Schedule Tidbits ... Most totally unofficial and not complete. Hearsay from likely reliable sources. Colorado State, Northern Colorado and Denver in the Colorado Cup. Friday August 29, Kent State in Las Vegas (happy birthday to me). Sunday evening the 31st, Nevada Las Vegas, ditto except the birthday. Detroit, Bryant, and the University of San Francisco, somewhere sometime. Assuming the Omni Hotels Classic and the Denver University tournament, I'm missing somebody. Both Oregons in Oregon, USC and UCLA in Los Angeles. Not complete. I will assume the Arizonas here because the past two years they were there. I will miss two weekends on account of this is my 50th high school reunion year, the high school with everybody I grew up with is September 19-21, and the boarding school I was sent to in the middle of my junior year is October 24-26, both in Northern California.
Remaining Spring Soccer Nebraska and Nebraska-Omaha in Lincoln next Saturday. I will not be there and will be very grateful if anybody who reads this and will be there can tell us how it went.
Buffs 1, Nebraska 1 Buffs 3, Nebraska-Omaha 0 That's Big-10 champion Nebraska. Kenzie Tillitt started in goal, Bianca Jones, Heather Ward, Alex Huynh and Brooke Rice in the back, Carly Bolyard, Darcy Jerman and Kahlia Hogg in the middle, and Madi Krauser, Brie Hooks and Tori Cooper up front. Assuming a 4-3-3. In the first half, Kahlia got a breakaway in on the GK who made the save. Nebraska scored early in the second half. Later they did a boo-boo (hand ball) in the wrong part of the field and Darcy made the PK. Against Omaha, Kenzie started in goal, Storie Ledger, Bianca, Heather and Ashley Love in the back, Mikaela Kraus, Alyssa Herwatt and Kahlia in the middle, and Emily Paxton, Tori and Nikki Machalek up front. Again, assuming 4-3-3. A shot by Madi K (we have two Madis) smacked the crossbar in the first half which ended scoreless. It took three minutes into the second hald for Nikki to break the ice with an assist from Kahlia, this was her THIRD game winner of the Spring season. Carly nailed a volley off a crossing pass from Brooke, and two minutes after that, Kahlia got her first goal as a Buff with the assist from Hannah Dearborn. This is all courtesy of Colorado Soccer on Twitter. I am not normally a Twit, but somebody keeps it very up-to-date during games. Thoughts on the spring season. We won the games we would be expected to, and were tied by two good teams. The RMAC teams, Metro State, Fort Lewis and Regis, were not easy wins, as usual, all were by one goal. The three transfers, Madi Hall (Portland), Morgan Stanton (Santa Clara) and Kahlia (Florida State) came to us from top-ranked programs and played like they were seniors who had been with us since they were freshmen (which Madi and Morgan still are). Kenzie got to show us what she can do in the net, the first four games were mostly quiet for her, but last Saturday and today she was kept pretty busy. New Mexico's goal came on a perfectly executed corner kick, I don't know about Nebraska's goal but to hold them to one suggests to me that she made quite a few saves today. Nikki only played in four games last season but she notched three game-winners this Spring, getting the first goal against Air Force and Nebraska-Omaha and the only goal against Fort Lewis. Now we await the arrival of six freshmen and one outstanding transfer goalkeeper. The level and depth of talent on the bench will be the best since I've been following the team. Only 119 days until the 2014 season starts.
Excellent recap as usual, thank you. And...congratulations on your soccer field engagement last weekend!
Thank you and thank you. I will miss two weekends this Fall, I don't know yet if they are home or away, and I will likely not make any road trips this year so I hope others can fill in when I'm not there.
Schedule tidbit correction: Kent State has posted their schedule and it says that they play us in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 31, time unknown. The fourth team there is Saint Francis and Kent State plays them on Friday afternoon so I will guess that we play UNLV Friday evening the 29th. I had the teams and dates reversed.
Pro Buffs and neighborhood schedule tidbits: Amy Barczuk (Western New York Flash) and Nikki Marshall (Portland Thorns) started their 2014 NWSL seasons with wins. Amy and Michelle Wenino (Chicago Red Stars) are 0-0 at halftime in Chicago as I write this. Amy, Michelle and Nikki are all starters for their teams. Northern Colorado will host Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday September 14. Denver will host Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday October 5 and IPFW (Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne) on Sunday October 26.
For tournaments like this, in the initial schedule postings it's not unusual for the teams to have the games mixed up. I always figure that the place to go for the correct tournament schedule is the schedule (or news articles) of the host team.
Congrats on your engagement, derbarkasmann. That is exciting! My best wishes to you and your fiancee. Keep us posted. Also keep up the postings about the buffs and other Colorado soccer as you have been doing so well. My wife grew up in Colorado and is a UNC graduate and we were in Greely last summer (50 years after her graduation.) We live near Chapel Hill in North Carolina and my wife also has a graduate degree from the "other" UNC.
Wait.... What? Huh? I gotta check in more often. Congatulations! As tradition mandates ... best wishes to the bride, and you are so lucky
Neighborhood Schedule Tidbits Colorado College has already posted their schedule. Air Force hosts Utah State on September 28, hosts Nevada on October 17, and visits Colorado College on October 31. Colorado State hosts Nevada on September 28, visits Utah State on October 5, and hosts Colorado College on October 12. Denver visits Nevada on August 22, visits Colorado College on August 24, visits IUPUI October 10, goes trick-or-treating at South Dakota State, and hosts the Summit League Championship on November 6 and 8. About time they got a home game. Northern Colorado hosts Colorado College on August 22 and visits Weber State on October 3. Wyoming visits Weber State on August 31, visits Morehead State on September 14, hosts Nevada on September 26, visits Utah State on October 3, and hosts Colorado College on October 10. Like I said, tidbits. Teams have my permission to post their schedules now.
