Cartersville, Ga.

Sophomore

Goalkeeper

Entry Date: Oct. 18, 2011

This week, we were able to go down to Florida for the weekend. We flew out of Spartanburg on Thursday afternoon. The experience of flying with the team was awesome. We had a few frequent flyers while we also had a few rare flyers. Friday night we played FGCU and although at the end of the night the score was a disappointment, it was a roadblock for our team.

Saturday we traveled up to Stetson to support our volleyball team. Before we went there though we made a stop at Daytona Beach and enjoyed the sand and water while taking a light jog. After, we played a few games of soccer tennis on the beach before heading to Stetson to see the Volleyball girls.

Sunday finally came and we played Stetson. We came out very strong and scored early in the match although that was not enough for us to finish with a win. Even through the losses, as a team we still managed to come together and score three goals by the end of Sunday.

I know that this is only my sophomore year and we are not getting the results we want, but this is what you have to go through when you commit to turning a program around. You have to go through the bad to get to the good. By our senior year, we plan on being at the top of the conference.

-Sarah Plantz #0

Raleigh, N.C.

Freshman

Midfielder

Entry Date: Oct. 11, 2011

 This past weekend we went up against the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University. Both teams were currently seeded at the top of our conference. Coming into this challenge as a freshman made me so nervous, since I did not know what we were up against. Through the weekend, I feel like as a team we have seen that we can play against these top teams.

Although we struggled to get the results we wanted, we were able to create plenty of offensive chances to score, and even scored a goal against Jacksonville. After this weekend, we have proved to each other that even though we are a young team, we can compete against the best in our conference. I'm really excited for the next couple of years here at Upstate, seeing that we have great potential to be one of those top teams in the future.

-Stefany Saura #36

Severna Park, Md.

Sophomore

Forward/Midfielder

Entry Date: Oct. 11, 2011

 This past week at practice was very successful as it allowed all of us to make our first touch better. We worked on improving our first touch off of a fast pace pass, and incorporated fitness into this drill in order to help make our touch better when we are tired. This weekend we played at home against Jacksonville and North Florida.

Even though we did not get the results we wanted to this weekend, Krystal Hedderman scored her first collegiate goal on Friday. On Sunday, we were able to produce more shots but we just weren't able to find the back of the net. However, as a team we accomplished one of our goals and were able to shut down two of their best players. As the season progresses, we continually build as a team and continually use what we learn in practice on the field.

This upcoming week we will be traveling to Florida to play FGCU and Stetson and we hope to return to campus with a pair of W's.

Go Spartans!

-Kayli Moore #2

Geneva, Ill.

Freshman

Midfielder/Defender

Entry Date: Oct. 4, 2011

This past weekend we really began to grow as a team. We took a long six hour bus ride into Nashville to face Belmont and Lipscomb. In both games we trailed at half, but we refused to surrender. The Spartans came back with fire in the second half. Even though we did not end up scoring, we connected passes, played hard together, and began to test the goalkeeper.

As the weeks go on our team keeps building and becoming more successful. We are going to take what we learned this weekend and turn that into a positive. We are all very excited to come back onto our home turf and continue to play well!

-Katelyn Allen #4

St. Leonard, Md.

Sophomore

Midfielder

Entry Date: Sept. 27, 2011

 This week at practice we dealt with a lot of adversity, but this sure did not stop us from ending this week with a win against VMI. We dealt with such things as half of our team being sick, to dealing with excessive amounts of rain, to the unexpected, when we heard about one of our teammate’s losing her father. 

Dealing with all of these events brought our team closer together and ready to compete in our first conference game of the season.  Now, even though we did fall to ETSU, the score does not reflect how we played. We had some opportunities where we just couldn't find the back of the net. We did establish that each goal scored on us was due to a tiny mistake that IS fixable, so fixing these small things will only make us better and put us out on top!

Finally, the end of our week was the game against VMI. We came out strong and ready to win and this showed with our 3-2 victory. We battled back hard as a team from being down 2-1 in the second half to scoring two goals that kept us away from overtime.  With the help of my teammates, I even got my first collegiate goal, as did two other players on our team.

Having this win under our belt is only making us more anxious and excited to travel to Nashville this coming weekend to defeat Belmont and Lipscomb.  

