Meet Tina Brehm

Tina is our AMAZING goalie! She's probably one of the most important players on the field, and she's one of my best friends, so she gets the next bio :)



Tina is a junior from Springfield, VA where she attended Robert E Lee high school. She played soccer, basketball, volleyball, AND football! Yup, she was their kicker, but during practice she worked with the wide receivers. At UMW she is a double biology/psychology major and plans on going to veterinary school. Tina is probably the nicest person on the planet. She is extremely selfless and very caring. At practice, if you forgot socks...Tina has extras. Need sunscreen, a hair tie, a band aid, tissues? You ask Tina and she will ALWAYS have it. Tina is kind of a big deal. Here are some stats from our 2009 season where she was our starting goalie as a sophomore.


Tina gained first team all-conference honors after posting 8 shut outs. She had 101 saves and a .808 save percentage (81% of shots on goal were saved). She allowed only 24 goals all season, with a 1.16 goals-against average (in an average game, only 1.16 goals were scored on us). She made 12 saves in the CAC tournament quarterfinal win over St. Mary's, and a career-high 18 saves against Salisbury in the semifinal game. Basically, Tina had an awesome season. I'm so glad we're the same year because I don't know what I'd do on the field without her!

The Hangover Commentary....finally!

Problem solved! Hope you like it!

2010 CAC Tournament

So, we tied St Mary's last Saturday, 1-1. Not a bad game, but it really would have helped our standings to have won. Anyway, all of the regular season games are finished, and we are ranked 6th. Here are all of the standings:
1- Stevenson (6-1-1)
2- Frostburg (6-2-0)
3- St. Mary's (5-2-1)
4- York (5-3-0)
5- Salisbury (5-3-0)
6- Mary Washington (3-3-2)
7- Marymount (2-6-0)
8- Hood (1-7-0)
9- Wesley (1-7-0)

As you can see, the top 5 teams are all really close. I'd also like to point out that yesterday we played Hood. We lost 1-0. They packed five defenders in the back! Essentially, the game didn't matter for standings at all. Win or lose we would be 6th, and they still don't make the tournament (top 6 make it). Sooo I'm not going to say we didn't really try that hard, but we were kinda nonchalant going into the game. And there goal was pure luck. Jus sayin. However, from here on out, it's do or die. If we win, we advance. If we lose, the season's over. Wish us luck!

Anyway, here's the break down for the tournament.
1 and 2 both get byes in the first round, so they are guaranteed a semifinal game at home. 3 plays 6 (at 3), and 4 plays 5 (at 4). So, here you can see how higher rankings are important, because it means you get home games. That means no sitting on a bus for several hours, no eating on the road, and no obnoxious fans. We will be traveling to St Mary's this Saturday. I think there is a very good chance we can win this game, but I don't want to talk about it too much because I don't want to jinx it! We're planning a slightly different formation, and I think it can definitely work.

Last year, we were 4 and St Mary's was 5. It was a soaking wet, muddy game. We won in overtime 2-1 and advanced to play at Salisbury, who was ranked first. More on the tournament last year later....

Homecoming.

The weekend is finally here. After what felt like the longest week ever, it's finally Friday night. Tomorrow's game against St. Mary's is huge. We're currently 3-2-1 in conference. With two more wins (tomorrow and next tuesday at Hood) we will be 5-2-1. With this record we will most likely be ranked 3rd in the conference. Assuming we win, there is only one game which will throw this off. Salisbury and Frostburg (the two teams we have lost to) are playing each other tomorrow as well. I have a feeling frostburg will win this one. They are currently both 5-2. So, it really doesn't matter who wins, but someone has to win; it can't be a draw. If it is, three teams will be 5-2-1. Stevenson has just about clinched 1st place, but 2nd-6th are still up for grabs.

If that was too confusing, go to the CAC website which will sum up all of the standings.

Soooo.... 1) it's homecoming.
2) we need your support!
3) why wouldn't you come to this game? Maybe you want to go to the guys game, and watching two full games of soccer sounds awful (I admit it, it can get kinda boring). However, if you hydrate yourself properly and are shouting obscenities it probably will be pretty fun.
4) I will personally guarantee that I will wreck someone tomorrow. And I have a good feeling that Amy will score.
5) they just painted an eagle onto our field, so all you artsy people should come check that out
6) Let's have some school spirit, I'm only asking for one weekend, that's not too much!

If you want to see some of this






then be there tomorrow, 1pm at the battlegrounds.

