I have written more than my fair share of posts about how hard we have it being college athletes, and how our lives can get pretty rough at times.  Well I'll have you know, as I write this I am sitting by the fountain with a few of my teammates, tanning in the sun as we do homework.  I must admit, most of the time our lives are pretty good. 

This was especially true this weekend.  Saturday was our soccer brunch banquet where we honored our seniors and gave out various awards.  The speeches from the players were entertaining and the food was awesome.  Nearly all of our parents attended and it was a really fun event to round out some great careers here at ISU.  It was also the open house party for our new locker room.  I feel like calling it a locker room is kind of a lie.  It's more of a penthouse-lounge area.  We are seriously thinking about applying to have it be shown on MTV's Cribs.  Once again, our lives are pretty darn good.

Another thing that was pretty darn good this weekend was our play.  We paired the excitement of our new home with a 3-0 win over Valpo.  Not only did we win, but we played some of the best soccer this program has put forth in years.  It was a good way to walk off our home field for the last time of the year.

We have one game left this weekend against IUPUI. In just my two years here I have already developed a pretty serious rivalry with this team.  As coach told us today "We're going to load up the mini vans, head into the Indy, win, and then come home.  And yes, we're not coming home 'til we win."  That certainly would be a nice note to end on.

Thanks for the support!

~Morgan~

March 31

So we're two games deep into our spring season and we don't have a win to show for it.  Everyone says that spring isn't about winning games, it's about showing what we have learned and practicing things that need to be worked on and tuned up for the fall.  But when you try to tell a group of girls who have literally run themselves ragged and a coaching staff that has put in countless hours of work for months that winning isn't important, you better prepare yourself for some back lash. 

Both the games, versus Miami of Ohio and Ball State were close, losing only 1-0.  Both games we gave up a goal early and spent the rest of the time trying to claw our way out of the deficit.  The only bright spot is that we did tactically improve from one game to the next, which is apparently the goal in spring season.  I will admit that we've had quite a fan base, for both the home and away game which is certainly nice to see.  Thanks to all that came to support.

Weights and trainings are still hitting us pretty hard both mentally and physically.  I think the only things running more than us are our noses as nearly half the team is sick with one strain of virus or another.  The downfall of us being such a close team is that it doesn't take long for a single cold to become an epidemic.

With Easter coming up a lot of us are headed home for the weekend.  Hopefully the Easter Bunny will bring us jelly beans, Reese's eggs, and a couple of wins to close out our spring season.  If he doesn't, we will just have to go get them ourselves. 

I hope to see you at our Soccer Banquet and at the revealing of our new locker room in a few weeks!

~Morgan~

March 1

My roommate Gaspo and I were talking about how back in the days of club soccer we could play two or three games in a day, even five in a weekend, without it even phasing us.  We would run around the field for hours without the slightest aches or pains.  Well, those days are definitely behind us.  If you want proof of that you could take a look at me right now.  I am laying in my bed with an ice pack on my swollen and bruised forehead, my heated blanket folded up behind my back and neck soothing the aching muscles, a gauze pad coving turf burn on my leg, a ball mark imprinted on my inner thigh, and  band aids covering blood blisters on three of my toes.  And I didn't even get the worst of it.

Yesterday was our indoor tournament at the University of Illinois.  It was our first games of the year.  I say games as a plural because we had eight of them in all.  Our coaches entered two teams in the tournament thinking it would be good for everyone to get a lot of playtime, but with low numbers to begin with (even after bringing back KO as an extra utility player), and injuries beforehand and throughout the day, the playtime became almost ridiculous.  We had 320 minutes total of soccer, and most of us played nearly all, or the majority of those 320 minutes.  Even Erika and Justin were exhausted from trying to coach that much. The worst of it was the teams we were playing only had half the number of games and twice the number of subs.  To be honest though we really held our own and I think we had the most fun of all the teams as we all just became delirious from the craziness of the day.  We jumped from one field right over to the other for games after games after games.  We never had to warm up because we never had the chance to cool down.  I couldn't tell you the score of most of the games, and there's even some debate over which ones we won and which ones we lost.  We were just happy to make it through the day.

