with a Diving Catch

The focus of practice today was playing balls over distance.  It involved lots of ball striking reps and hopefully it will translate into match play.  The warm-up for today's training involved an activity with three players and one ball.  Players on the outside would throw the ball in to their teammate who would return it first time.  The player on the outside would then play it over distance to their teammate who was approximately 35-40yds away.  Once the girls had a chance to get warmed up it was turned into a contest where the player receiving the long ball had to catch it with their hands in order for the team to earn a point.  Yes, they were allowed to use their hands.  Some outstanding diving efforts to score and a couple silly drops makes the team VERY grateful that Zari and Courtney take care of the goalkeeping and ball handling duties on a regular basis.  After the warm-up another long ball competition was played that pitted freshmen against upperclassmen.  Two round were contested and resulted in each team with a victory.  Next up was a game involving services and clearances.  The freshmen would earn the win here as well as in the final scrimmage,  in which they prevailed 1-0.  They were give a scare late when junior forward Jackie Jessup railed a shot off the post with just under a minute to play.  A productive and competitive day of training would end with a touch of fitness. 

GO HORNETS!!!

Hornets Fall 2-1

Hornet Goalscorer, Freshmen Jackie Short

 

On an outstanding fall afternoon the three time conference champion gave the Hornets a little bit of a lesson on how to start a game.  Calvin College would dictate play early and was rewarded with their effort when Elaine Schnabel put a ball from Carly Prins behind the Kzoo keeper Courtney McCoy in only the 6th minute of the game.  Three minutes later the Knights would strike again as Francesca Smith pounced on a loose ball at the top of the box and drove another goal in far post.  Despite trailing by two mark the Hornets would continue to fight and in the 26th minutes Jackie Short ran onto a through ball from midfielder Maya Smolcic and placed a beautiful shot over the Calvin keeper to make the score 2-1.  The goal was the first that Calvin had conceded in league play this season.  The remainder of the first half would see both teams have opportunities but neither could convert.  After the break Calvin's best chances would come out of spells of possession while K's best looks at goal would be on the counterattack.  At the conclusion of 90 minutes of play, the score would stand Calvin College 2 Kalamazoo College 1.  The Hornets will take advantage of a day off tomorrow and return to the practice field on Monday with plenty of work to be done.  They will look to gain some more points as the race to clinch a spot in the MIAA tournament continues at Hope College on Wednesday, October 14th.

Wet and Rainy

The cleats are stuffed with newsprint and the gear is air drying. For the second day in a row Mother Nature decided to take a very active role in practice. At practice the team has trained team defending and the execution of set pieces. Despite the elements the team maintained positive energy, strong focus, and look forward to another opportunity tomorrow to add to their conference point total. Going into the match tomorrow the Hornets have 7 points, it is as many points as the team had at the conclusion of last year's conference play. While this is a nice accomplishment there is still quite a bit of work to get done. Kick-off is scheduled for 12pm tomorrow at Calvin College and it looks like it will be a fine autumn afternoon for a soccer match. If you can't make it to the match be sure to follow along the live stats on the web or listen to the audio broadcast. Live Stats and Audio Broadcast.

GO HORNETS!!!

GO HORNETS!!! GO Karts?

A Couple Hornets Buzz By

Wednesday afternoon the Hornets took a slight break from training and their studies as they met off campus. Airway Lanes in Portage was their destination and the afternoon included Go Karts, Mini Golf, Laser Tag, Laser Maze, Bumper Cars and Pizza. No question, the Tasmanian Devil Go Kart was the fastest car at the track. After a day of rest and recovery the girls will be back to business tomorrow afternoon.

While pictures from yesterday's match are not posted the blog does have a couple pictures every Mom will appreciate. Thanks to all those supporters who braved the elements and made it out to Kalamazoo to support the Hornets yesterday afternoon.

Well Done Chelsea!

Great Job Maya!

Be sure to try and make our next home match, October 17th at 12pm against Olivet College (Homecoming) to see if these jerseys are still white.

GO HORNETS!!!

Draw

1-1

C.J. McCarthy, Wednesday's Goalscorer

In less than ideal conditions the Hornets faced off against the Britons of Albion College on Tuesday afternoon. With constant rain over the weekend and throughout the afternoon it was a game of ball winning and slip sliding that saw both teams have strong runs of play. After a 0-0 first half Kalamazoo would get an excellent opportunity to score 5 minutes into the second session. On a counterattack Katie Manstrom found some room at the top of the box and took a nice right footed shot. On a ball that looked destined for the back of the net Albion keeper Caitlin Bowman was able to get a hand to it and deflect it off the cross bar. Shortly thereafter Albion would strike first as the put a ball into the box from the left wing, Albion's Rachel Kain was somehow able to win the ball out from underneath the legs of junior defender Eva Schmidt 11 minutes into the second half. Neither team really was able to gain control of the ball or the game. Kalamazoo began pressing a little bit more and more as the minutes ticked down playing with a sense of urgency. In the 85th minute, freshmen C.J. McCarthy took a pass from Maya Smolcic created space between herself and the defender on the left side of the box and put a ball over the Briton keeper and into the back of the net. A frantic five minutes was played by both teams before the game moved into overtime. In the first overtime Kalamazoo's Julia Schroeder hit the left post with a shot out of a scrum off of a corner kick. Carrying play for the majority of the first overtime Kalamazoo had four shots on goal including a near miss by Jackie Short. The second overtime would even out and after 110 minutes the field was a bit of a mess and both teams would leave with a point. Both Kalamazoo keeper Courtney McCoy and Albion keeper Caitlin Bowman recorded 7 saves on the afternoon. Albion now stands at 5-2-4 and 1-1-1 in the MIAA while Kalamazoo is 4-4-3 overall and currently in second place in the MIAA with a record of 2-0-1. The Hornets return to the field on Saturday when they travel to Calvin College. For now it looks like the players will need a recovery day, the field will need some TLC and uniforms may never be white again.

GO HORNETS!