U-10 girls team supports the Eagles

A local under-10 girls team came out to our game vs York last weekend. They got to stand on the sidelines and be ball girls for our game, and we did a meet-and-greet with them afterwards. They recently won a tournament in Virginia Beach and wore their 1st place medals to our game! One of the players, Madeline, her mom is a chemistry professor here at UMW. She is currently me and two of my teammate's biochemistry professor, and Amy has her for general chemistry this semester, too. They were a great group of girls, hopefully they will make it out to a few more games!

First, please notice that I'm sitting at the front left with my leg sticking out to the side.


Second, please ATTEMPT to find me. You can see my leg sticking out, but I literally vanished. And yes, getting jumped on by five 10 year olds and several 20 year olds is extremely painful.

Erin Reynolds, #3

Erin Reynolds is a freshman forward at UMW.  She is from Oakton, VA where she attended Oakton High School (same as me!). Erin was also on the swim team for the cougars and advanced to the state swim meet three time.  Erin is undecided on a major, but will be working with the elementary education program.



So far this season Erin has one goal against NC Wesleyan and two assists, one of which came in our recent match against Stevenson (video below).  Erin is playing through an ankle injury which will require surgery after the season.  Once she's up to speed, she, as our head coach said, "has the potential to be an All-American."  Erin will be doing a lot of great things for our program, and we're so excited to have her as a key component of our team.

Erin will receive the ball on the far side of the field from a throw in, dribble towards the end line, and cross the ball across the goalmouth to junior Becky Clark. This goal tied the game at 1-1 in the beginning of the second half.

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Video from NC Wesleyan game

As promised, here is a video clip from our match two weeks ago.  This is the second half of the game and we are wearing blue.  Two goals were scored in this half.  The first comes at about 1:10 on the video.  Freshman Erin Reynolds scores on a break away.  The goal that I scored is at 7:30, assisted by senior captain Sarah Tryon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x92vUeOaIA

what's next?

Sorry, got a little carried away with that last post.  We played a great game yesterday.  Our team finally "clicked."  We moved the ball really well in the first half, which paid off because we were up 2 goals at halftime.  The first goal was a long cross from outside the box which Amy deflected off of her head right inside the back post.  The second goal came about fifteen minutes later. Lindsay Bennett, a freshmen, drilled a ball on the ground from just inside the 18.  Morgan Thompson did a great job setting a pick on the goalie (...not really sure if that's legal..) and the ball slid right into the net. It was extremely windy yesterday, and it was blowing in our favor in the first half.  The second half we struggled a bit.  We couldn't quite find out rhythm again, but we kept up the work rate which was critical.  We made a few mistakes in the back, but covered for each other really well. All in all, it was a good game for us; we really needed a solid win.

Next, we head to Stevenson University in MD on Tuesday.  When we played them last year, we lost 3-2 in overtime. We played them again in the conference championship game, where we won in penalty kicks.  This will definitely be a great match and another win here would certainly help us in the CAC standings.

This is our team hanging out at me and Amy's house after our win!

WE WON!

UMW defeats york 2-0!! This is the first time we've beaten them in several years!  If we win our next three games (stevenson, st marys, hood)  we are first in the conference!

YEAH WASH!!

PS Amy scored :)

home game tomorrow!

We have an important game vs York tomorrow! They are currently ranked 3rd in the conference (we are 6th, but haven't played as many games as everyone else...).  We have four more games left before the conference tournament, and it is critical that we do well!! We could definitely use some support this weekend and next weekend at homecoming!  Come out the Battlegrounds off of Hanover at 1pm on Saturday! Go Wash!

Meet Emmalee Denkler

Our second bio goes to # 13, because her dad is the one that takes all of the awesome pictures I've been posting here! So, a big thank you goes to Mr. Denkler!



Denkler (I don't call her Emmalee, that just seems weird now) is a sophomore from Arlington, VA. She attended Yorktown high school, where she played soccer and basketball. As a freshmen, Denkler immediately made an impact playing defense (with me!). She started all twenty games, and was nominated to first team all-conference at the end of the season. Denkler is a very smart, athletic player. She is great at winning balls in the air and loves to take the ball forward from the back. I'm pretty sure she has the longest throw in on the team, too! She wears super cool head gear because last year in the semifinal CAC game, big ol' tina from salisbury had a dirty hit from behind and gave Denk a concussion. But we won, so tina can suck it (we don't like her very much). Anyway, Denkler has been playing defense and some center midfield this year, too. Although when she's at midfield, I really miss her in the back!

