Taking Care of Business

There are 16 days left in the regular season. We need to win 4 out of 5 games in the next 16 days.

Remember when our opponents would have more possession, more shots, and more corner kicks than we would, but we would manage to walk away with a win? Well, our conference opponents are returning the favor this year. Against Campbell, we hit the crossbar more than 6 times.

In our first 5 conference games, we average over 14 shots per game and allow less than 10 shots per game. We have gotten an average of 8 corner kicks per game and give up 4 corner kicks per game. If you have been at the games, you know that our time of possession has been good. We don't have much to show for it.

It's hard to know how much to change just because we are not winning. We are playing well and often better than our opponent. I don't want to over react, but I do want results.

Our last 5 opponents are Jacksonville, North Florida, Gulf Coast, Stetson, and Lipscomb. Our seniors combined record against these teams for the last 3 years is 12-3-3. We can do this.

Kailee and her roommates hosted a team dinner tonight at their apartment.

We have 6 unofficial visits tomorrow, and 7 official visits start Saturday.

I met with every player individually this week. I met with 24 players in 3 days.

There was a calm intensity at practice today. Some of the players were more focused than usual. I would describe it as businesslike. Hopefully, we will be in the business of scoring goals tomorrow night.

Triple Edged Sword

The United States won the first women's World Cup in 1991. I played with and against a lot of those players, and I was trained by Anson Dorrance on several occasions. I followed the team closely before and after the World Cup. I am disappointed that I have an awesome highlight video of the trip to China and the games on VHS. I don't have a VCR.

The United States was not favored to win the championship. Our team was made up of young amateurs, while other teams like Norway and Italy were made up of professional players.

When the U.S. won, Anson Dorrance described his 3 forwards as a triple edged sword. Even if an opponent could stop one of the forwards, they could not stop all three at the same time. I think by the end of the season, Belmont's forwards could be a double triple edged sword or even a triple triple edged sword.

Against Upstate, I used 8 forwards - JayTro, LP, JO, E, Bailey, Dani, Maddie, and Lofty. Each one of them brings a skill set that is different from the other. While there is a defender that might be better suited to defend JayTro or LP, that same defender might not be able to stop E, Bailey, or Maddie.

In order to become the triple-triple, there are a few things we need for our forwards to do: 1. Be consistent. 2. Be confident. 3. Work together. 4. Know each other's tendencies. 5. Execute.

If we start doing these things, opponents beware of the triple-triple!

Superstitions

I stopped being superstitious a long time ago. It just wears you out. There are so many more important things to worry about rather than packing the right shorts, making sure the right underwear are clean, or putting in the correct earrings.

I heard Andy and Kyle talking about what they would or would not wear to games because of us losing a certain game and what they were wearing at the time. During our losing streak, I even heard friends, players' parents, and people in the office talk about what they could wear or not wear to help us win. Colette Keyser is trying to find a lucky lip color for me to wear for games.

I don't believe in any of this stuff. Except... I was worried that wearing my 2008 championship ring to the games might be causing me to appear to be complacent. When I was putting on my rings and earrings on Thursday morning before leaving on the road trip, I decided not to wear that ring. I did put on the 2009 championship ring, because I have not worn it in a long time. Just because I wore it that day didn't mean I would wear it to the game. I did wear it to the game, and we won. I wore it again on Sunday, and we won. Of course, I will be wearing it on Thursday night.

The President's Spirit Award Competition will take place at our game on Thursday night. There should be hundreds of students there. It would be great to set a record for attendance for a women's soccer game. I'll be there with my ring on!

ETSU

Finally! We got a break! A game that could have gone either way went our way! In overtime!

Just what the doctor ordered. We won a game that wasn't close. Then, we won a game that was very close and came down to the wire.

We scored 8 goals in 2 games. Seven different goal scorers. The assists were spread out all over. We generated over 20 corner kicks. Five set play goals. Four Big 5 goals. That is the Belmont I know and love!

I feel great about Laura Harris scoring a goal in each game. Erica was involved in all 3 goals against ETSU. I am proud of our senior center backs for scoring the goals that gave us the victory at ETSU. Marcela tied the game 2-2 in the last 4 minutes when she scored on a corner kick.

Jessica Rix got the game winner in double overtime with a well placed free kick that landed half way between the goalkeeper and the last defender. That is where we aim, because it causes the goalkeeper to make a decision whether to come out or stay on the line. She got the goalkeeper to take a couple of steps off her line. When the last defender allowed the ball to bounce, there was nothing the keeper could do. It bounced right into the goal.

For her effort, Jessica was named Defensive Player of the Week. Lauren Paynter had 1 goal and 3 assists in 2 games and was named A-Sun Player of the Week. LP is our leading scorer, and she is ranked in the top 10 in the conference in some statistical categories.

