Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

November 14, 2011

Disclaimer: This blog could get sappy.

Rewind eleven years. My mom and I are wandering throughout our local Kmart, trying to find these things called shin guards. Earlier that morning, my mama frantically called all the soccer moms she knew, trying to figure out what’s needed for the sport. Shin guards was on the grocery list, along with orange slices and a two gallon water bottle.

On the way over to the YMCA, I pull my dad’s old black socks over my small feet and slap my new Velcro shin guards on top, completely oblivious to proper shin guard etiquette. We enter the brown gymnasium and I am greeted by an avid soccer-mom-turned-coach who invites me to “kick the ball around.” Not long after this does the whistle blow and I am pushed out onto the gym floor and into my first soccer game ever.  

We lost 10-1. Out of sheer luck, I scored the lone goal when my teammate ricocheted the ball from my brand new shin guards into the net. I still remember the goalie collapsing and sobbing after the game was over; apparently it was the first time their team had ever been scored on. That’s when I realized that I could really like this sport.

Fast forward seven years later. Seven years of car pools, Gatorade, tournament t-shirts, team pictures, Bohemian Rhapsody jam sessions, sparkly headbands, and many pairs of cleats. I’m sitting in Coach Mac’s office as he brags about the wonderful women who’ve passed through the Cedarville soccer program, and I suddenly realize I want to be one of them. I meet the team that evening, which solidifies my desire to come to Cedarville to play the sport I have grown to love.
It’s amazing for me to look back now and see how God has guided me to where I currently am. If my childhood friends had never signed up for soccer, I would have never begged my mom to enroll me in the local YMCA’s indoor program. I would have probably never experienced the soccer world, and more than likely would have lived my entire life never experiencing Cedarville.

I also may have never experienced two ACL surgeries, a torn calf, and messed up ankles. You’re tearing yourself up over a dumb sport. You are gonna regret all those hard tackles and swollen knees when you’re older. I’ve heard the warnings and am sure plenty of people believe I’m a certified lunatic for playing another season after practically rebuilding both of my knees. If the physical sacrifice wasn’t enough, soccer constantly drained me emotionally and mentally as well. Even as an art major, I have had my share of sleepless nights trying to juggle school, work, and soccer. Most who have never experienced the sport think we are crazy to put so much energy into a 90-minute game.

We are crazy. And when about thirty crazy people are together for almost twenty hours a week, there is bound to be incidents, jokes, conflicts, and memories that will not easily be forgotten.

To my soccer family: Remember that time we drove all the way to West Virginia in October and our game was cancelled due to snow? Or the time we stayed at a hotel called Lord Amherst with the room phones stapled to the nightstands and cowboy wallpaper adorning each room? Or when Roper thought we were shouting “Skype!” instead of “Snipe!” when trying to hit someone with the ball? Or when Kristie completely failed in drinking from her straw at Ponderosa and we caught it all on tape? Or the consecutive practices when every ball I kicked somehow hit Karen in the face? When Coach used his favorite quotation that one season, “Don’t rest on your laurels,” all the time? When our entire team played Pterodactyl in the IWU parking lot waiting for the storm to pass? When Kelly “I’m addicted to scavenger hunts” Wise made us grab Oreos off our faces, when Emmy did her cut move every game and it worked, or when Sarah exclaimed “Don’t kick me, Rachel!” during warm-ups and we still quote her four years later?

I could go on and on, but I won’t bore you with my nostalgia. I do want to thank everyone who has been faithfully reading my blog. Shout-out to my family, roommate Ally “I love reading sports blogs!” Stafford, Grandma Ziegler, Aunt Connie, and countless others who have motivated me to keep writing when it’s Sunday night and I’m exhausted from the weekend.

One thing’s for sure: I will miss this team. I am so thankful to be a part of a group of girls and coaches that have not only challenged me physically and emotionally, but also spiritually. I will never forget the tough lessons I learned in Bible study, the deep conversations about my faith with fellow teammates, and the charge before every game to play for God’s glory. It has been an amazing four years, and I thank God for every single minute of it.


November 7, 2011

This week will be a special treat to all of my fifteen faithful blog readers, for I have asked blogging expert Bri “Coach Coach” Barnes to guest-write. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll raise your eyebrows, and you’ll reevaluate your worldview (okay, maybe not so much). Enjoy!

