live life loud

i think that's what it said on the box, dad doesn't remember. BUT IT'S SWEET!! and loud. and an early birthday present. I blasted it upstairs in the bathroom while i took a shower - good acoustics. I'm pretty sure the 'rents wish now that they would have waited to give it to me right before I go back to chi-town friday.

yep, we're goofs

 

florida disappointment

The first game separates the winners bracket from the losers bracket. Losing in the first round bites. It means you cannot achieve anything greater than 5th place, and that’s if you win out. After we lost to Dallas Baptist 2-0 in our first game of the NCCAA tournament, 5th place became our 1st place. Next we had to play Judson for our fourth time this season, a drag, beating them 1-0. We went on to tie Palm Beach Atlantic, with probably our worst performance this season, but we earned the 5th place title after winning a shootout. It was the most melodramatic shootout I have ever been a part of. Its hard to play a game like that when it doesn‘t really mean anything, instead its just a consolation game. Coach tried to inspire us for our last game with things like:
It’s the last game for the seniors
We could achieve 20 wins
It will set the tone for off-season training

If I was a senior I would like to go out with a little more dignity. Losing to Dallas Baptist was not humiliating. Maybe on the surface because we were the #1 seed and they were the #8 seed, but it was a well played game. It was a good game to end on and even though it was a loss it shouldn’t affect how we would train this Spring. Instead we ended on a lackluster tie and then a less-than-redeeming shootout win, which didn’t give us the 20-game winning season that we had hoped for.
My eyes are set on the NAIA next year. NCCAA Tournament Director Furey hoped that he would see us again and I said, “No thanks, but maybe we’ll stop by to say hello when we are in Daytona.”


I’m going home for THANKSGIVING! I think. I’m in the airport right now wasting time and waiting to find out if there’s a seat number with my name on it when flight 23 boards at 2:52 pm. If all goes as planned I will be in Washington until Friday. 

NCCAA North Central Region Champions

Trinity International University Women’s Soccer hosted and won the NCCAA Division I North Central Regional Tournament last weekend after defeating Olivet Nazarene University (2-1) in the semis and Judson College (2-1) in the Championship. TIU will be competing for the NCCAA National Championship in Kissimmee, Florida November 15-20th as the #1 seed in the tournament. Judson College managed a bid to the tournament as the #4 seed after Spring Arbor University dropped out. If victorious in their quarterfinal, Judson and TIU will meet at the National Tournament. Judson has lost to TIU 2 out of the 3 times they have competed against them this season.

 

botanic gardens

we took the afternoon off yesterday to stroll the chicago botanic gardens, rest our bodies, read excerpts from Duke's Coach K on things like "poise" and "consistency", reflect on the last couple days, and sip on odwalla shakes. it was a sweet, sweet thing (kijanowski).

385 acres of beautiful. all of the pics were taken from my phone - no lie.

Coach Gilliam attended yesterday's conference meeting about the big tournament this weekend and he informed us that we play Judson, @ Judson, Saturday at 1. I'm pumped. I heard the look on the Judson Coach's face was nothing less than terrified.

Ahhh-boom-boom TIU!

TIU Women’s Soccer Sets New Records

by Coley

The Trinity International University Trojans women’s soccer program was ranked number 10 in the National Association of Collegiate Athletics polls yesterday after an explosive week of soccer.

It all started Homecoming weekend when TIU traveled to a neutral site to play their biggest rivalry Robert Morris. Out-of-state family and friends gathered to witness the memorable 4-1 victory and to marvel at the scoring ability of TIU Sophomore Ruth Kratzer who earned a hat-trick.

Kratzer went on to score two more in TIU’s small 5-0 home win against Cardinal Stritch. She was named the NAIA player of the week, an honor that no player in the history of TIU women’s soccer has earned before. Although both games were important conference wins, they were only the prelude to the biggest victory in TIU’s history, a win that caught the attention of the nation.

TIU stunned the defending NAIA women’s soccer champions Martin Methodist Redhawks with a 2-0 shutout. The Redhawks traveled from Tennessee to play on TIU’s home pitch to secure a non-conference away win to earn extra points on their longo rating. But it was the first snowfall of the season, and although Martin Methodist was composed of a dozen talented international players, TIU took full advantage of the home conditions. It was the second loss that Martin Methodist had suffered and the first time they have been held scoreless for over 12 games.

“It’s a milestone win for this program,” said Assistant Coach Ryan Erickson in the post-game huddle. After both teams joined hands and prayed, TIU ran to the touch line to greet and thank their fans. Hugs were all around, smiles were ear to ear, and the Trojans performed their pre-game chant, “Ah-boom-boom TIU!”, before they headed into the locker room.

TIU went on to beat Illinois Institute of Technology 3-2 in Chicago, but ended their 4-game winning streak to a 2-1 upset against Judson College. The Trojans finished their regular conference season in Elgin 6-3, overall 13-4-0.

“You are by far the most talented squad of girls I have coached here at Trinity,” said Head Coach Patrick Gilliam to his team in the Judson College locker room after a tough loss that eliminated them from the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference champion title. Gilliam has been the head coach for the past 11 years and the 10th ranking is the highest that the Trojans have earned in women’s soccer history.