We were the only A-Sun team to get 6 points last weekend. All other teams went 1-1, 1-0, 0-1, or 0-2. That helped us make a big move in the standings.

Our next 3 conference games are at home. We must use this momentum to keep going and keep winning.

We played on 2 excellent fields last weekend. The good surfaces helped us play better soccer and get more corner kicks.

Again, we were not able to play at full strength. Sometimes I allow myself to dream about how good we might be and how much fun we would be to watch if all of our players were healthy. It doesn't do me any good to think about it too long. I have to work with the reality of some players not playing at all and others not playing at full strength.

If you had asked me in the summer, I would have said that our starting forwards would be Erica, J-Tro, and Emily Jones. Emily is out for the season. E is 75-80%, and J-Tro is probably 70%. A successful team will have other players take advantage of the opportunity to play, step up, and pick up the slack. I feel like LP, Jane Owen, and Bailey Kimbell are doing just that. Now we need greater consistency.

It is very surprising to me that we have gone into overtime 5 times, and we have no ties.

Finally, I just want to say what an emotional game the ETSU game was. It was less emotional for our team, but you could see the emotion in Andy and the ETSU players. That team was fired up! For us to win that game the way we did was a huge accomplishment. It will get easier for Andy from now on, but I am glad that one is over, and I'm glad we won.

Goooooooaaaallllllls

We set a goal for this game to score 1 goal every 15 minutes. Accomplishing that goal in the 1st half was critical. In the first 90 seconds, Jamie Loftis stole a ball in the midfield, caught the goalkeeper off her line, but Lofty's shot hit the crossbar and bounced out. Over the next 40 minutes, J-Tro had 2 breakaways saved by the keeper. Bailey was taken out in the penalty area, but no foul was called. I am sure most players and coaches were thinking, "Here we go again." We did not execute free kicks or corner kicks well enough to get a goal. With 4 minutes left in the half, I had 6 substitutes on the field. I told everyone on the bench to fill up water bottles, because we were going to the locker room for halftime. While the girls were lined up at the water jugs, we got a throw in.

We just changed our long throw in play that morning before the game and practiced it with a few people but not everyone. Erica took the throw in, Dani made her run, Lydia received the throw and got it to Dani in the middle of her run, and Dani put it in the near post with a good left footed shot in the 43rd minute.

While we were celebrating on the sideline and breathing a sigh of relief, I wondered how many of the players actually saw the goal. I told them to stop watching the game and go back to the water. Maybe it was good luck. We were up 1-0 at halftime. It was a Big 5 goal, it was a goal off of a restart, and it was an important goal. In the 2nd half, we scored another set play goal and another Big 5 goal. We scored 5 goals on the night with 5 different goal scorers.

Since the burn, we have declared an 8 game season. So we are 1-0 with 7 games remaining. Hopefully, this will be the game that changes our season. Like Andy said after the game, "Good things happen when you burn stuff."

The Burn

Less sleep, more problem solving, longer staff meetings... These are the things that happen when you are 1-7. One of Andy's ideas was to burn any and all negative memories from the last 8 games, so we feel like we are making a fresh start.

After practice on Tuesday, I gave the girls homework. Write down anything that caused negative thoughts, doubts, or frustration over the first 8 games. Bring it to practice on Wednesday, and we were going to set everyone's papers on fire.

After practice on Wednesday, we went over to a construction site (always easy to find on campus, usually near the soccer field). One by one, every person lit her (and his) papers and put them in a metal trash can. We had a pretty good small fire going, and we slow clapped until Andy put the lid on the trash can.

No one read their list. Everyone was told that this is the end of negativity, frustration, and the last 8 games. We cannot carry the past with us going into the next 8 games. We must go into our last 8 games with free minds, positive energy, and confidence.

I enjoyed the experience and have felt some weight lifted off my shoulders. Hopefully, everyone else feels the same way.

Kennesaw State

I'm not going to revisit the whole game. The one thing I want to talk about after this game is the bench. The substitutes played awesome today, changed the momentum of the game, and kept the momentum for the remainder of the game. It was one of the best performances by a group of substitutes that I have ever seen.

As low as our confidence is right now, it was very inspiring to see those 8-10 players play well together and play well against one of the best teams in the conference.

However, it is also an indication of one of the main things wrong with our season - inconsistency. I have not been able to rely on a core of players to perform their best over a period of time. I have not been able to predict how a certain player will do in a certain situation. I don't know why the players are so inconsistent. Injuries? Difficult field conditions? Weather conditions? Difference in opponents? Is it because they are a bunch of 20 year old female college students?

We actually took a lot of positives from the game today. We proved to ourselves that we can play as well as anyone in the conference. We know exactly what we need to work on. We are a deep team with many, many weapons. We have an identity, and it's not too late!