The Social Network

What a great idea, making a movie about the invention of possibly the greatest social network of all time. Most movies about historical events are created decades or even hundreds of years after the event occurred (think Blackhawk Down, 300). This one was made less than 10 years later. Good thing too, because it was our generation that essentially made facebook what it is. A generation ten or twenty years from now may not appreciate this invention as much as we would. Besides, facebook, yes I'm going to say it, may not even exist in ten or twenty years from now. Weird thought, right? I'm really curious to see how it will continue to evolve.
About the movie though, at the end it said that Mark had to pay 65 million dollars to the Winklevoss brothers. If he had originally fessed up to stealing their idea, what would his repercussions be? Would he have to turn the company over? Would it only have been maybe $6,500 at the time? I'm not sure how Intellectual Property Rights are enforced, but I'm curious as to how an early confession would have affected the outcome of the company. Anyway, I really liked the movie and it actually made me appreciate facebook and the business side behind it.

Airborne School- a story from papa strat

This is a story told by my dad of when he attended airborne school when he was in the army.

The first parts follow our assignment of finding an "uninteresting story," but if you listen all the way to the end, I just had to add a slightly more interesting piece about the blackhats.

Enjoy!

dad's story

Chrissy Reardon, #10

Meet Chrissy. She is a senior midfielder and captain. She is the first of many player bios I'll be doing this semester. She is the lucky first bio because it was Chrissy that first came up with the nickname strat cat. So, she rightfully earns the first one!

Chrissy is a senior from Springfield, VA where she attended Robert E. Lee high school. She played both soccer and basketball. At UMW she is a psychology major. During her first three years she has scored seven goals, one of which was in the 2009 NCAA tournament. She has scored two goals so far this season. Chrissy is a fantastic captain and is one of the hardest workers on the team. She sends emails to all of us telling us what practice uniforms to wear each and every day. Now that's a lot of responsibility! Chrissy is a camp counselor over the summer and she can also play the ukulele. Go #10!

victory in NC, off to PA

Finally back on track! We beat NC Wesleyan yesterday 5-1. It was really nice to score some goals and possess the ball. They weren't a bad team, but they did have a very small roster! I think they only had about three subs on the sideline, compared to our sixteen. We had five different people score: Tryon, Rader, Sunny, Erin, and me! I got my first collegiate goal yesterday, really exciting! Everyone got on the field yesterday, including our freshmen second string goalie, Maddy. We were all ready glad she got on the field for the first time.

Saturday, when everyone else is going home for fall break, our team will be headed to Pennsylvania to play Haverford College. Just like NCW, this game isn't important for conference standings, but it is important for our team's confidence and rhythm. Gotta keep the goals coming!

Project Proposal

For my project, I'm going to be taking my readers through a typical varsity soccer season at UMW. I'll be including when our upcoming matches are, who we are playing, and what happens in the games. I also hope to have a few player bios and introduce you to our team! Once we get a little farther into conference play, I'll be detailing how the conference tournament works and where each school is ranked. Hopefully I'll even be able to tell you about how the NCAA tournament functions, as well. However, the season will eventually come to an end. After that, I'll be blogging about the ankle surgery I'll most likely be having in late November.

Go Wash!

Down to NC tomorrow..

Lost on Saturday 1-0. Don't really want to talk about it.

Tomorrow we're headed to North Carolina Wesleyan. Should be a good game, but doesn't really matter for our standings. We need this game to build our confidence and start scoring some goals! We've been in a rut the past few weeks so hopefully we can build out of it tomorrow and this Saturday at Haverford. Then it's fall break! Finally! I think our whole team could definitely use a few days off to get some extra rest. I know I could.

Also, I have my doctor's appointment over fall break to set up a surgery date for my ankle. eek! Gotta get through two games first. Wish us luck!

Big Game Tomorrow!!

On Saturday, the team will be heading to Salisbury, MD to take on the Seagulls! Salisbury is a huuuge conference rival for just about every sport at UMW. Our team has a lot of history with them. Last year during the regular season we lost to them 2-1 in overtime. At the end of the regular season they were seeded 1st, and we were 4th. After winning the first round in the CAC tournament, we headed to salisbury to play in the semifinal game. We were out shot about 35-7, but they couldn't score. With the score at 0-0, we went into overtime and still no goals were scored. After a series of penalty kicks, they STILL didn't score a single goal, but we did, so we advanced to the conference championship game. They obviously were not pleased being beat on their home turf!
Salisbury is a very important game and getting a W here is crucial for our conference standings. It'll be a hard game, but I think we can pull it off!