“Winston Churchill, a man known for leading Britain through some of its darkest hours (and his cigar smoking), was quoted as saying “history is written by the victors.” Never have I found this quote to be truer than when reading this blog throughout the season. Granted, Kelsey hasn’t necessarily beaten me at anything, but she has won the privilege of being the blogger this year. In her depiction of our games and travels this year, I have found myself being a little misrepresented. For those of you faithful readers who do not know, I was once a teammate of Kelsey’s and her mentor in all things blog-related. I now have the job of assistant coach, a much more thankless job if you ask me!

Part of my responsibilities include finding places for the team to eat on our road trips. Not to slip into the “we had to walk uphill both ways throughfive feet of snow to get to school” mentality, but when I was a player, we ate at pretty much the same place on every road trip. (Here’s a hint: it was founded by Dave, and there is guaranteed to be one in every town in Ohio.)  Knowing the anguish of having to eat the same thing every trip, I have really tried this year to get in a good variety of places. So while Kelsey told you all my epic mistakes of leading the team to a Quizno’s that was closed, and having to eat at the dreaded way of subs again, she also failed to mention my equally as epic triumphs! I’ll have you know we’ve eaten at Chick-fil-a, Bob Evans, Wendy’s, Panera, and Pizza Hut…but more on this later.  Don’t believe the lies good readers!!!

Now that my good name is restored, I can start to tell you about our adventure through the Ohio Independent Championship tournament! Because we are still in the process of fully being a member of the NCAA, we are unable to play in a conference this year. There are several other schools that are in the same boat, so they all decided to band together and create the Ohio Independent Championships for various sports. It is just a way for us to have a pseudo-conference tournament and to get in a few more games for our season. We played all of the teams in said tournament this year, and they had all been tough battles. I believe all but one of them were decided by one goal, and three of them went to overtime.  With this information in the back of our mind we knew that we were fully capable of winning all of these games.

Armed with this knowledge, we prepared to face the Blue Knights of Urbana. As you know, we had just played Urbana on Senior Night, and Rachel “We have to reschedule our Halloween party again” Brownfield had scored the game’s only two goals. Those Brownfields must love Urbana, because this time it was Sarah “I should have been born first” Brownfield who scored the game’s only goal. It was a solid victory for us and more importantly it let us advance to the semi-finals of the OIC. 

We feverishly prepared for the upcoming weekend, and really hoped that we would be playing not just one, but two games. Our first match was set for Friday night, up in Cleveland, against Notre Dame. If you remember, this was the site of my aforementioned Quizno’s debacle. Vowing to not make the same mistake, I searched and searched for somewhere we could eat to redeem myself. Redemption was found in the form of a Panera just 30 minutes away from Notre Dame. So with great food in our stomachs, we prepared to battle Notre Dame on the dreaded turf of Brush High School. 

The game started off rough for both teams, but we soon found our rhythm, only to have it squashed by a sloppy Notre Dame goal. It’s one thing to give up a goal off an amazing shot, but when things are just unlucky, it can really take the wind out of the old sails. The team however dug in and stepped up their game. A beautiful Morgan “I defy the percentages” Ziegler shot sailed over Notre Dame’s goalie and tied the game for us. At halftime we all felt good, ready to move onto the championship game the next afternoon. It was not to be though, as Notre Dame got its own, equally as beautiful shot, into the back of our net. As a coach I couldn’t have asked for more from our girls. They played hard all 90 minutes and played some of our best soccer of the year. While it was hard to get back on that bus and ride home, I was proud of the effort we put in. 

Our next adventure is the NCCAA tournament that will start sometime this week. Regrettably, I won’t be here to recap it for you, but I think you’re in good hands with Kelsey “I owe all my blogging skills to Bri and Spri” Watkins!”   


October 31, 2011

Last week was nothing short of memorable. From Senior Night to snowy days, our team weathered the last home game of the regular season, some freezing practices, and eleven hours on a windy highway to complete one of my favorite soccer weeks so far.

