NCAA 3rd Round vs Tennessee - 11/24

Yes, Hats off to Tennessee. They showed more spunk than anybody I've seen at Merlo with the exception of Santa Clara. Their keeper was the best opposing keeper I've seen - always well positioned, great reflexes, made good decisions, and was fearless.

I was talking to a Tennessee supporter at half-time (possibly the Keeper's dad) and he also said that they are trying to Play UP ball. He commented how much fun it was to watch the game, even from the other side. Then he looked around and asked- "is it like this at all the games?" when I explained that this happened 4 or 5 times a year and the rest of the games were well attended, too, he looked around, smiled, and said- " This is great, even coming in here as the opponent. It should be like this everywhere".

Tennessee might get there in a few years. They have a new Stadium, the program is well funded, and their attendance has been slowly increasing. and if they are using Clive as a model, how could they go wrong?

http://www.utladyvols.com/soccer/article.aspx?id=41658

got this off of the vol's web site. i always like to read the opponents view of the game. vol's coach had very nice things to say. sounds like she's a classy lady.

Geezer, where are your seats? Were you over in F by the bulk of the UT fans?

Nah, I'm in the Stadium seats with the rest of the old fat cats.

I just met the guy at the concessions.

Agreed all around with what people are saying. I too was really impressed with how Tennessee didn't give up and kept on attacking all the way to the end. You could tell that UP was just content to sit on the lead and ride it out until the final whistle, but Tennessee didn't have any quit in them and took control of the game for much of the second half.

But that first half was probably the most exciting half of UP soccer I have ever seen. Talk about relentless... the Pilots just did not take the foot off the gas for one second the whole time. And how about Sophie Schmidt? Terrific game by her, as well as Enyeart and Reed. I also thought Budge played great too - UP really did a great job of spreading out the field and taking advantage of their talented wing players and defensive backs coming up to attack.

Anyway... I also was impressed with Jaimel Johnson (UT's keeper) but I agree that some of her kicks were weak - both Enyeart and Schmidt nearly scored off of poor/short goal kicks. Still, she was the only reason this game wasn't 6-0 or 7-0. I think she's got a future for sure. I also heard that she had over 30 family/friends travel to Portland for the game - pretty cool!

Now it's revenge time against the Bruins!

Here is the YouTube link to the goals from last night. It is about 6 minutes long (I let the clip run between the first and second goals). When I get a little time, I'll put together something a little better with shorter clips and highlights on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball (including Kelsey's brilliant save).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvlMuxiJg2s

I haven't watched the entire game, just searched and clipped the goals, but what irritated me about the broadcast, is that despite having "local" announcers doing the play-by-play (and Jimmy Clarke is certainly well known around the program), they both failed to correctly identify the 2 of 3 the goal scorers at the time of the goals: on Enyeart's first she was mistaken for Schmidt (and how about an infuriating time for a replay), and on her second she was mistaken for Budge. After the first goal, you can hear the PA announcer clearly credit the goal to Enyeart, yet they continue to go on about Sophie without correcting themselves. The announcers in Colorado knew our players better than our local announcers did, which seems kind of sad to me.

Thanks KFTC! I just checked Ch. 37 and they are replaying the game starting at 12:30. WooHoo! It'll be nice to watch the first half and see just how dominant the Pilots are.

Nice video again - great stuff!! I'm hoping that the UP UCLA game will be more widely broadcast

I also was impressed with Jaimel Johnson (UT's keeper) but I agree that some of her kicks were weak

Maybe she tweaked a muscle or something. Before the game, a couple guys who watched her practice said she was booming them well past midfield.

Thanks for posting the video. I love watching UT lose, especially to the Pilots.

Wow!

Take a look at the Facility that the Vols play in-- first class.

http://www.utladyvols.com/facilities/page.aspx?id=9888
http://www.utladyvols.com/uploadedFiles/Sports/Soccer/Generic/125-128%20Regal.pdf

you are paying for it every time you watch a picture at Regal Cinemas

what impressed me most about the vol's keeper, not taking anything away from kelsey's great saves, was that a couple of them were kick saves. how often do you see that in a game let alone a season. but i think the most impressive save she made was in the second half. elli in the box, johnson coming out to challenge her an elli hits a little chip shot over her head. not only did johnson have to stop on a dime an try to backtrack, but she got a hand on it an was more amazingly able to redirect it over the cross bar. mind you, shes listed as 5'8" [really?] an eyeballing her is lucky if she weighs 130 lbs. that was the save that impressed me the most. it's her athletism that makes her the keeper she is.

The UT keeper was very good, but the save that impressed me the most was Kelsey's save on the header shot off the corner kick. Those are the toughest things to stop.

Interesting:

http://usctrojans.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/usc-w-soccer-sched.html

It seems as if USC, the higher seed, is being sent to West Virginia for the quarterfinal. I doubt that the NCAA would ship out a #1 seed (UCLA) to a #2 (Portland), but they did this, so why the heck not, really?

Really?

I read on the USC site last night that they were going to play in Trojan Stadium.

I remember thinking it would be a bad idea because they would just rattle around in there.


I'l bet they have the place booked and can't play at USC.