Instead of introducing some more players, I wanted to take some time this week to talk about our season thus far. This year's team, players and coaches, are all so amazing and each and every one of them have truly put everything they have into making the team and this season better than last year. So far, we have played six regular-season games. Here’s a little bit about each game so far minus our New York trip.

Our second game this year, although not a conference match, was a big game to three of us especially. Jamie Blair, Jessica Estep, and myself all had personal motivation in our game against Ashland University. Jamie and I went to Ashland High School together and Jess went to Madison High School, both of which are close to each other and played each other in high school. So all three of us knew a lot of the players on the AU team as well as the coaches, giving us a little more of a reason to want to beat them. Although we played decently and really gave it a great effort, we came out with a 3-1 loss in the end. It was disappointing to all of us of course. If only we had another shot to show them how much better than them we really are.

The third game of the season was our HOME OPENER! We were extremely excited to finally play on our own pitch. Coming out against Point Park, we were still working on getting some of the kinks out of our new system of play, but we did look better than the game before. In soccer, as well as any sport, that really is the ultimate goal: to improve with every practice and game. Although they held us off for quite a while, we finally did get some goals and came away with a 2-0 win. This win proved to be especially important being our first home win of the season, our first conference win, as well as Coach Seiffert’s first career win. (see left) We were looking better everyday and were working towards the next match against Cumberlands.

Going into the game against Cumberlands, all we really knew was what Coach had told us about the team. They were receiving votes for the top 25 in NAIA and that they had been doing extremely well in their season so far. We all came out prepared for a hard-fought match and we were not disappointed. We really brought our game during the fight against Cumberlands, proving that we were ready to show people that we were a team that people should watch out for. Everyone really stepped up during this game. Whether they were starting or coming off the bench, upperclassmen or freshmen, everyone proved they were ready to play. The definite highlight of this game was our freshman, Jessica Linger, coming in and ending the match with her superb shot (see below) to score the golden goal in overtime for a 1-0 win. We were all so excited for her to score her first career collegiate goal and to also have it be the game-winning shot. She really stepped it up in this game and has continued to show she has what it takes to play college soccer.

Our second conference game against Ursuline ended in a lot of disappointment. Although EVERYONE on the team came out and really played their best, we could not come up with a win as we fell 1-0. Watching film from this match was both frustrating in seeing how we dominated the entire game but couldn’t put one away and also excited to see how much better we looked playing than in our first game of the season. We were showing so much improvement and I know the whole team really got excited to see how we have been growing. Coach has said since the beginning of preseason that the games you learn the most from are the ones you lose and this game really proved him correct. Although we were all very disappointed in the outcome, we did learn a lot about each other as well as how much we have improved. Now, it was just time for us to get the final part of our game down - finishing.

Our most recent game against Carlow University finally showed that we could put some goals away. Winning 3-0, I was so impressed with not only how well we played, but also with how we finally scored. I was so pleased and excited with how we played in this game. We really showed that we are a GREAT team of awesome players. Our passing was "spot on” as Coach says, we moved the ball around so well, getting a ton of switches through the back as well as the midfield, and our forwards really took it to their defense as well as their keeper. I feel like we are finally getting every aspect of the new formation and we are beginning to take off into a stellar season with all the talent we have on our roster. I love our team this year and am looking forward to our continual improvement on the pitch as well as growing even closer as a team and family.

Our next match is at home this Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. against Ohio Dominican. It will be an extremely intense and emotional game for more than one reason. We will come out ready to play and ready to prove what were made of!