Pilots v. Rutgers, Penn St.

Molly K. isn't the only Pilot not playing much or at all. It has to be hard on any bench player to sit and watch during games. (And if it's hard on the players, consider their parents.) These are all players who dominated in high school, always stars on their teams. UP soccer is the stratosphere -- the peak -- and to the top performers go the most minutes. With a bigger roster than usual, the coaching staff has to expect and deal with at least some feeling of disappointment among the healthy team members who think they should be in the game.

purple haze wrote:Molly K. isn't the only Pilot not playing much or at all. It has to be hard on any bench player to sit and watch during games. (And if it's hard on the players, consider their parents.) These are all players who dominated in high school, always stars on their teams. UP soccer is the stratosphere -- the peak -- and to the top performers go the most minutes. With a bigger roster than usual, the coaching staff has to expect and deal with at least some feeling of disappointment among the healthy team members who think they should be in the game.

And each player has to decide after a year or two whether they like the school/team enough to stay will limited minutes or to transfer to a program (an inferior program such as UCLA? ) where they can get more playing time. I think that's why everyone here has been supportive of Charney when she decided to leave. She came as one member of an outstanding recruiting class expecting to be at the top of the program. It never quite came together for her in our system, so she moved.

The one playing-time situation I worry about on this team is having two national-quality freshman goalkeepers. An extra midfielder can always be squeezed in somewhere, but we can only play with one goalkeeper and they don't usually move to an outfield position. Since Erin has gotten the early, Nichole Downing has to be wondering how many minutes she will get.

And "Cheers" to the Portland coaching staff for releasing Charney so she could play right away. The U of W goalkeeper had to sit out a year when transferring from Cal to UW because the coach would not release her. (Plus she is battling back from lymphoma.)

irish78 wrote:And "Cheers" to the Portland coaching staff for releasing Charney so she could play right away. The U of W goalkeeper had to sit out a year when transferring from Cal to UW because the coach would not release her. (Plus she is battling back from lymphoma.)

As far as I can tell, no player who has transferred from UP has ever had to sit. The other ones I can think of include Mary Kuder,(Yale) Regina Holan, (CAL) Kim Engesser, (Nebraska) and Darcy Carruthers (Texas).
I think Reggie may have redshirted, but it was for a chronic injury, not a release issue. All were very successful. Kuder was captain, Holan scored around 60 goals, Engesser lead the nation in scoring at Nebraska, and Darcy started full time back when Texas was a top5 team.
Engesser played in the tournament for UP at Nebraska one year and played for Nebraska at
UP the start of the next fall (UP won both).

Coming the other way the results are mixed. Some sat, some didn't. Tara Koleski (CAL) didn't. I can't recall if Lauren Arase did (USC?) but Kelsey Davis (UCLA) did wait a year to play. All of them were pretty successful, too.

At least that's how I recall it. I'm old and losing it, so I might have gotten one wrong, and I'm sure I missed some.

Geezaldinho wrote:As far as I can tell, no player who has transferred from UP has ever had to sit. The other ones I can think of include Mary Kuder,(Yale) Regina Holan, (CAL) Kim Engesser, (Nebraska) and Darcy Carruthers (Texas).

Rebekah Patrick (2002), played at Lassen Community College in 2003, then at Fullerton in 2004 and 2005. Also, Lauren Mussallem (2000-2001) immediately played at SMU (2002-2003).

SoreKnees wrote:

An extra midfielder can always be squeezed in somewhere, but we can only play with one goalkeeper and they don't usually move to an outfield position.

Angela Harrison played the field for at least two seasons she didn't start. She had to - we only had about 13 field players a couple years. I'm betting she holds the Up record for assists by a keeper.

And the time-share she and Cheryl Loveless did for 5 years worked out quite well. Both were in Championship games, and both won National and Tournament recognition.

We also had time-shares in 2001 (Arase, Shea, Caruthers) and 2002 ( Arase, Shea - Kim Head got 15-20 minutes and won the National Championship)

Maybe I'm crazy (no comments from the peanut gallery), but I could swear Hope Solo once went out as a field player for Washington when they were playing in a Portland Invitational game. I don't think it was against Portland.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Maybe I'm crazy (no comments from the peanut gallery), but I could swear Hope Solo once went out as a field player for Washington when they were playing in a Portland Invitational game. I don't think it was against Portland.

As a freshman in 1999, she shared time in the net and played time in the field against Oklahoma State in the portland tournament. She took a shot and didn't score. UW won 3-0

She was a striker in Prep, scoring 109 goals and winning the state title for Richland.

doesn't mean you AREN'T crazy.

Geezaldinho wrote: Coming the other way the results are mixed. Some sat, some didn't. Tara Koleski (CAL) didn't. I can't recall if Lauren Arase did (USC?) but Kelsey Davis (UCLA) did wait a year to play. All of them were pretty successful, too.

Kelsey waited a year, but that's because Cory Alexander was playing her final year in 2006, so Kelsey started in 2007. Kelsey was a good goalie, but Cory was phenomenal, so the starting position was never really in dispute.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Maybe I'm crazy (no comments from the peanut gallery), but I could swear Hope Solo once went out as a field player for Washington when they were playing in a Portland Invitational game. I don't think it was against Portland.

From the Huskies' website, describing the 19 November 2000 UP/UW women's playoff game:

Solo saved two shots for the Huskies, including a deflection of point-blank attempt by Talbott two minutes into the second half. Solo was replaced in goal by senior Leslie Weeks during the 82nd minute and played on the field as a forward. Weeks played the final eight minutes and made one save.

It appears she also took 5 shots in a game against UCLA, but I haven't tracked down that game.

I looked at the Box score of the UP game. Sandra Hunt was the ref - the best ever to set foot on Merlo. I miss her

I believe every player that is on the team loves soccer and has played at a high level on their club team or they would not be at Portland..... but let's not forget that these are student athletes and even thought it may be tough for some players to not get the play time they would like, transferring from Portland means that the only important thing about Potland is playing soccer.

Let's not lose sight that it is possible that a student may have come to Portland for the education as well as playing soccer. I am reading through alot of postings where the focus is only on soccer and not on education. (i.e. transferring becuase of a lack of play time) I think we need to step back for a minute and think about these young ladies as students as well as the athletes.

Yeah, but how do we speculate about the student part? Player X really seems to move well from class to class, but she really needs to work on her note taking? That's no fun...

Still, good point, color me purple.

Thank you soccer fanatic!

I love soccer as much as anyone on this board but I am also a mother of two daughters and I value them getting a good well rounded education which is what being a "student" athlete can recieve.

A couple of seasons ago I talked with a Pilot soccer dad whose daughter was a sub who seldom played long minutes. He said she got everything she wanted out of attending UP. She knew she could have gone elsewhere to play more minutes, but didn't. Her dad said she achieved all her school goals and was well-positioned to go for an advanced degree. For her, the education mattered a lot, as did the chance to play soccer with exceptional teammates (even if cheering them mostly from the bench).

Thank you for communicating that story. That is exactly what I was trying to convey!

Bad news for Penn State's Lexi Marton. She Will miss The rest of The season with a torn meniscus she suffered when she stepped in front of Halley Kreminski's run into the box during their game with us.

No surgery is projected and no ACL tear diagnosed, but they think it will take 3 months to heal.

Wish her a full recovery.

http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092310aac.html

I just tried to find a way to send her best wishes on their web site - no luck. Is there a way to do that?

Try their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PSUWomensSoccer
Canada teams are hoping for her recovery also...
Dave