Week 5: Louise Vraney

This past weekend was our first full weekend of travel, and we began with the team at Purdue. We walked the field earlier on Friday before the game, and noticed the unique grass on the field. I believe it’s called Bermuda grass, and Purdue was as far north as it can be grown. I absolutely loved the surface—it was like a combination of turf and real grass and was very easy to run on.

Purdue is ranked 11th in the country, so we knew it would not be an easy game. Purdue played with three forwards and five midfielders, so they were very good at possessing the ball in the attack and had some quick forwards. However, they only played with three midfielders which worked to our advantage in transitions. We got some good opportunities in the first half from Apple, before she put one away off a free kick early in the second half. It was a hard shot straight to the upper left corner—the keeper never had a chance!

It was a frustrating game, I have to say. I was able to put away a goal on a corner kick, which was called back for someone being offsides—a very debatable call as two Purdue players were on the posts. At the end of the game, Talbert finished a goal to put us ahead, which was again called back. And we were called for an unintentional handball in the box as a penalty kick. Frustrating!!!

On Saturday we left for Illinois. We played hard, but maybe not “our game” as best we could. Apple had another great free kick for our only goal. An amusing moment to me occurred when Illinois scored—not the goal, but the celebration song was “Party in the USA”. It was an amusing choice for a soccer game. All in all, the only thing we could do was take everything we learned from this weekend into account and prepare for next weekend against conference foe Loyola!

See you all then!

Week 4: Louise Vraney

After Marquette and Notre Dame last week, our team was ready to rectify those losses with some wins. Our first game was against Minnesota, a team that has done very well the past couple seasons. We knew it would not be an easy game, and of course, it was not. Minnesota put the pressure on us by scoring first, and we were left trying to catch up all game. Although we did have our chances, Minnesota proved the victor in a 3-2 outcome after finishing their opportunities well. The goals we had were great, and we had many chances to score, but it was frustrating to lose again, and at our practice on Saturday we put in a lot of focused energy for a good practice and looked ahead towards Sunday.

On Friday, there were a lot of recruits that visited and got to see the team atmosphere before the game and then stayed over night in the dorms with the freshman. It’s a neat opportunity to get to share with the incoming players what our life is like, and what it’s like to be a part of the Panther family. I can say from past experience that this is the most enjoyable team to play on—all the girls have great personalities and we work hard and have fun together. Any player would be lucky to come to UWM to play soccer.

Sunday came and with it our game against Iowa. It’s a bit painful to talk about that game because none of us like how it went down, but it is a lesson to learn from and move forward from. I know from the past that we are more than a team, we are a family, and we work out the difficulties that we have and move forward together.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents on our team. No matter what happens at a game, all of you are always there with a smile and words of encouragement. The goodie bags we receive after the games are phenomenal, and the way you drive hundreds of miles to watch us play means so much. None of us would be here if not for you, and it is truly a pleasure to play for you each and every game. Thank you all so much for your support, and I know we will see many of you next weekend when we have two more tough games with Purdue and Illinois!

Louise Vraney is a senior with the Panthers. She is the second Panther to contribute to the player blog this season.

Week 3: Louise Vraney

As the biggest weekend to date of the 2009 Women’s Soccer season began, I can speak for the team in saying everyone was anxious yet excited. Our first game of the weekend was cross-town foe Marquette, and as most of the girls on our team have grown up playing with a lot of the Marquette players, it is always more of an emotional game than anything. The last few years we came away with bragging rights, and I was definitely hoping that they would stand for another year. Before the game Mike told us that winning the game would depend on which team had the best composure around the goal, and (of course) he was right on the mark.

Marquette scored their first goal soon into the game, and you could tell from the way the girl slid to get her toe on the ball that she really wanted to score. Same thing with the second goal- the player was composed and kept it on frame and all of the sudden we were down 2-0. It’s possibly the worst feeling in the world to be down to the one team you want to beat most, but what I love about our team is that we always believe we can come back and win. I’ll always remember a game in 2006, my freshman year, against Green Bay when we were down 2-1 and scored 46 seconds after the next kickoff, then got a penalty kick in the box to win the game. We have a fight and a drive, and it came out in the second half when we outshot Marquette 15-2. Kate Megna and Sarah Hagen were both so dangerous around the goal, and Wando (Mary) rocketed a shot that the goalie barely got her hands on. We were clearly the better team in that second half-the only thing missing was the composure in front of the goal!

