Saturday, August 28, 2010

Pool Workout

Saturday was set as a recovery day for the K women.  Practice began at 10am inside the Anderson Athletic Center.  The home of Hornet volleyball and basketball.  Training consisted of lots of technical repetitions and touches on the ball.  This lasted for approximately 45 minutes and then the morning concluded with 20 minutes of basketball.  Lots of potential shown by some of the players and others still showing that they are pretty new to the game.  Quite entertaining, not a thing of beauty, fun was had by most.  Coach tried to make a couple coaching points about how basketball relates to soccer but couldn't sink a shot to save his life and maybe should just stick to soccer in the future.


The players had the afternoon off and took full advantage to see the Hornet men play WMU in a traditional exhibition match contesting the Gazelle Cup.  After claiming the Cup last year the Hornet men put up a good fight to defend their title but were unable to hold off the Broncos who prevailed 3-1.  Match Recap  It appears that the Hornet men have a ton of depth and talent.  They should definitely provide plenty of entertainment for K soccer fans throughout the Fall.


After dinner the Hornets would meet again in the evening and headed over to the pool with Coach Carlson for one of her pool workouts.  A very popular pre-season event Coach Carlson worked the team hard for an hour in the water.  A good effort by the girls and a strong recovery day should set them up well as Week 2 of the pre-season gradually approaches.  Great Job Hornets!



GO HORNETS!!!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Hornets Top Pilots

Kalamazoo College 4      Bethel College 1

The Hornets traveled down to Bethel College in South Bend Indiana and a beautiful late August Friday evening to play an exhibition match against the Bethel College Pilots.  Bethel would control the play early in the game as they came out in a 4-3-3 formation and were looking to play balls in behind the Hornet's backline.  They would find success as the Pilots broke through in the 6th minute drawing Hornet keeper Courtney McCoy out of the goal and slotting a ball across the goal mouth which and on rushing Pilot was able to knock in, staking Bethel to a 1-0 lead.  After the goal the Hornets were able to settle in and began connecting passes and consistently finding time, space, and attacking ideas out wide.  Julia Schroeder was able to out race the defense to a through ball played by Jackie Short and but the ball over the keepers head and off the crossbar knotting the game up at one each.  Shortly thereafter Schroeder would once again get the ball, faked a shot brining the goalkeeper down and played a delicate ball over the keeper and into the goal.  Jackie Short would get in on the first half action as well tallying her own goal.  Both teams subbed liberally and at half the game was 3-1 to the advantage of Kalamazoo.  In second stanza the Hornets would waste not time as Stephanie Verbeek was able to run onto a cross and one timed the ball off the near post and into the goal.  That would conclude the scoring for the evening.  All Hornets that were healthy played sizable minutes and Bethel ran several nice set plays which almost resulted in scoring chances.  Overall it was an effective exhibition for both team as they came away with a number of positives.  For Kalamazoo it was nice to get the win but there were several times Bethel created problems in certain areas of the game which will need to be addressed at practice before the first official game on September 4th.  Just one week away!  The road trip concluded with some pizza and sleep as the vans returned to Kzoo and saw an incredible moonrise, sorry no pics.

GO HORNETS!!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Combination Play/Team Defending

Attacking in the morning and defending in the evening.  A touch of fitness to complete the day.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2010 HORNETS

The coaching staff met with the team late this morning to inform the players who would be retained for the 2010 season.  A lot of time and effort has been invested by these individuals over the summer and they have set the foundation for a very exciting season.



1     Amanda Mancini
2     Rachel Fine 
3     Megan Burns
4     Julia Schroeder
5     Jordan Meeth
6     Chelsea Smith
7     Jordan Lewis
8     Nicole Shelly
9     Jackie Short
10   Eva Schmidt
11   Emily Gray
12   Maya Smolcic
13   Jenn Gateley
14   Zari Haggenmiller
15   Cierra Gillard
16   Steph Verbeek
17   Hilary Marusak
18   Rachel Pitzer
19   C.J. McCarthy
20   Beth Ansaldi
21   Megan Martinez
23   Sam Voss
24   Natalie Reszka
25   Courtney McCoy

The Hornets are made up of 6 Freshmen, 11 Sophomores, 3 Juniors and 4 Seniors.  21 are from the state of Michigan, 2 from Washington (the state), and 1 from Colorado. 17 players return from a year ago and 1 is returning to the team after spending her junior year on study abroad in Ecuador.  The team is off to a good start but have PLENTY of work ahead of themselves in the days and weeks to come.
 
Morning: The Hornets were delayed a little to begin as all hands of the training staff were called into action as the Hornets regular trainer (Marci) headed over for a certification at WMU.  Once practice began the theme for the morning was combining.  Technical work focused on the finer aspects of the wall pass and of course a Hardy Fuchs (legendary K men's coach) favorite, the back heel.  After the initial repetitions the team played a couple games of 2v1 before moving to practice take overs leading into a shot.  The morning would end with an 11 v 11 full field scrimmage which lasted approximately 15 minutes.

Afternoon:  Building on the individual defending which the team worked on the second day the team gradually built on their movements as a unit.  Reading ball movement and visual cues from attackers in order to position themselves to make life tough on the offense.  The session ended with a relatively large scrimmage and then a pursuit fitness game which is not necessarily classified as fun.  With the naming of the team this afternoon and the team and a strong effort at training, morning trainings will begin at 9am (initially 8am) to the delight of the players and training staff.

GO HORNETS!!!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Day 3

The morning of Day 3 began with the infamous beep test.  The team ran the test in two groups and then focused on 1v1 defending for the remainder of the morning session.  Throughout the training the attacking was clearly superior to the defending.  Individual team defending was identified as an area that the Hornets can improve on from the prior year and will be a major focus for the 2010 campaign.

Tuesday afternoon the focus migrated from defending to attacking.  The team worked on passing, possessing the ball and controlling the speed of play during the day's second session.  A passing warm-up to improve and refine receiving and passing was followed by 3v1 and then 5v2.  In a space a little bit larger than half field the team was broken into two squads and instructed to play possession while working to keep a team shape.  The quality gradually improved before calling it a day. 



Girls are working hard, trainers and coaches trying to keep pace!

GO HORNETS!!!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Day 2 Done!!!

Fitness Test-Check
Training, Skill Work and Small Sided Games-Check
Lunch-Check
NCAA Rules Meeting-Check
Nap-Check
11v11 Scrimmage-Check
Ice Bath-Check
Dinner-Check
Sleep Time-Check

Two-A-Day practices continue tomorrow.

GO HORNETS!!!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

WELCOME TO KALAMAZOO!!!


On pristine day in Kalamazoo, Coach Goyings welcomed back 19 returning players and 8 newcomers as practice for the 2010 season is just hours away from beginning.  Sunday consisted of moving into the dorm, a meeting with the first years and their parents, a quick check-up by the training staff, baseline concussion testing, a team meeting, team dinner, and then another meeting with the training staff.  Tomorrow the fun will begin with fitness testing bright and early at 8am and then, finally, it will be time to play some soccer.  The first day of the preseason is always memorable and the team and coaching staff are already hard at work making sure that the 2010 season will be one to remember too. 

GO HORNETS!!!