New Year, New Blog

With 2011 having just gotten underway, we decided it would be a good idea to start a blog for EC Women's Soccer!  We thought this would be the best way to keep everyone up to date on what we've been doing.

This past fall we began play in our new conference, the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, and we were extremely successful.  We began the season with probably the toughest non-conference schedule we've had in quite some time.  Of the 10 non-conference games we played, 5 of them were against opponents who went to the NCAA Division III National Championships in 2009.  The NCAA National Championship is tournament comprised of essentially the best 64 teams in the nation.  Many of those non-conference teams we faced were also nationally ranked at one time during the season.  Having faced such a tough non-conference the team was extremely prepared going into conference play.  We went 8-1 during regular season conference play and won a share of the conference title.  We were the number one seed in the 4-team conference tournament and hosted Hanover in the first round.  We came away victors and faced Transylvania in the conference tournament finals.  Sadly, we were defeated and Transylvania won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.  However, this team accomplished so much, and had a lot to be proud of.  We finished the season 14-6-1, recording the most wins in a season in school history. Our conference title was the first for Earlham since 1996 and the first ever conference title in a women's sport.  Eight players were recognized with conference honors, with Karman Duchon being named HCAC Offensive Player of the Year and Head Coach Jocelyn Keller being named HCAC Coach of the Year.  We also had 3 players earn NSCAA/NCAA Division III All Great Lakes Region honors.  Albeit the season ended on a sour note, this team is one that will go down in Earlham College history.

After the season ended, the players had the remainder of the semester to relax and recuperate.  Everyone returned to campus on January 10th and the very next week we began our off-season conditioning.  This spring we are without 3 of our 4 juniors who are doing study-abroad programs.  Evelyn Tandy is in Northern Ireland, Kelly Sprague is in Jordan and Holland Rausher is in Spain.  Kate Franks remains on campus leading the Women's Basketball team.  These 3 young women will be having some amazing adventures and as we get updates we'll be sure to pass them along.

Much like in years past, the off-season fitness program is KTFitness.  KTFitness is a female soccer specific workout designed by former collegiate soccer player and current certified personal trainer Katie Morse of Chicago, IL.  KTFitness incorporates body weight exercises such as squats and lunges, agility exercises involving ladders, balance exercises on Bosu and exercise balls and an immense amount of core work.  This is the third year we have been using this program and we have yet to have any season-ending injuries.  Two weeks into KTFitness the team seems to be "feeling the burn" but enjoying themselves.