Ali Hawkins has been one of my all time favorite UNC players for many reasons. Congratulations to her on being selected for the Lowes Senior Class award! It is well deserved! I have really enjoyed watching her over the last five years, and those games when she was healthy were always more fun than those in which she was side-lined. I'll miss her a lot. Best wishes to her, and well done to a remarkable young woman who combines such exceptional academic, athletic, community and leadership skills!
3 consecutive College Cup appearances < 2 College Cup appearances in the same 3-year span + 2 titles. Getting to the College Cup will never be as impressive as winning it. With yet another loss today, Stanford is a distant 3rd behind North Carolina and Notre Dame, no matter which ranking metrics you use to determine Today's Best Women's Soccer Program. Congrats to ND!
#1 teams do lose but they were deservedly the #1 for the year until today Have to tip your hat to ND as they have had a great NCAA tournament. Winning on the road and giving up up just 1 goal in 6 games (that one coming from UNC of course). Neither ND nor Stanford will be as strong as they were this year but UNC will be better than they were this year.
I was out of town for the ND sweet 16 game at Fetzer. Ellen Bartindale, a ND player writes a blog and she comments: "...Going to North Carolina, our nemesis, our archrival. Coming away with a convincing victory in their house, yet Coach [Anson] Dorrance's final gracious gesture to me and my teammates was as kind as it was unexpected." Do any of you were at the game know to what she is referring? What did AD do?
I heard Jessica Schuveiller of ND say this after winning it all "It would of been nice playing powerhouse North Carolina in the final but we already beat them" everyone started laughing, you can hear Randy laughing. Then he says: I have nothing do with that. I don't recall our players taking pot shots at them after they were eliminated by us.
Actually, it was more aimed at Christen Press than a shot at UNC. From the South Bend Tribune: The Irish used a bit of misplaced motivation for energy. The team used a quote from Saturday's Stanford press conference, but used only the words they wanted to. On that day, Press was asked whether the team would rather be playing perennial national powerhouse North Carolina. She looked uncomfortable with the question, stammered a little bit, and finally came up with what appeared to be a politically correct answer that while it would have been nice to play North Carolina, they were just as excited to play Notre Dame. Notre Dame apparently did not hear the politically correct version and, after the win, Schuveiller used the quote and dipped it in irony. "To go off what Press said yesterday," Schuveiller said, "it would have been nice to play the powerhouse North Carolina in the final, but, uh, we already beat them. But I guess a championship is a championship."
Enfuego, reading your posts over the years, you are very protective of UNC's program and there's nothing wrong with that. Heck, that's the way I am of everything Chicago. But, I don't think anyone was dissing UNC. These were just kids who were happy at the moment and probably saying all kinds of stuff. I personally don't remember anyone from ND ever dissing UNC, their players or coaches. Even in athe losses that ND had at the hands of UNC in Championship games over the years. In fact I think they have the most respect for UNC. But it was a great achievement for these kids to beat USC, Oklahoma St., UNC, Ohio State and Stanford to win it all. These were all teams who were someone you had to beat this year if you wanted to be the best and UNC is at the top of the list every year.
That comment is kind of a shot at Stanford. Just goes to show you the power of UNC. Even after defeating UNC more than a week ago all ND can think about is UNC. I doubt after a national title game won by UNC would anyone on UNC refer to a team they beat three games ago. Despite what people on this forum have said about parity and other teams getting better, beating UNC does not compare to beating any other team, even Stanford in the finals.
Geez, now that you mention it, I recall photos of the Tar Heels celebrating with Governor Mike Easley after they beat ND in the 2006 final, holding up blue shamrocks because they had beaten ND in the final so many times. Check out: http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/view.gal?id=4190 especially photos 3 and 4. The symbolism was explained here: http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/120806aaa.html "Members of the team and coaching staff were presented with the Laurel Wreath Award, the state's honor for outstanding achievement in athletics. Team members were also given special Carolina Blue four-leaf shamrocks in honor of their four national championship victories over Notre Dame in the years 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2006. 'We will be sending a picture of you with these special Carolina Blue shamrocks to Notre Dame to show them what real lucky shamrocks look like,' Easley said." The shamrock imagery stung a little, I must admit. It may be that former governor Easley was not the only one to send the photo to ND..... As for Ms. Schulveiller's remarks, I think her target was Ms. Press of Stanford, not the Tar Heels. To quote the ND student newspaper: "Leading up to the match, Cardinal forward Christen Press, the nation's leading goal scorer, said it would have been nice for her team to have played the Tar Heels, not the Irish, for the title in their home state of North Carolina — a matchup between this year's number one and last year's. A matchup between a program that has never won a national title and a program that has won 21. The matchup that everyone wanted." "After shutting down Press and the Cardinal offense for 90 minutes, junior defender Jessica Schuveiller lent her thoughts on the matter. 'It would have been nice to play the powerhouse North Carolina in the final, but we already beat them," she said. "But I guess a championship is a championship, right?'" Any incivility to the Tar Heels is deeply regretted by me. But I'm assuming that Anson already has plenty of ammo to motivate next year's team.