LET’S GO SPARTANS!

-Courtney Mack #8

Richmond, Va.

Freshman

Forward

Entry Date: Sept. 19, 2011

 Hey to everyone that is a part of the Upstate community! This past week of practice was very competitive and everyone really worked hard to prepare for the weekend’s games.

Friday we traveled to Statesboro to play Georgia Southern University. Although we did not get the result we wanted, this was by far one of our best games against a good team. We put a lot of pressure on their players and definitely closed the gap on defense to prevent them from more scoring opportunities.

On Sunday, we traveled to Presbyterian College, moving forward and staying more positive from Friday’s game. Although they scored a goal per half and we lost 2-0, we stayed poised throughout the whole game and continued to fight for opportunities.

The weekend’s results may seem disappointing, however, the scores do not reflect how we played. Each week we continue to improve, stay positive, and keep in mind we are a young team rebuilding our program! We are very excited to begin conference play against ETSU on Friday, and strive to be in the top-six in the Atlantic Sun Conference!

-Katrina Spinner-Wilson #9

Chicago, Ill.

Sophomore

Midfielder

Entry Date: Sept. 17, 2011

 This past weekend was parent’s weekend and it was a very exciting time for our team.  We travelled to Winthrop on Friday and we played Alabama State on Sunday. On Saturday night we had a family banquet and it was awesome to meet everyone’s family and to just relax and get to know each other.

Sunday was a great home game and it was awesome for our families to be here and share in the happiness of a 6-0 win over Alabama State.  This past weekend has given my teammates and I the confidence we need to go to conference and score goals!

I am a sophomore and it’s so exciting to see how much the team has improved this year, and that we are ready to show everyone what we can accomplish! 

-Erika Kotterer #7

Melissa Pereira

Cary, N.C.

Freshman

Defender

Entry Date: Sept. 6, 2011

Hey everyone! This past week we finally got into the swing of things. We have already been in school for a little while and soccer is beginning to get harder and harder, but it’s all worth it! We’ve gone through some tough times this week but I know that we can all push through because we’re a family and we stick together.

This week we had mostly tactical practices to make sure that everything is sharp on the field. With our formation, it can take awhile to learn the details so we have to work extra hard to make sure we do it right.

Unfortunately, we did not get the results we had hoped for this weekend. But we learned a lot that will help us get better as a team. We’re a very young team so it might take us a little bit longer to get into full gear but once we do we’ll be one of the strongest teams out there! Our goal this year is to be in top six of our conference and I’m very confident that we can reach that goal as along as we stick together and work harder then we’ve ever worked before!

-Melissa Pereira #5

Gabrielle Fennell

Easley, S.C.

Junior

Midfielder/Forward

Entry Date: Aug. 29, 2011

Hello Spartan fans!  This week we started our first full week of school! For me it was very draining going from being outside playing soccer all week, to being in a classroom away from all of my teammates. Each day I was ready to get out of the classroom and head to practice with the team. We learned a lot this week as a team, Tuesday we had a lot of fitness and we were able to push through it to make ourselves better players.

We had a lot of technical practices too, which helped us learn our positions individually, which in turn taught us how to put all of our positions together to make the team better as a whole. Friday we played our hometown rivals Wofford College, our freshman and transfers got to experience what it is like to play against our rivals and see how big of a game it is for us as Spartans. We worked really hard against Wofford but we were unable to get the result that showed how hard I thought we played. We were able to get past the loss and arrived ready for practice on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately we had to deal with a lot of adversity on Saturday, but as a team we came together and were able to prepare ourselves for our next game on Sunday against Francis Marion. It was a very hot day but we pushed ourselves and worked hard to get to every ball and used every bit of what we learned at practice that week to finally find the back of the net. We ended up going into overtime and ending the game with a tie. With the game ending in a tie we are now on our way to winning! I feel confident that we will have a win in our next couple of games. This week has shown us all that we are a true team and we love each other and can push through anything.

I feel so much closer to my teammates and I feel like the chemistry among us has gotten so much stronger over pre-season and the past week. We proved that we could face anything that is thrown our way and also showed how strong of a team bond we have.  I am so excited for our future as a team, and to see what we can do as a group in the upcoming games!