Unfortunately we lost more than just games as Vassar and Allbright both went down with injuries, one with a knee and the other with a shoulder.  Others, coming in with injuries were forced to succumb to those part way through the day.  Our last, and eighth, game we played Louisville, who was undefeated in their only three games so far that day with nearly 12 subs.  Justin made the comment that our sideline wasn't quite as strong.  We had Mel with ice surrounding her knee, Vassar with her leg wrapped, Hancock with a concussion header band on, Jess looking exhausted, and Allbright passing out from all her pain medication.  I felt like it was a scene out of Little Giants. And still we were laughing by the end of it all.  Overall we played as well as could have been expected and I think we learned a lot about how our hard work in the past month and a half has paid off.

We are all looking forward to spring break.  Whether we're going home or on vacation, everyone could use a relaxing week.  I'm looking forward to spending my birthday at home with my family and Grandpa, even though right now my body feels like I'm turning 85 rather than 20.

It's good to be back in action.  And Mr. Alden, I made this post extra long to make up for the long break! Thanks for reading and GO STATE!

~Morgan~

January 27

So we're a week and a half into our "offseason" this semester.  I put "offseason" in quotes because for some reason people think that the offseason should be easier, or require less effort.  We laugh at those people.  When you experience things like "hell week,"  "accountability sprints," and "weight circuits" you would laugh at those people too.  But it's the hell weeks and the sprints and the weights that we do now will put us in the position to win the conference tournament next season.  It's that thought that keeps us going. 

Our new weights coach, Coach Hooks, has been pushing us to the limit every session with weight circuits that could make grown men cry.  But, as Vassar would say, "We're going to be SWOLL!" which in normal people language means really, really strong.  That, combined with the trainings at least twice a week, running mechanics sessions and fitness sessions,  is why we don't consider it an offseason.   When you are so sore for so many days straight that you feel weird when something doesn't hurt, that's when you know it's not an offseason.  Thank God for the ice bath.

Despite the fact that I just made out lives seem miserable, we all leave every practice laughing, or telling jokes, or planning our next team get-together.  It's the life of an athlete, and we really can't complain because we all do it to ourselves.  We pass up the 15 pounder for the 25 pound dumbbell.  We sprint out the last 10 steps instead of slowing down.  We're crazy and we love it!

We all have stepped up our lives outside of the trainings as well.  Spring is the time for everyone to really focus on their studies and make sure their GPA's are where they want them.  We also spent our day off of classes for MLK Jr. Day volunteering at the West Vigo Community center where we cleaned, organized, played with the kids, and did whatever we could to give back to our community.  Our spring season is also a huge time for recruiting, as the coaches have already brought more than a few prospects onto campus. 

We are all counting down the days until February 27^th when we head to the University of Illinois for a 7v7 indoor tournament.  This will be the first real competition event for us since the disappointing end to our season so it will be good to back on the field, even if it's a little smaller field than we're used to!

GO SYCAMORES!

~Morgan~ 

December 14

"So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."  I think a lot of us girls are feeling the way the great Willy Wonka did, crunched to get everything done!  With Christmas break quickly approaching nearly all of the girls are hitting the books for finals and final papers or projects.  I talked to Kelly Shulman today who was excited to have slept for 12 hours straight last night after pulling a couple of previous all nighters to get her interior design projects done in time.  College is certainly an experience. 

We are still keeping our lives outside of school going as well.  I said I'd give out the results of the 3 v. 3 basketball tournament we entered, and I am proud to say that the team of Emily Lahay, Caitlin Boger, Taylor Hancock, Erika True, and myself, coached by Kourtney Vassar, were crowned champions of the girls division.  Erika busted out her 1999 Ohio High School state finals moves and showed us all that she's still got it.  Taylor on the other hand... well she could work on her jump shot a bit, but she certainly brought the fun. 

