Women's spring schedule

Pilots 3 and Beavers 1.

Emma Nelson and Halley Kreminski both played some to give rest to a few of the starters.
Dees was in goal during first half and Nichole played the second half.

Micaela was kitted and did not have a leg brace on. She walked with no noticeable limp, but did not play.

One interesting thing seen during second half was someone wearing number 10 and if I can get the photo up, you will know right away who it is.

Although it was just a spring game, the OSU match was encouraging for the Pilots, who played as organized for 90 minutes as they have in awhile (with only ten underclass field players, two graduating seniors, and two keepers). Everyone contributed. Amanda scored on a double nutmeg. OSU's Jenna Richardson is top-notch, among the finest talents we will face.

Yeah, the new striker seems like she has potential. Doesn't like to head the ball for some reason.

I managed to see 4 of the 5 spring scrimmages, the 4 home matches. I wasn’t much impressed after the matches with PSU & SP. The competition didn’t appear to be very strong and we weren’t overly impressive. The level of competition was raised considerably with OSU. I thought we looked surprisingly good in that match, re-igniting hopes for next season. After watching UO play Concordia the week before they played us, I anticipated another good showing versus UO. We looked good for the first half, but UO gave us all we could handle for a good portion of the 2nd half. Scout Libke, #3 for UO, was Kendall's teammate at Lincoln HS.

Someone mentioned that UO had beaten OSU in an earlier scrimmage, which surprises me but correlates with what I saw on the field.

OSU & UO played us relatively straight up, man for man. That allowed us to score some breakaway goals, utilizing our speed (Kaila). PSU & SP played more of a defensive game, dropping defenders back which allowed us to control the ball but reduced our opportunities for breakaway plays.

Taylor: I thought she had the best spring season. Good, solid defense; strong on offense, quick, fast, creative. She looked especially dominant against UO until she was injured. And on an historic note, I never understood why she did not start matches during the early matches last fall. Was she injured? Certainly she performed better than whoever did start and added a spark when she entered the matches.

Kendall: Still not 100% but had a good spring, glad to have her back on the field. Did a lot of pushing and grabbing against UO which makes be think she was struggling somewhat.

Rest of team seemed to be passing better, attempting passes to work the ball forward when often last year they were content with only safe passes (lack of confidence, poor passing, whatever). Rebecca more involved than last year, Kaila has improved her ball-handling skills. Don’t mean to short change or skip over any of the other players. Our goalies were fun to watch as field players; their strong legs added long-distance fire power.

Break away goals are not the usual UP style, but perhaps we will see more of it next season as Kaila becomes a more integral part of the team. The players look more comfortable passing the ball than last season, perhaps one of the few benefits of last fall’s rough season.

Hopefully both Micaela & Taylor will be healed & ready to go when the season opens in fall. Does Micaela still have a chance of playing in the U20 World Cup? I see she was not on the latest roster list (published 4/2/12)) due to her injury.