Tuesday night’s game versus Urbana was deemed Senior Night. For the six of us veterans who have experienced four years of wins, losses, Coach Mac jokes, short buses, and Red Hot cheers, the game held a little more meaning than usual. Before the match, we seniors walked into a locker room decked out with streamers, balloons, gifts, and candy from the underclassmen to celebrate our last season together. As the team settled down at 5:45 pm in preparation for Coach Mac’s locker room talk, I tried to heed to Megan Spring’s advice from last year and savor the moment. All of the girls who were sitting in that locker room had impacted my life at some point in some way. I realized how blessed I was to be surrounded by each and every one of them, and I only hoped they knew how much they meant to me.

I eventually snapped out of my emotional daydreaming to focus on Coach Mac’s remarks about Urbana. Once he finished telling us a bit about their system and motivating us to play our game, he paused. Then he got out his smartphone. After explaining that we needed to “get our motors running tonight,” he opened up a racing car app and turned up the volume so that we could hear an engine revving up. I sure will miss Coach “Vroom Vroom” Mac.

That night, we did play our game. Rachel was on fire with two goals, while Kari and the defenders denied Urbana hardly any scoring opportunities. Winning 2-0 was a great way to end the night. To celebrate, Coach Bri “Can’t find my keys” Barnes even ordered a couple specialty pizzas from Colonial (I still believe she is trying to make up for the Quizno’s incident.)

Friday afternoon, we climbed onto our charter bus that we would inhabit for practically two days en route to Davis & Elkins College in the beautiful state of West Virginia, aka Almost Heaven, aka Mountain Mama, aka Where Dresden and Kelso Call Home. A couple hours in, Coach used his smartphone technologies once again, but this time it was to bring some bad news:

Eight to twelve inches of snow expected in Randolph County, West Virginia.
Winter Storm Advisory. Possible Power Lines Down. High Winds.

Awesome. While most of us didn’t pack much more than an extra long-sleeve t-shirt for warmth, we were pretty dumbfounded to find that we might be playing in snow before Halloween.

Thankfully, we preoccupied ourselves with various activities on the trip. We were entertained for literally hours by making silly videos on the bus, including one where Morgan’s friend “Fresden” made a special appearance. At some point the bus even turned into a mobile beauty salon, complete with manicure stations, back massages, and even eyebrow tweezing. We get creative when we’re bored.

Some great memories were also had at Ponderosa involving Kristie “Where’s the straw?” Wolff and Bri “It’s so funny I’m crying” Barnes. Don’t worry if you think you’ve missed out; it was all caught on film.

So you are probably wondering when I will ever talk about the game on Saturday. It just so happens that Coach’s weather forecast was semi-correct. We woke up Saturday morning to a couple inches of snow outside our Super 8 Motel window, and within a couple hours we were informed that the game against Davis & Elkins was cancelled. There were some mixed emotions as we piled back onto the bus, but after Coach’s explanation of the shape D&E’s field was in, I was relieved to avoid a messy game that may not have accurately portrayed our soccer skills.

Tuesday we play Urbana at 7 pm for the first round of a six-team tournament we’re participating in. This will be our final home game of the season, so brave the cold weather and support us for one more match! We always make it interesting.

See you on the field!


October 24, 2011

You will be happy to know we survived last week’s bus trip with the boys’ soccer team to Malone. In fact, it was almost enjoyable. Both of our teams had the opportunity to see each other play, which was a rarity for us this season with our overlapping schedules. We even broke out the crossword puzzles for the last part of the trip home, and with help from puzzle gurus like Ryan, Steve, Stephen, and of course Myles, we almost completed one (still can’t figure out the eight-letter word for ‘shifts the party in high gear.’) There was also a touching dramatic reading by Eric Hoober over the charter bus microphone, in which he expressed the painful truth:  “Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.”

The Malone game itself was a rough one. Having our last two games on turf, it took us awhile to get adjusted to their uneven, muddy playing field. Both teams were physical, but the amount of fouls called seemed a bit excessive. We lit up the scoreboard first when Emily “Put me at forward, Coach!” Niedermayer volleyed in a sweet cross by Arianna “Scotcharoos” Pepper to score her first goal of the season, which was quite impressive for a central defender. It wasn’t much later, however, that a questionable foul called in our box gave Malone a penalty kick to tie up the game. Since we like overtimes so much, the rest of the regulation time remained scoreless. It wasn’t until the first fifteen seconds of the second overtime that Amanda “Brucie” Bunton tightened up the laces of her pink cleats and hammered a shot in Malone’s net to win us the game.

