Pre-Season- Day 3!

After a spirited session last night, that concluded with a full field scrimmage, the team was back at it this morning. We focused on just a refresher course in 1v1 defending-which is one of the main focuses for our program. An intense match of a game we call "the moat", where 2 teams battle back and forth in 1v1 matches, trying to get across the moat to their teammates brought out a tremendous competition level. It was great to see the defensive toughness of 4 of our sophomores-Katie Taylor, Nicki Wilbur, Cheryl Martin and Julia Slater-start to come out!

We followed that up with one of our teams favorite games: 2 minutes, 2 goals. We break the group into 3 teams and 2 teams play for 2 minutes or 2 goals-whoever wins stays on. What was great was to see the players starting to get to know we each other and combinations starting to arise-a couple of players really stood out-Sophomore Transfer Emma Geyer, Junior Kelly Faerber and Freshman Chelsey Wilgenburg.

We then finished up with a finishing game I stole from good buddy, KC Crabb, called "30 seconds". We play 2v2 inside the 18 yard box with goals on each end line. The object is score as many goals as you can, with a whistle blown every 30 seconds to switch all 4 players off the field. It's fast, intense, and competitive-one of the best finishing games ever. It was actually all tied up until in the very end when Junior Michelle Nguyen-whose 20th birthday is today-bent a quick shot around a defender and into the upper 90 to win it!

Was a great morning, and we get back at it this evening with a classroom session to start sharing our system and then a field session where we'll cover zonal defending!