Last night was our first annual soccer team and staff Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange.  Erika had us all over for a team dinner, dressed in our most fabulous Christmas attire, followed by what I think is safe to assume to have been the best white elephant gift exchange ever!  We had fur coats, night gowns, Terre Haute original hats and ear warmers, a dart board with a creative target, some oversized underwear and much, much more.  Believe it or not I think everyone was pretty excited with what they were taking home.  It was a nice break for all the girls from the daily grind of classes and studying. 

This is our last weekend on campus for the first semester with all of the students heading home at different times throughout the next week.  Unfortunately that last weekend will be spent in the library for most of us!  But I think Santa will see us all working hard and hopefully bring us some good gifts. 

Happy Holiday's and enjoy your time with your families, I know I certainly will.

~Morgan~

November 19

Well, the games have ended but the soccer never does.  The remaining 15 or so girls returning for the spring enjoyed our week off and are right back in the swing of things.  Weights twice a week, and open field play twice as well, we certainly aren't wasting time preparing for next year.  The freshman have gotten a good taste of what we call "spring weights" where muscles ache in places you didn't think you even had muscles, but it's the good ache that assures you that your stronger today than you were yesterday.  Our actual soccer practices consist of small sided games with mixed up positions and coaches showing off the skills.  Well actually its Erika showing off her skills, and Justin tripping over the ball (yes, it only happened once but it gave us something to make fun of him with for a while to come).

We have also been filling our time with community service with players currently manning a donation table in the commons for Christmas care packages for our military veterans.  Now is when we can take advantage of our time off and give back to the community, so I anticipate several other community service projects to come.  A few team members are taking part in a charity 3 v. 3 basketball tournament this weekend for St. Jude's hospital.  I think the coaches are even getting a team together so we'll see who's been shooting hoops in their spare time. 

Everyone is gearing up for the big Thanksgiving break next week, with this being the first opportunity for a lot of people to go home since our arrival in July.  I personally am looking forward to the stocked fridge, home cooked meals and some time away from classes.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

~Morgan~ 

November 5

I feel like I've put off writing this post as long as possible, so it's time to put pen to paper, or fingers to key board, for the last time of the 2009 Sycamore season.  Looking back there are often times when we can point out what didn't work, when we didn't play well, when we lost, but I really think that this team deserves better than those memories.  When I think back over this season I can see three things that really stick out in my mind. 

1. We never gave up. Despite the score, or the opponent, we put in 90+ minutes of everything we had for each game. UNI is a great example, having played poor all game and being down with only a few minutes to go we put in the work all the way to the end and found a way to win (and that way was what we call KFO). We came into this season knowing that nobody expected anything from us, and when that is the main notion towards to your program it can be easy to expect nothing from yourselves, but we did the opposite. We expected more from ourselves knowing the stigma that followed us and I think that is the wave that carried us throughout the season.

2. We played some GREAT soccer. In the beginning of the season it was for a couple minutes at a time, and then for maybe a half at a time, but eventually we started putting entire games of great play together. One of the luxuries of playing center back is that I can see the whole field, and I can watch as our team developed play patterns, found feet and space to play into, and scored some top notch goals. The Evansville game is a great example, maybe our best game all season. We controlled the entire field for 90 minutes. We keep possession well, got forward into the attack creatively, and defended relentlessly. We played great soccer, and that was the bottom line. Even in this last loss we had some great moments... like Tay Nelson making an incredible save on a perfectly hit PK to keep us in the game. It was individual efforts like that all over the field that got us to the point we did in our season.

3. Last, but certainly not least... We had a lot of something we like to call FUN! I would say 90% of our ab workouts this season were from laughing. Yes, this last weekend was disappointing and the loss will sting for a while, but what I'm never going to forget about our Iowa vacation was speed walking through the skywalks, riding a crowded smelly transit bus around downtown Des Moines, the Bunko tournament in Erika's suite (during which we were asked to keep the noise down several times but Jess couldn't help but scream on every roll), food, food, and more food, and just hanging out with 20 of my best friends on the 27^th floor of a sweet hotel. And this past weekend was just one of many great ones we've had this year.

So soccer is over for our four seniors and some others returning home, but for the rest of us, we are ready to get back at it.  The Rec center has been raided by the soccer team, and staff, as none of us can give up the athletic lifestyle, if only for a week.  But the short time off also gives us some time to heal nagging injuries and catch up with some neglected school work. 