Our following practices before Saturday’s game were full of energy and high spirits. It is obvious that we have grown so much closer as friends and sisters in Christ just in these last couple of weeks. Enduring long bus trips, tough practices, great wins, and disappointing losses, we are more of a family now than we’ve ever been. It has been so encouraging to come to practice and be uplifted instead of stressed out, and I’m so thankful for that.

Speaking of emotion, Saturday’s game was full of it. From a red card received by Ursuline’s coach to physical tackles that should only be tolerated in a Cedarville rugby match, it was one of the most interesting games I’ve ever played on our home turf. Unfortunately, it ended sourly as Ursuline sneaked one in within the last six minutes of the game, winning 1-0. Our heads were hanging low when the buzzer sounded because we knew we had dominated possession against this 10-2 team the entire time. However, possession doesn’t win games. Hitting the side post doesn’t win games. And in this case, hard work doesn’t always win games.

I think it’s safe to say we are disappointed with our record. To tell an outsider we are 5-7-2 is tough, but I’ve realized that being embarrassed just proves that our pride is hurt. We have to suck it up and keep marching on. Our season isn’t over yet, and we are not striving to impress the outsiders anyway. We still have a chance to turn the season around, and even if we don’t, it will still be one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve experienced at Cedarville.

Tuesday marks the last guaranteed home game for us as we take on Urbana at 7:00 pm. It is also Senior Night, so there is no better time to cheer us on!

See you on the field!


October 17, 2011

Last week’s match against Notre Dame was yet another game that caused both celebratory dances and long faces. One thing is for sure: when we lose, we make it exciting.

We traveled three hours to Lyndhurst, Ohio to arrive at Notre Dame College (the Falcons, not the Fighting Irish.) After being greeted by (and snapping a few pictures with) the life-size picture cutouts of Notre Dame athletes in their athletic center hallway, we meandered around the building like a lost herd of sheep for the second time that day. After this weekend, I think our team should sport a new slogan: CU Women’s Soccer - We may not know where we’re going, but at least we’re early! You see, our nomadic tendencies actually began on our bus trip up.

It all started when our team marched onto the Dayton Dragon’s charter bus in Cedarville. After strategically picking our seats that we would be inhabiting for six hours that day, Coach Bri dished us some thrilling news -- we were going to Quizno’s instead of Subway for lunch! As the engine revved up and our stomachs dreamed of a sandwich shop that wasn’t endorsed by Jerry, Coach Bri sat in the middle of the bus and soaked in the thanks we rained upon her for choosing a different restaurant. Meanwhile, the rain outside the bus pelted the cold windows, reminding us that our game was going to be chilly and wet. However, we were too distracted by the breaking food news to worry about the weather of the match. 

Over halfway there, we pulled off an exit while Bri directed our bus driver to “Quizno’s.” We hustled out of our mobile cave, our stomachs growling like bears. We walked past a cluster of stores as Coach Mac led the charge to the restaurant. Following the crowd, half of us walked right by the alleged Quizno’s that Bri had in mind. Dark room, construction inside. Quizno’s was closed. Some of us laughed, some of us cried (no not really.) Then we trudged back onto the bus and stopped at the next available restaurant around…Subway. Bri is not going to live that one down anytime soon.

The game itself was on a local high school football field the Falcons use for their home turf. The majority of the match was accompanied with misty rain, which reminded Melissa “Blinks” Ruhlman of sweet Seattle. It reminded Jill “Team Edward” Carroll of Forks.

Notre Dame scored their first goal midway through the first half. However, we maintained more minutes of possession of the ball. The last twenty minutes of the second half, we camped out near their goal, coming close numerous times to getting one in. Being the dramatic team we are, it wasn’t until the last fifteen seconds of regulation time that Arianna “Come sail away” Pepper sent a free kick into the box and Deanne “Deanimal” Bradshaw snuck it in the lower left corner of the goal using her head. We were absolutely ecstatic.

