandeis corner, scored on a header --> 1:0
16 Brandeis shot wide
18 Brandeis shot wide

Sunday, April 7, 2013

at Harvard 6Apr2013

Blue sky, nice 50F/10C weather with a great fan base -- Courtney's folks, Hannah's family, Lindsay's grandparents, maybe others!

We spoke about making the easy passes and keeping as much possession as possible. As the game progressed we improved our passing performance and used more-threatening diagonal passes.

Harvard wanted to play 40-minute halves -- probably good since this was our first game this spring. They played a kick-and-run game that we were smart not to copy! 

Neither team had long spells of possession, but we out-shot them 10:4 and 8 of our shots were on target! Lindsay's grandfather noted we were the better team! Credit Harvard's keeper (and OUR Hannah!!) for a scoreless draw. 

GK: Hannah N
OD: Blythe+Kate, Annie O
CD: Collin+Tessa, Julia
OM: Jenn+Mila, Amanda W+Katherine
CM: Julia+Liz, Allison+Lindsay
F: Courtney+Ginny, Caroline+Natalie

Shots 10:4   Saves 2:8
5 D corner
8 Mila shot saved
11 D corner, Liz shot saved
12 Courtney shot saved
16 Harvard shot saved --> corner, Harvard shot over
19 H corner
36 Jenn shot wide
45,49 Julia shot saved
54 Harvard shot saved --> corner
60 D corner
62 Collin shot saved
63 Harvard shot wide
71 Lindsay shot saved
73 Natalie shot wide
78 Natalie shot saved