Now don't worry, even though the season is over, the beloved (even if only by a few) snippets will continue periodically throughout the offseason so keep checking up!

~Morgan~

October 26

To anyone who was looking at the box score from Friday's game against MSU, and knowing the preseason rankings, it probably seemed like ISU was lucky to get a tie.  They probably thought, "MSU received over 3 times as many points as ISU did in the preseason rankings, but yet weren't able to better than tie them in the game, ISU should be elated that they didn't get a loss.  Well, for anyone who was actually watching our game Friday knows better than to think we "escaped with a tie."  If anything, I think it's safe to say Missouri State was lucky to get out of Terre Haute with a draw.  We outplayed them for the better part of the game and had several opportunities to come up with the win, but once again, we were unlucky.  But, do you want to know the good thing about luck... it changes, often. 

Friday was also a special night for our team as we celebrated Senior Night with our four seniors.  It would have been great to walk off the field with them having won, but the moment was just a sweet.  Each of the four certainly play an irreplaceable role for us as a team, and have given everything they had to this program.  After the game we went to 7^th & Elm for appetizers to celebrate their careers.  We also presented them with the traditional senior gifts that our Juniors worked so hard on.  They each received an ISU blanket with their name and team slogan embroidered in them, and a journal containing a special note from each of their teammates and coaches.  I think that's worth about four years of hard work if you ask me. 

This weekend was topped off by our Football team's first win in, well, a while.  I think Whitney said their last win was her Freshman year, so it was well due.  I'm pretty sure I saw a bunch of the soccer girls leading the rush of the field after the win was solidified.  It was a good Homecoming weekend for ISU

Now, I'm not counting, but this might be the third or fourth time I've mentioned our preseason ranking in a Snippet.  Some people might find that odd considering we were ranked an embarrassing 7^th out of 7 teams, but I kept bringing it up because I knew that it wouldn't be us that was embarrassed, but it would be 6 coaches in the conference that clearly got it wrong.  This team, ranked last, is now playing for a possible 2 seed in the conference tournament.  We have defied the odds, and gave every team in this conference a fight for 90+ minutes, and we're nowhere near done.  We leave Wednesday on the road for our final conference game against Drake.  Because of the logistics and layout of the seeding so far, our fate is unknown, but what we do know is that we aren't leaving Iowa without a win, even if it takes all weekend, as we might face Drake again on Sunday depending on how the seeds pan out. 

Originally we were going to drive home late Thursday night, and be back for school on Friday, but because our future game location is up in the air we are staying put for Thursday night.  Unfortunately for me, I made a joke with my Biology Professor that I would miss his class on Friday because I would be sleeping off the long ride, and now I actually am missing Friday.  So Dr. Brett, this is my proof that my absence is legit!

Off to Iowa, hopefully it's the Field Of our Dreams (I love that movie),

~Morgan~

October 20 

Well if there was one word to describe our game against UNI yesterday I would use "UGLY."   The field was mushy and wet, the weather was freezing, the referee was having troubles seeing the plays while trying to corral the UNI coach, and the play for most of the game was less than inspiring.  But I will say if there was one beautiful part of that game it was Ms. Kaitlin Owens.  Her free kick to tie the game with less than 5 minutes to go was a sight for sore eyes.  And her finish in the second overtime to win was extremely attractive to all of our freezing fans on the sideline (including my brother Evan, and my best friend Nathan who made the trip to surprise me!).  It was apparent how badly our seniors wanted that win, along with the rest of us, and they certainly came through in the clutch!

With that win we have officially made it into the conference tournament, which in years past was good enough for us, but not this year.  Now we have our eyes set on getting a higher seed for a favorable draw in the tournament.  There is even a possibility of getting a bye in the first round for the first time in school history.  We have almost a full week of practices before we take on Missouri State at home on Friday.  It will certainly be an emotional game as we celebrate the careers of our four seniors on the squad this year.  Hopefully we can celebrate that with a win!