Unfortunately, overtime was yet again unkind to us. In the last couple minutes of the second overtime, the Falcons sealed the win on a breakaway. I’m pretty sure my mouth was hanging open when I saw it happen, because the side referee walked past me and murmured, “After all of that. I really thought you had them. What a shame.”

Personally, I was disappointed in the loss because Coach Mac’s inspirational locker room speech went to waste. However, I will still leave you with one of his memorable quotations from game day: “Girls, we are going to go to the bus so that we can go to the bus. We are going to get on the bus. Then, we are going to drive.” (Coach Mac, you know I’m just pulling your leg for the jokester you are.)

We travel to Malone Tuesday with the boys team for a doubleheader. Pray for safety. It probably wouldn’t hurt to pray for our sanity as well.

See you on the field!


October 10, 2011

As you may have noticed from past blogs, we like to use nicknames on our team. Some have great stories behind them; others are so random you would think we just opened the dictionary and blindly picked out a word. In any case, there is some odd pleasure we get when we’re cheering on our teammates with a name different from what their mama gave them.

As a freshman, I remember coming in with the dilemma of not knowing whether to call the upperclassmen by their revered nicknames: Hawaii, Cookie, Widdy, Spri, Burgy, Killer, B, and Lace Face, to name a few. I would test the waters every now and then, but it wasn’t until I was branded Kelso that I was confident I could join in. However, Rachel and Sarah Brownfield, my favorite twins, did not have this same fear. Being the creative kids they are, their specialty was attaching “ie” to nearly every teammate’s first name. It’s no wonder we call them Rachie and Brownie three years later.

Even more entertaining are the sayings the Brownfields bring to our sideline cheers. For example, a player rushing the ball down the flank is the perfect time to shout, “Drop the piano!” Hands down, Rachie’s favorite is “On your horse!” The best part about this saying is that it can be easily modified to fit the player you’re cheering for. In last Friday’s game against Ohio Dominican, Anna “Dairy Farm” Schmid was sprinting down the field, and our entire bench exclaimed, “On your cow, Anna! On your cow!!”

Rachel also enjoys using only the first syllable of a word, kinda like Kevin on last week’s episode of The Office. During pre-game warm-up Tuesday, she encouraged us to try and not focus on our “strugs,” (struggles). By the end of warm-up, we had yet another catchy Brownfieldism to add to the list: “Shrug off the strugs!!”

The freshmen are slowly earning some quality nicknames as the season progresses. Elise Hurley now goes by Llama after she offhandedly mentioned one day in practice that she used to show llamas as a kid. Kristie Wolff has a great nickname, Wolfie, and we always like asking her what’s the time. Then there’s Faulds and Flying Lemur, our two sweet goalies.

Sarah Storkel wins with most nicknames to date, including but not limited to Snorks, Storks, Snorkel, Snorkeling, Stork Dork, Snork Dork, Radio, and Four Dates.

This week will be a unique one as we travel Wednesday to Notre Dame College to take on the Lady Falcons at 7:00 p.m. Shout out to Coach Mac for letting us practice on our own the rest of the week so that we can have the chance to go home for Fall Break and spend time with family. I’d ask that you pray for our team as well as others as we are trying to cram in study sessions and mid-terms before the break begins.
   
See you on the field!


October 3, 2011

“We had been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night.” This quotation is from the classic movie, Forrest Gump. I am starting to believe that the writer of this line actually lived in Cedarville at some point in his box-of-chocolates life. This week, our soccer team easily experienced three of the four kinds of rain Forrest did, paired with temperatures in the 20-80 degree range. Okay, it’s possible I’m exaggerating a bit, but there is no doubt that Ohio weather never fails to test our high-performance raingear on the soccer field.

Last week, we were able to have a full five days of practice with the cancellation of our game against Tiffin. It was great to catch a breather and get some homework out of the way, and I am sure all of the girls were excited to get in a complete week of Chuck’s meals. However, I am honestly starting to miss our crammed jam sessions on the athletic bus with Coach Mac at the wheel. Don’t worry about us, though; they’ll resume this weekend!