Ellen Bartindale, a ND player writes a blog and she comments: "...Going to North Carolina, our nemesis, our archrival. Coming away with a convincing victory in their house, yet Coach [Anson] Dorrance's final gracious gesture to me and my teammates was as kind as it was unexpected." Do any of you were at the game know to what she is referring? What did AD do?[/QUOTE] With about five minutes to go, Waldrum tried to clear the bench and let the reserves have a few minutes on the field. As usually happens in soccer, they waited at the sideline for about four minutes and the ball refused to go out. With one minute to go, the ball finally went out ON ND. So only UNC could sub. Dorrance saw this and quickly grabbed one of his girls to sub and nodded to the ND girls saying, "Go on in, girls." So these rarely used players could have a moment on historic Fetzer Field with the incomparable Tarheels. It was very generous, especially considering what he must have been feeling.
With about five minutes to go, Waldrum tried to clear the bench and let the reserves have a few minutes on the field. As usually happens in soccer, they waited at the sideline for about four minutes and the ball refused to go out. With one minute to go, the ball finally went out ON ND. So only UNC could sub. Dorrance saw this and quickly grabbed one of his girls to sub and nodded to the ND girls saying, "Go on in, girls." So these rarely used players could have a moment on historic Fetzer Field with the incomparable Tarheels. It was very generous, especially considering what he must have been feeling. AD is a great sportsman, gracious in victory or defeat. This is one of many examples, and I'm glad that Ms. Bartindale acknowledged it in her blog.
Anyways. What areas do the heels need the biggest improvement to contend for a title next season? For me it's center back and attacking mid.
With about five minutes to go, Waldrum tried to clear the bench and let the reserves have a few minutes on the field. As usually happens in soccer, they waited at the sideline for about four minutes and the ball refused to go out. With one minute to go, the ball finally went out ON ND. So only UNC could sub. Dorrance saw this and quickly grabbed one of his girls to sub and nodded to the ND girls saying, "Go on in, girls." So these rarely used players could have a moment on historic Fetzer Field with the incomparable Tarheels. It was very generous, especially considering what he must have been feeling.[/QUOTE] Thank you go irish8228. I appreciate you sharing this little story. It was sort of a teaser in Bartindale's excellent blog post, and I really appreciate you sharing the facts. Indeed there are some class acts in the coaching business, and Randy and Anson are two of them in my mind. I recall several times that Anson has praised Randy and I've never heard anything negative coming from South Bend aimed at Anson. (We fans should emulate such behavior!)
Well so much for those goalkeeping woes (well for 2012 and beyond). Word is Bryane Heaberlin has verbally committed to the Heels.
Quite a few coaches are crying over this one. Not only is she one of the best goalkeepers as she reads the game like few can, but she has one of the best work ethics you could find, along with the brains and dedication to her schoolwork. In other words, a coach's dream.
How does she compare to Ashlyn Harris? If you saw the ND game, GK was a issue. Though theyre high on Anna Sieolf. Chris Duncar is a great GK coach. Coaches dont mind using the sexual harassment stuff, playing time, another player at UNC against them in recruiting. So I doubt they feel sorrie for other coaches in recruiting. Whats odd is they have signed a few unknown non US pool players. I heard they went after some 2011 players but missed. The coaches liked 2010 class best and expect them to be the fondation for a NCAA title.
That's very good. Let's just hope the 2012 U20 World Cup is not during the college soccer season as it was in 2008 because if it is then it is likely that Bryane and Dunn (at least) will have a conflict.
There is a good chance it will be conflicting because of the Olympic year. Not only could UNC lose Dunn and Bryane, Morris was on the team and so was Ohai but was unable to attend because of her high school restriction policy on days missed, they are both age appropriate for the next one.
If your dates are right then they will just have to win a national championship in 2011 and make any absenses in 2012 less stressful (at least for them).
Kling (as well as Harris, Tarpley, Engen, Lilly, Heath, and Averbuch) gets the call for the USWNT Jan camp. 15 from this 26 will go to teh 4Nations Tourny (w/ 8 regulars that weren't called into camp).
Thank you so much for sharing this info! It couldn't happen for a more deserving group of gals! I am particularly happy to see Klingenberg get the recognition and the opportunity she worked so hard for over the last season. My only regret is that Washington is missing from this list. I don't know how her rehab has gone after her season ending injury in 2009, but I would have hoped that by now she would be fit, flourishing, and on the WNT radar. Well earned congratulations to all these former Heels on an honor well earned! Best luck making the call.