The next day we left for Notre Dame, where we stayed in possibly the nicest hotel ever... the beds and pillows were feather-soft. I slept 10 hours straight and probably could have gone a few more. I guess that Notre Dame puts their competitors into that hotel in an effort to try and lull their competitors into coming to the game still sleeping. That plan was foiled as (unfortunately for those that wanted to sleep after breakfast) Mike made us go for a 45-minute walk to digest our food, which cut out half of our rest time!

All I can say about the Notre Dame game is that I think we missed out on a great opportunity to upset the #2 team in the country. While Notre Dame is a talented team, the thing that separates them from others is their mentality to score when they are near the goal. As Marquette did on Friday, they took advantage of their opportunities well. We left that game unsatisfied and frustrated that we did not play up to our potential, and I think we are all eager to make up for it and prove our talent this coming weekend.

My personal highlight from this weekend was getting to play in my first game since my surgery in July, which was by no means just a little exciting. I think my knee is as good as it will get, and it doesn’t bother me too much unless I make an awkward cut on the ground. Although I did not do much worthwhile while I played, it felt WONDERFUL to be out there with the team again, running around, and I am excited for the rest of the season.

See you all on Friday!

Louise Vraney is a senior with the Panthers. She returned to the pitch last week after an off-season surgery. She is the second Panther to contribute to the player blog this season... she will be back next week.

Week 2: Nicole Munnelly

Dia duit aris! (Hello again!)

The excitement of college life is really starting to hit me as campus is getting quite busy. The sight of new students lugging all their boxes of clothes, stationary and not to forget food, up flights of stairs is a common one, while I’m side-stepping them down the stairs on the way to practice.

The bookstore too is full of students and their parents who have confused looks on their faces, hoping that this particular $300 BIO SCI book is the right one for their daughter. For me, I’ve had to do all this without the help of my parents... UWM campus is a little far for my mam and dad to come and help put my bed sheets on or help me choose what colour folders I should have. :) Believe It or not, getting ready for college life isn’t as simple. It’s quite stressful at times, but also pretty sweet. I’m feeling much more independent and responsible... I just hope I got the right BIO SCI book. :)

We completed our “Iron Chef” challenge last week. For those who don’t know what this is, it is a cooking competition in which the team is split into groups and each group chooses a theme (e.g. Asian) and cooks various dishes that inspire the chosen cuisine. Michael, David & Chris then vote and decide the best group. The themes chosen were Asian, Mediterranean, Italian and Mexican. Each group had something to prove theirs was the best... like... hmmm... chocolate dipped fortune cookies. :) The coaches haven’t decided on a winner yet... hope it’s a little earlier than last year.

We kicked off our season with 2 scoreless draws (v. Northwestern & Madison) and 2 wins (v. Michigan & Rice). The two nil-all (0-0) games were a little frustrating to us. We played good soccer but the goals unfortunately just wouldn’t come. These 2 games were my first road trips. After the Northwestern game, some of the parents gave us goody bags (snack packs) for the trip home which were gratefully received as it rained for the whole match and we were in need of a little cheering up... what better way than to give us food. For the Madison game, we went to Sammy Vovos' house for our pre-match food, which was fun. We ate, and then relaxed in her garden with her cute dogs until it was time to all pile back on the bus and head to the game.

The Michigan game was our first match on Engelmann and all of the team had faith that we would score this time, and when we did... we scored big. The Michigan game started off lacking some intensity, but the second half was the complete opposite. We came out and scored 6 great goals! Well done to the whole team but especially to Kreuser, Megna (she got 2, one real cracker!! [great goal]), Sperl, Apple and Kenzie who put to bed our near (but not really) goal drought. Congrats to Laurel for getting the game winner against Rice.

Let’s keep it up Panthers for the local derby (crosstown) game against Marquette this Thursday at Engelmann!

P.S. - Ireland plays Cyprus this Saturday in an important world cup qualifier, so get your green shirts on and support the Irish :) (1:30 p.m. Milwaukee time)

Slán go foil (Bye for now)

Nicole Munnelly is a freshman with the Panthers out of Dublin, Ireland. She is the first Panther to contribute to the player blog this season.