Friday was easily my favorite practice of the week. As the Jumanji-style monsoon subsided right before 4:00 p.m., we journeyed out onto the gravel road and then took a moment of silence for what our poor, once-perfectly manicured practice field had become. We were thankful Coach didn’t force us to wheelbarrow or bear-crawl through the mud/quicksand like he did Wednesday, and once we fell a few times and Dresden “Cacklin’” Matson got over her fear of dirt, we had a blast battling in the muck. I especially enjoyed the moment when Emily “Franklin” Niedermayer fell on her back and, after rocking back and forth a few times like a helpless turtle, realized she was suction-cupped to the muddy ground. No worries, though, it only took a couple of us to pull her back up, and she was good to go for the rest of practice.

Meanwhile, I was as giddy as a kid on Halloween the entire practice, mainly because I knew a secret most of the girls didn’t: alumna Megan “Raft-floater” Spring was driving all the way from Boston to surprise us. After nearly giving away this secret three times during the week (and spilling it to Mo-Z “On over” Ziegler ten minutes after finding out), it’s safe to say I’m not great at keeping exciting news to myself.

The entire weekend was full of catching up with old friends and teammates, including Kelly “She’s still wise to me” Bender, Torrie “Pass the pepper” Bender, Amber “Sign language” Laing, and Katie “Cookie” Koch. About twenty former players braved the little bitty stingin’ rain Saturday morning to relive their glory days on the practice field. I have to admit, I think they would give us a run for our money.

The Homecoming game was not exactly warm and sunny, but our dedicated fans bundled up and watched us grab another win against Campbellsville. Rachel “Snipin’” Brownfield placed two great goals in the back of the net, one crossbar shy of a hat trick. I also have to give a shout-out to our stonewall defense, who only allowed one shot on goal for the opponents the entire game.

Cheer us on this Tuesday as we battle Wilmington on our home turf. The game starts at 7:00 p.m.

See you on the field!


September 26, 2011

There is no doubt this past week has been a great one for Lady Jacket Soccer. Netting wins against Mount Vernon Nazarene and Asbury was just the boost we needed, and we are anxious to have a full week of practice before our Homecoming game against Campbellsville Saturday.

The week began with a rainy Monday, forcing us to practice inside. While moving from grass to gym floor can be frustrating, I have never seen so much energy balled up into one practice. This attitude carried over into our home game on Tuesday, where we sent waves of goal opportunities toward Mount Vernon’s keeper. However, we didn’t see the ball cross the goal line until the 87th minute. Rachel “Rascal” Brownfield and a few other players scrambled with the goalie in the box until the whistle blew, and the scoreboard illuminated a “1” for the home team. Though it was an own goal, I will assure you that we are not picky, and my pops reminded me at the end of the game with his frequent words of wisdom, “A goal’s a goal!”

The day became even more memorable when we were all huddled in Callan 219 watching highlights of the game the following Wednesday. This is where we noticed Morgan “Footloose” Ziegler’s celebration after the goal had been scored, in which she leapt into the air and produced a move comparable to a salchow or triple Lutz on ice. Of course, this isn’t the only part of the game we replayed half a dozen times. Watching film has really helped us players on the field become more aware of our presence on the pitch and discover better passing seams through the different formations we compete against.

This past Saturday our drought of goals (scored by our own cleats) was lifted and the floods came down, thanks to Deanne “Animal” Bradshaw, Amanda “Don’t mess with Brucie” Bunton, Kristie “Howlin’” Wolff, and Dresden “Spinturn” Matson. Freshman Christine Faulds finally got the chance to show her skills between the pipes for the first time, of which she did a fantastic job. It was obvious our team was thirsty for some goals, and we never stopped until the clock ran out.

Coach Bri “Coupon-Clipping” Barnes exclaimed to me after the game, “Yes Kelso! We won AND your blog is gonna be so much easier to write!” So true.

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow and support our team. We’ll see you Saturday at Homecoming!


September 19, 2011

I thought of about five different clichés to start off the blog for this week and settled on this one: “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” Dramatic or not, it fits our current situation pretty well. Goalies are essential.

At the Bryan tournament last Saturday in Tennessee, Keri “Flying Lemur” Sachtleben fell down hard on her elbow, and after some evaluations she was told to take it easy for a while (aka no soccer for you.) Christine “Concussed is a word” Faulds, our other freshman goalie recruit, has been unable to show her skills between the pipes this season, much to her teammates’ dismay.