And in case everyone hasn't noticed, ISU soccer is currently on a WIN STREAK!

~Morgan~

October 15

To Avenge: to inflict pain or harm in return for pain or harm inflicted on oneself or those persons to which one feels loyalty. 

Although winning a soccer game isn't your textbook idea of a violent vengeance, for the opposing team, losing certainly hurts, especially when you're avenging the conference championship.  The last thing Erika said to us before we walked on the field last night was "Those of you that were here last year, who beat you in that championship game?"  "Evansville" was the response, and that was all the motivation we needed to go out and put the game away. 

When KO scored the first goal in the first few minutes the girls reacted differently than I have seen from my team in the past games when we have had the lead.  Normally the girls look surprised when the goal is scored, and then look terrified on our heels until the final whistle blows.  Not last night.  Everyone seemed to act like we expected that goal, we expected to take the lead, and we expected to win.  Now, at the moment, I am sitting in my stats class and we're discussing "expected values" and although this isn't written in the formula, I know for a fact that if a team expects something to happen, and plays like they expect it to happen, it's going to happen!  Winning has always been something that our coaching staff expects from us, but now it's become something we expect from ourselves.

So this is my warning of future vengeances we are about to put to rest as we finish out our conference season.  This is a new team, and we are playing like we've got something to lose!

SYCA-WHAT?  SYCA-WINNERSSSS!!

~Morgan~

October 12

Being from Wisconsin I have seen my fair share of inclement weather.  Freezing rain, bone chilling winds, I've even shoveled snow of our field before games, but none of that made playing on Friday night any easier.  It had been a downpour all day (the winds made it more of a side-pour actually) with temps in the 40's.  Not fun.  I think the sloppy conditions certainly contributed to the 6 goals scored between the two teams.  The ball skipped, people slipped, and the rain and wind just kept coming.  So naturally, we would play 20 extra minutes of overtime because 90 minutes in that weather wasn't enough. 

In my opinion had the field been bigger and the conditions calmer we would have walked away with a win but the tie puts us in a good enough position heading into our conference games this week.  We play the defending conference champions, Evansville, on Wednesday.  Many of us still have a sour taste in our mouths from our tournament championship loss to them last year.  Knowing where we have improved, and who they have lost since last year, I think we definitely have a chance to avenge ourselves. 

We are getting down to crunch time with only four conference games remaining in our regular season.  It's hard to believe that my sophomore season is nearing the end.  I guess time flies when you're having fun, and it will fly even faster when we are winning.

~Morgan~

The women's soccer team has officially played its first 11 v. 11 game, and ISU won.  Well I should mention that it was a practice scrimmage, and players from ISU made up both teams, but still, it was exciting.  We were able to travel to the Sullivan High School game field which is one of the best game surfaces in the area. The grass was so nice I felt like I should have been holding a seven iron, not kicking a soccer ball.  A lot of the Sullivan soccer team was able to come out and watch, and cheer on their alumni goalie, Emily Lahay.  The game really gave us a good look at how far we've come, and how far we still need to go!  After the scrimmage the Lahay's hosted us for a FANTASIC home cooked meal boasting homemade mac n' cheese, green beans and potatoes, baked beans, corn on the cob, potato salad, dump cake, burgers, and fish.  All in all it was a VERY successful outing!   

A lot of our trainings in the past few days have been focused on our defensive shape.  As the days progress we move on to bigger and more complex drills as they try to imprint the concepts into our heads.  We even have had "chalk-talk" sessions to layout the shape in a diagram.  At this point when we close our eyes at night all we see is that defensive shape haunting us as we sleep.  We also have continued with our morning fitness sessions in order to prepare for our ninety minute game vs. Western Michigan in just a few days.  As coach has pointed out, "it's going to be hot!" and we want to be ready.

The team is having movie night tonight as some players want to see "Time Traveler's Wife" and some of the braver players are planning on seeing the drama/horror flick "Orphan".  I feel like some of us might be haunted by more than our defensive shape tonight.  Everyone is excited for tomorrow as we load up the bus and head to our first exhibition game!  Wish us luck!

~Morgan~