The Trojans season is far from over. They will compete in the CCAC tournament this weekend and still have hope to earn their way to the NAIA Regional and National tournaments and the NCCAA tournament.

homecoming weekend

November 23rd, 2006

I don’t know where I’m at right now, but it’s probably not home (This is where you start to feel bad and decide to invite me to your house for thanksgiving dinner). Anyway, I just got back from the national tournament and we did well. It was a nice kicker to the 2006 season.

Funny thing is, mid-october I didn’t think our fate included a post-season. We were well into conference play, and well into a funk. I kept hearing about the talented squad we had this season compared to years past, but I was concerned about the lack of tick marks this talented squad was collecting in the W column.

It was all very frustrating. Although we were consistently dominating teams, we were unable to finish them off. After the final blow of the whistle we would walk off the field defeated and confused. Why weren’t we putting these teams away?

As far as hopes for a post-season play, this team was living in the past. Sure, the team had made it to the national tournament 8 consecutive times in 8 years, but we can't ride on that statistic like it's our ticket to Kansas City or Florida.

We had loooong meetings consisting of a lot of talk; lack of accountability, lack of resiliency, lack of consistency, a lot of conviction. You name it, we talked about it. We could say all we wanted to, really.

But I think it was simple: we weren’t finishing and we couldn't maintain consistent shutouts. This isn't an issue for the forwards, and this isn't a back-line issue; this is an altogether 11-player one-unit team issue.

We could possess the heck out of the ball, string long pass sequences together and create pretty offensive attacks, but we just couldn’t make it dangerous enough to score the crucial goals. We could all out dominate a team back to front, win tackles and high pressure, but we still couldn't manage a shutout.

I’m still not sure what exactly happened; whether it was Coach’s “truth” pre-game speech, or how we attacked Bobby Mo during homecoming weekend or maybe we just finally recognized that our season could potentially end before November if we didn’t get our butts into gear.

What I do know is that we didn’t fold. We starting playing with an urgency that gave everyone the confidence, nay, the will to create goals on one end of the field and prevent them on the other. We became the force that we all had talked about and hoped to be. We earned a post-season.

-Coley


the roomies

serena, christine, me, abby

...and that's not even all of us.


HOMECOMING WEEKEND

It started off with a Pep Rally. I felt like I was back at high school in an assembly, but late at night and the attendance was optional. Since I am a transfer I had to join a handful of freshman in an inter-sport relay competition; limbo under a volleyball net, twirl around a baseball bat, rush a football, dribble and score a soccer ball, and make a basketball lay-up . The men's baseball team proved to be the swiftest, but our lady trojan soccer team took 2nd. Yep, that means we beat men's soccer and basketball AND the football team.
Christine stole a palm tree at the after-party; it now adorns the door to her room. She also stayed up late to decorate our window with letters reading "WEST COAST".

Saturday was the big rivalry game against Robbert Morris at neutral site 15 minutes off-campus. The men's team made us each a personalized candy bag for having to travel on our homecoming. This didn't keep away the fans, consisting of mostly out-of-town family that came to visit. We destroyed Bobby Mo 4-1. It was a sweet victory and, I predict, the turning point to our stagnant conference season thus far (5-2-0).

SUNDAY Maria and George were married at Iglesia Emanuel. They are both on the women's and men's soccer team, respectively - cute, huh? Our team pretty much filled up the entire bride's section. It was a looooooooong event. Hispanic families. Loud music. Entertaining and light sermon. Good food. The cake and the dancing, well I do not know because we left before we could indulge.

hydration, a tiu tradition

21 - sweet number - of us invaded olive garden the night before the Calumet game. this season is all you can eat pasta, salad and breadsticks for 7.49 - dang Gina! after my table devoured 4 baskets of breadsticks and 3 bowls of salad, we hardly made it through our first serving of pasta. but all is well, because the waiters sang happy birthday to RUFIO, and we had the OG "special occasion chocolate cake." most importantly, we all had plenty to drink, and we documented it for the TIU trainers.

0920 St. Xavier 3, TIU 0
0923 TIU 12, Calumet 0

quick-read

Wow.

"If you aren't inspired after you read this book, something is wrong with you." - Patrick Gilliam, TIU Women's Soccer coach.

I just finished reading this brilliant book - Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an all-night runner. Dean's efforts are unbelievable and I am still in denial about whether it is really non-fiction. The guy seems supernatural.

Funny thing is, I saw him when I went to a live taping of the Northwest Afternoon show in Seattle, but I had no idea who he was... I just enjoyed his story about how he ran from a restaurant the night before to get to his Hotel room when he couldn't grab a cab.

The biggest bummer is that he's not a believer. Some parts in the book I just wanted to scream "HEY DEAN YOU ARE ALMOST THERE! Your strength and will, this incredible gift you have of self-discipline and persistence - it's not from others, it's not from your sister or your family, AND it's not from yourself. GOD IS THE SOURCE OF YOUR STRENGTH AND ENERGY, all you need to do is to take that itsy bitsy step of faith and recognize that your gift comes from Jesus Christ. TAP INTO HIM, his faithfulness is abundant."

Dean idolizes running. That's the only thing that's holding him back. Regardless, he is an amazing human being and has no doubt been an inspiration to me. Read it. You don't have to be a runner. You don't even have to be athletic. Just snag a recliner and a cold beverage and grab the paper-back and you are set. Enjoy.