For those who may not realize, our team is not only known for our sweet soccer skills. We also always boast a lengthy injury report. In fact, if you ever want to meet some of us players, just stroll on down to the Cedarville athletic training room at around 4 o’ clock; half of the team is in there getting bandaged, iced, stretched, and pushed out the door just in time for afternoon practice.

With such a reputation, this past week was not the first time I’ve heard Coach ask our bench, “Alright ladies, do we have any volunteers to be goalie?” Thankfully, Brazil (Elizabeth Cox) stepped in to save the day in more ways than one. With only one day of training from expert fireman/Jamaican/professor/goalie coach Kevin “Skype!” Roper, Liz braved our two home games last week as interim goalie and did a fantastic job considering the circumstances. However, we are looking forward to seeing our freshmen goalies back in full health and ready to defend the Cedarville net soon.

With a couple more tough losses tacked on the scoresheet, it has been a trying time for us to keep our heads up and press on. I honestly believe this team has been the most talented group of girls I’ve ever played with; we are simply not seeing the results yet. We have been missing open shots on goal (obviously trying to mimic our heroes Rooney and Torres in the Manchester United vs. Chelsea game Sunday ) and making small but costly mistakes on defense. These factors among others have kept us out of reach of the coveted “W”.

Perhaps God is just setting us up for the next great inspirational movie storyline (Facing the Giants, Part 2?) Whatever the case, it is so refreshing to know that our performance in soccer will not grant us more points in God’s eyes. It’s how we respond that matters.


September 12, 2011

Three away games, twenty hours on a bus, five movies, a documentary, two continental breakfasts, 4 1/2 completed crossword puzzles (@MoZie), hundreds of tweets, countless homework assignments finished (none of them being mine), a win, a tie, and a loss – last week was a memorable one.

Tuesday we traveled to Defiance, Ohio to take on another set of Yellow Jackets. They were also located in the middle of the cornfields, and the similarities didn’t stop there. As the game began, we didn’t realize our twelfth opposing player would be the wind. This was not just any wind, but the kind you only find in high-performance wind tunnels or walks around Cedar Lake. Although we dominated possession during the game (you’ll get sick of hearing me say that), Defiance found the net first. It wasn’t until the end of the first half that Kristie “The Big Bad” Wolff decide to huff and puff and blow the keeper out of the way with her first collegiate goal, as well as the first goal of our season.

During halftime, I overheard defender Arianna “I eat, sleep, and breathe Disney movies” Pepper state how she was itching for a goal as well. It was more than exciting when her free kick in the second half sailed right into the net like John Smith sailed right into the path of Pocahontas. Other goals by Amanda “Yellow Card” Bunton and Morgan “I love my work boots” Ziegler sealed the deal for our first W of the season.

After a pit stop at Cedarville, we jumped back on the bus Thursday night for our journey to Bryan College in Tennessee. Surprisingly, the seven-hour trip did not seem that long. This was probably due to the fact that coach encouraged us to “interact” with one another. In fact, these were his exact words: “Interact with each other, ladies. When I coached the men’s soccer team, they would always talk about their upcoming plans and future spouses, fun stuff like that.” Although we may not have touched on those exact subjects, we had a lot of fun. We are also still debating whether tweeting is an acceptable team-bonding activity.

Friday, we took on the Bryan Lions with one of the most hopeful, yet frustrating games I have ever played. Our team out-shot the Lions 23-2, a margin of 17-0 in the second half, but we simply could not get the ball past their goalie. It was a similar story on Saturday when we competed against Cumberlands, another team in the tournament.

Unfortunately, shooting percentages don’t win games. However, we also gained confidence in our new system of play and started to get more chemistry on the field. It is extremely humbling to head home after some disappointing results, but maybe that’s what our team needed. Thankfully, we won’t have to hop back on another bus for a while as our next six matches are at home. We take on Taylor University at 6:00 pm Tuesday night.

See you on the field!

(This time when I say it, I really expect it.) 


September 6, 2011

“From an emotional high to an emotional low…to another emotional high to another emotional low…to a let’s-go-eat-pizza.” This quotation from Coach Bri Barnes basically sums up the five phases we experienced at Saturday night’s away game versus Indiana Wesleyan. Of the four years I’ve played at Cedarville, three of our opening games have been plagued with lightning and thunderstorms, and this game was no exception.