Can't believe to post this - Nikki Marshall has just received her first full team call-up. The US will face Canada in Winnipeg on May 8th. http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209485448
Schedule tidbit (and a couple of real schedules) Wyoming has posted their 2014 schedule. http://www.gowyo.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/wyo-w-soccer-sched.html Neighborhood highlights are the exhibition at the School of Mines on August 16, at Northern Colorado on Sept 19, Colorado College and Air Force in Laramie Oct 10 & 12, and the Border War with Colorado State in Laramie at 1PM Oct 31. Colorado State has posted their schedule. http://www.csurams.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/csu-w-soccer-sched.html Neighborhood highlights start with the opener against Colorado (hey, that's us!!) at Northern Colorado on August 22, part of the Colorado Cup. Others include at home against Northern Colorado August 28, ditto re the Cup, Air Force and Colorado College at home Oct 10 & 12, and the Border War with Wyoming in Laramie at 3PM Oct 31. Starting the game two hours after Wyoming starts will be a disadvantage to CSU. Our Halloween game is Arizona State in Boulder. Presumably Arizona on Nov 2.
Will be interesting to watch Colorado this year. With Sanchez having had another year to recruit they should be stronger but last year they caught a lot of teams sleeping thinking Colorado wouldn't be as good as they were so they managed to upset some teams. After the great run in 2013 no one will underestimate the Buffs in 2014 so they will catch less teams by surprise but will walking on the field with the respect they earned last year and that will intimidate some teams. Definitely will be fun to see their results. Colorado State will also be interesting to watch. As a new program last year I actually think their results weren't as bad as I expected, they tied Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado and had a few 0-1 losses so with another year to recruit, they might upset some teams in 2014. Can Hempen get some more out of them in his second year? Northern Colorado has only won 10 games in a season once in the last 12 years, they came close last year with 9 wins and had quite a few losses by only one goal. Will Barrera get the team motivate to achieved more? They do well in conference but a few good non-conference wins could get them heading towards the next level of respect. Wyoming has lost some good starters so unless they have good recruits coming in they will find it harder in 2014 to win. Overall record last year wasn't great but the did make it to the ins round of the conference tournament. They lost a lot of games 0-1 last year they probably should have won so either they can improve, win those close games this year and be over .500 but losing some top players will make it hard. So what team will improve the most in 2014? Some have more room to improve (Colorado State) so the definition of improvement can be wide open?
THE SCHEDULE !!! http://www.cubuffs.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&SPID=259&SPSID=3932&DB_OEM_ID=600
First article of the season from the Boulder Daily Camera and they chose a good topic, the battle for who will start in the nets with the graduation of Annie Brunner who was a very good player for the Buffs and is now playing professionally in Switzerland. http://www.buffzone.com/ci_26253651/cu-soccer-trio-will-battle-start-buffs-goal My bet would be on Kate Scheele, a junior transfer from Colorado College where she proved herself last season. The other two candidates have virtually no college experience.
Good News and Important News GOOD NEWS: Olivia Pappalardo has untransferred and is back with the team. IMPORTANT NEWS: There is an In-n-Out Burger on the east side of the UNLV campus, at the intersection of University Road and Maryland Parkway (and several others in Las Vegas).
More good News . Amy Barczuk is back! Okay, not to play, but to coach as a voluntary assistant. She comes with two seasons of professional experience with Western New York. http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209604423
More ... Darcy Jerman and Bianca Jones will be the team captains. From the first day of practice: http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=3350798&db_oem_id=600
Annie Brunner is the Graduate Assistant Coach at Troy University !! http://www.troytrojans.com/coaches.aspx?rc=759&path=wsoc
College Sports Madness has CU at #36 nationally and 5th in the Pac-12 this season. They also have Brie Hooks on their all-conferecne team. http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9444?DB_OEM_ID=600 The article linked above has a summary of Buffs' strengths and weaknesses as well as the outlook for the season.
CU Soccer on Media Day ... http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209606769 Spring Break: Next March, the team will spend spring break in Spain, playing pro teams (I think) in Barcelona and Madrid. Fund raising has already begun. Hmmmm ... I have frequent flyer miles on American and United, and I have never been to Spain. Las Vegas: The team plays UNLV on Friday, August 29, and Kent State Sunday the 31st, both games at UNLV. August 29 is my birthday. I do not much like Las Vegas, but there is one thing on this planet that could get me there on Labor Day weekend. Crowded maybe? Hot maybe? Then my son and daughter-in-law gave me a trip to Las Vegas for my birthday. It will involve two airport all-nighters (two 6AM flights), well worth it. There's an In-n-Out Burger a block from where I'm staying, and an Original Tommy's Hamburgers on the Boulder Highway east of the campus. YUM !! See some of you there? The team picnic was last Tuesday evening, practice started Wednesday about when the chickens got up. I have never seen the players as excited and confident as they were that evening. This team is DEEP. We've lost a transfer to injury, but Olivia is back. We are massively deep in the net. We know Kate is excellent, rumor has it that so is Scout Watson (freshman), and Kenzie showed us how good she is in the spring. She got shot at a lot by New Mexico and Nebraska and held each to one goal. There is a tall freshman defender with international experience, possibly not a Lizzy Herzl replacement quite yet but I think the potential is there. From what I heard from a couple of players, freshman Brittany Stark is very fast, knows how to get open, and although she doesn't have Annie Stuller's rocket of a shot, she puts the ball where the goalkeeper isn't. As for replacing Hayley Hughes ... you don't replace Hayley, you just put another player in her spot. But like I said, the team is deep.
The team, by class. Nice field. Hope this works ... click on the pictures to make them big enough to see.