-Gabrielle Fennell #25

Julia Harris

Simpsonville, S.C.

Senior

Midfielder

Entry Date: Aug. 22, 2011

This past week we began classes and ended preseason (NO more three-a-days)!!!!  We have now returned to our regular schedule of practices during season!  During our practices, we expanded on our formation and broke off into positional practices to really work on the details of every role.  Our team continued to face adversity with the weather, cutting our Thursday practice very short, but we made up for it the rest of the weekend and really worked hard during every moment we were on the field.

This past Tuesday we finally got to play in our first exhibition of the season against Spartanburg Methodist College.  Our incomers got to experience how we prepared for a game, the day before and the day of the actual game.  This included working on set pieces, possession, and transition (which I do believe everyone enjoyed the transition game).  The day of the game the freshmen and new transfers really got to experience the pregame preparation, which included getting mentally focused on our own, going over our goals, telling everyone what we are accomplish that day, and of course our dancing to hype us up.  I think all these parts really helped our energy and positive attitude during the game as we got our first win over Spartanburg Methodist 4-0.  Both our returning players and new-coming players really stepped up and showed their talent and fight in the scrimmage.

We also had a game Sunday at Gardner-Webb University.  This was a very important game especially to the returning players since we lost to them twice last season (once during the fall and once in the spring).   Both times the score was 1-0 and one game went into double-overtime.  Unfortunately, we did not play our game to our full potential, especially in the first half and got shut out.  However, during the second half we showed much improvement in our game and energy.  Gardner-Webb was not able to score once in the second half and we possessed the ball much more.  Unfortunately, we were not able to recover from the three goals Gardner-Webb scored in the first half as well as our game getting cut 25 minutes short due to lightning and the game ended in a 0-3 loss.  I do believe we learned a lot from this game, and grew as a team as we dealt with frustrations and turned them into solutions and positive energy.  I can’t wait to see how far our team can go this season, as we really have some great girls with some amazing talent.

GO SPARTANS!

Maegan Garner

Charleston, S.C.

Senior

Midfielder/Forward

Entry Date: Aug. 15, 2011

Hello Everyone!! Let me begin by saying that the 2011 preseason has been full of adversity!  That has been our key word during preseason, which the coaches have used daily in order to prepare us for the unexpected.  During our two weeks of preseason we have been able to get to know each other on and off the field. We have been working on fitness tests, lifting, playing (of course), team building and even perfecting our locker room dancing techniques.

During our first week back at Upstate, we had to push past mental and physical limits and prove ourselves by doing the things that everyone loves to hate, fitness tests! Even though fitness tests are not one of my favorite activities to do during preseason, I feel that this is where our team really first started to become a unified group! During each test, we were all able to bond on many levels, by not allowing our teammates/fellow family members to fall short. Our first week was all about forming our community atmosphere and become a single TEAM!                         

The second week is when the fun began for us with team building and being able to play on the field!  This was an opportunity for us to actually show the coaches why they picked us to play here at Upstate.  The bonds we made with each other during the fitness tests really showed when we were able to play, through our dedication to each other as teammates and friends! Also during this week we got into the weight room and started pumping some iron. The set-up of the workouts this preseason is different than last year, but all of the returners have really enjoyed the change. One big team building exercise we were able to do (thanks to our coaches) was go to the ropes course here at Upstate, where we learned how to deal with frustrations and work together to achieve success.

Towards the end of preseason we had to face the most adversity, due to the wonderful August weather in South Carolina. Let me just say you should always carry a rain jacket because the rain loves to just sneak up on you, especially during practice times. But, since we, as a team, always try to turn a negative into a positive, it is during a rain delay when we turn up the stereo in the locker room and have our dance parties.  We have found that by making a tough situation enjoyable off the field, everyone will work harder to turn things around when they are approached by a difficult condition on the field.

Even though we have had to deal with some adversity this preseason it has not been too bad. I feel that these events have helped us become closer and more of a team than just the 29 players that started on August 4^th.  Now that preseason is coming to a close, we are all getting very excited and anxious about our upcoming exhibition against Spartanburg Methodist College on Tuesday night and toward our upcoming season!!!

LET’S GOOOO UPSTATE!!!!