We arrived at Indiana Wesleyan ready to play. While we upperclassmen explained to the freshmen that IWU (pronounced eye-woo) has always been a tough, quick opponent, I could tell they were nervous. It reminded me of my freshmen days when I heard seniors like Lisa “Burgy” Burgman and Katie “Cookie” Koch talk about IWU incessantly, instilling fear into all of us newbies. Losing to them every year, we were finally ready to make a statement.

Unfortunately, that statement didn’t go as planned. I could sit here and tell you the score didn’t reflect the way we played the game, that the stats book can’t record our great possession skills, close calls, or 50/50 balls won, but the score was still 5-0. So, I will swallow any excuses I want to make for our team and say we have a lot to work on, but we learned a lot and still had a great time. Here are just a few lessons learned:

Lesson 1: It’s never good to assume.

When our game was postponed seventeen minutes into the second half due to lightning sightings, we hit our second emotional high. According to the rules, we had not played enough minutes for the game to count. The lightning continued for over an hour, and we were certain we would have another chance to take on this team we knew we could beat.

Lesson 2: Heat lightning is deceiving.

Heat lightning, according to trustworthy Wikipedia, is a flash of light seen near the horizon that is a reflection of distant lightning on high clouds. As we learned Saturday, you can still play soccer if you see it.

Lesson 3: A five-minute warm-up is just not enough.

If you’ve been standing around for an hour waiting for a thunderstorm to pass, praying is the best thing you can do during those allotted five minutes of warm-up before hitting the pitch again.

Lesson 4: Cedarville soccer fans are dedicated.

Although the storm was an inconvenience, we were able to catch up with all of our loyal friends and families during thunder hour that journeyed to IWU to support us.

Lesson 5: Coach likes to recycle, but it takes him a couple tries (you had to be there.)

Lesson 6: Papa John’s and Gatorade takes a bit of the edge off of a tough loss. Just a bit.

Pray for us this week as we will be on the road quite a bit. Tuesday we compete against Defiance, Ohio at 4 pm, and Thursday we travel to Tennessee for the Bryan Classic on Friday and Saturday.

See you on the field!


August 30, 2011

I feel so honored to be the new blogger for CU Women’s Soccer. Following in the shadows of great writers such as Megan “The Law” Spring and Bri “I’m a coach now!” Barnes, I realize the expectations are high and odds, against me (being an art major for one.) Nevertheless, I hope this year to give a bit more insight into our team past the roster and final scores. If nothing else, I’ll try my best to entertain the 10-15 readers (that’s including my older brothers and parents) who are probably reading this blog.

Preseason started a week later than usual for us this year as we moved under the rules of the NCAA. Our first day back on campus was full of seminars and meetings to get us acquainted with the new set of rules to follow at the Division II level. Not having yet officially met as a group, I would occasionally bump into new girls that morning who claimed to be a part of our soccer team. As the season goes on, I hope to eventually introduce you to each of these wonderful freshmen, but I have not yet nicknamed them all, which is essential, so stay tuned. We quickly realized that the six new freshies plus Liz “Brazil” Cox were going to be great additions to our team.

As the week progressed, we learned yet another new system of play, met for Bible study, got some quality shooting pointers from Coach Kevin “Accuracy is my middle name” Roper, and finally figured out how to pronounce freshman Keri Sachtleben’s last name. We seniors also ran our last fitness assessments ever, about which I am more than excited. All in all, preseason was short and sweet.

Our first test as a new team came last Tuesday when we scrimmaged Wittenberg on our home field. Admittedly, we were a little scattered the first few minutes of the match, but we eventually got the hang of our new system and made more threats on the opponents in the second half. Amanda “Brucie” Bunton scored a beauty of a goal with her new hot pink kicks, and we walked away from the pitch with a 1-1 tie.

We traveled to Bluffton Monday for our final scrimmage before opening season begins this Saturday, 7:00 pm at Indiana Wesleyan. If you are dedicated enough to CU Women’s Soccer, trek on over to IWU and cheer on our team.

See you at the game!


Kelsey Watkins is a senior forward from Parkersburg, W.Va. majoring in graphic design.