Baltimore Child Abuse Center

Our 2011 season was dedicated to the BCAC (Balimore Child Abuse Center). The girls wore blue shoelaces and wrote BCAC on their wrists each game to remind them who they were playing for. Now that the season is finished, the grand total of money the girls earned for this wonderful cause is $3,048. It is estimated that 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be sexually abused in their lifetime making this an extremley important cause that the girls wanted to pursue. Along with raising this money, every week the players took turns going to the center to play with children, clean the center, organize paperwork or whatever the center needed that particular day. Jennifer Noparstak, MSW, Director of Development for the BCAC said "We are so appreciative of the Stevenson University women's soccer team's help throughout their 2011 season, in addition to assisting BCAC in raising awareness and funds, the players are volunteering their time weekly, spending a few hours with children at the Center and providing them a sense of security and caring." I am so very proud of my girls. Senior and Junior Captains Stephanie Eyler and Taylor Zimmerman came up with this idea completely on their own, organized everything and truly did our community a service.

Road to ECAC's

With our strength of schedule and winning record we were certain our season was not over. We took the weekend off to mourn our loss and then got immediately back into the swing of soccer having a couple fun, hard working practices. Turns out we were ONE TEAM AWAY from getting a bid to NCAA's however since we did not get in to the NCAA's we were asked to compete in the ECAC's. We were the second seed in this tournament meaning Neumann traveled to us. The girls took care of business scoring 7 goals (frustration from not scoring enough against St. Mary's I'm sure)! Then we traveled to Frostburg where we won an intense battle against a future MAC rival Albright. It was an extremely physical game that we ended up winning 1 -0. We stayed overnight in a hotel where the girls had way to much fun competing in Graeme's "Pub Quiz" (which he stayed up until 2 am creating the world's hardest trivia questions). Dinner was delicious and everyone was in excellent spirits as they sang their way onto the field Sunday for the Championship game. Story of our lives however, we dominate, out shoot, and lose. We outshot Frostburg 21 - 14 and had 5 corner kicks to 0. We hit the cross bar THREE TIMES and just could not catch a break. They scored a beauty in the first half, and if you can't finish you can't win so we ended our season with a 1-0 loss. Again, we were extremely proud of ourselves and we walked away knowing if we get better at finishing our opportunities we are UNSTOPPABLE.

CAC Let Down.

Unfortunately we lost a tough CAC semi-final game against St. Marys. Both teams fought hard and St. Mary's was able to capitalize to take the win. They are exceptionally well in transition and we broke down defensively twice letting them score 2 goals. They scored first early into the game and Jamie Matlock scored before the half taking us into the locker room tied at 1-1. We had 27 shots on goal and only score once, almost unbelievable. They had 7 shots on goal and finished 2. Heartbreaking as it is, that is the game of soccer that we love so much. St. Mary's went to Salisbury and lost in OT. Making Salisbury the CAC Champs. Much to our disappointment, we let our repeat championship slip away. However, all in all the girls did have an excellent and extremely fun season and I am very proud of their work both on and off the field.

Perfect Ending to Regular Season Games

The early loss to York and Tie with Frostburg didn't have us sitting to comfortably in our CAC bracket. However, complete focus and determination is the only way to describe the way we have finished our regular season play. Salisbury came here without a conference loss and we did what we had to do. It was a battle from start to finish. We dominated in the first half, Stephanie Eyeler did what she does best and finished a beautiful volley from Mandy Marston giving us the 1-0 edge. The rest of the game we all were on the edge of our seats. Salisbury was in a little better shape then us as they have lots of speed. They had a couple close chances in the second half, but our defense stood strong leading us to victory.

Traveling to Mary Wash was fun. The girls rented movies from Blue-Box which made the trip fly by. They also continued to play as if they knew they should win. 2-0 was the result. We needed Salisbury to lose or tie to give us the regular season Champions award, and it looked like it was going to happen. We followed stats on the bus ride home as Salisbury and St. Mary's entered OT. Salisbury pulled it out in the end, finishing in first with us a close second. Now we both have 1st round byes for the playoffs and will hopefully meet again in the Championship!

GOALS GOALS GOALS

We have scored 12 goals in our last 2 games! I can't believe how well we are playing. The Marymount parents were telling us that we were the best team they have played all year. We were truly on our game. The passing was phenominal, finishing superb, and communication excellent. We beat Wesley 5-1 on a gross rainy day in Delaware and Marymount 7-1 here under the lights on our new turff. I really think we are peaking at just the right time. Against Marymout we scored 5 goals in under 8 minutes, talk about a great run. Five different players scored. These were two very big wins for us as they have the girls confidence soaring. Next week we will have two extremely challenging games against Undefeated in-conference Salisbury and Mary-Wash. We can not afford to tie or lose either game if we want to have a first round bid in the playoffs.

Conference Wins!

Since defeating Muhlenburg the girls have decided they love to score. A non conference game against McDaniel set the tone as we stormed through winning 4-0. Then came Hood College, another 4-0 win. As we traveled to St. Mary's for the second conference game of the week the girls were focused. They knew how important it was for us to win this game. That early loss to York really woke us up and made us realize we could not lose this game. The girls got the job done burying their opportunities on goal. We won 3-0 in a game that was pretty hard fought. I was so proud and impressed with their shooting. All week we focused on 1 v 1s and 3 v 3s to big goals and I guess we fell in love with the back of the net!

Steph Setting Records!

Our very own Stephanie Eyler broke the Capital Athletic Conference's career goals-scored record when she scored her third goal against Hood college. Her first 2 years here at Stevenson she scored 43 goals. Last summer she broke her foot and had an extremely frustrating junior season. Even though frustrating for her still meant scoring 6 goals and winning the CAC Championship. The record was previously held by Sara Weaver with 54 career goals. And now with at least 8 games remaining in her career Steph has already beaten this number. Let's see how many she can get!