The Capital City of San Jose

Fun on a night out for dinner in San Jose, Costa Rica

We've had a terrific start to our trip to Central America.  The Arenal team gave us quite a lesson in Costa Rican soccer in our first game of the tour.  Their speed of play and skill forced us to really chase the game before finally getting into some rhythm ourselves as the game progressed.  We were much more prepared for our 2nd game against UCEM and had the ball much more and created great chances throughout the game.  Taylor Jenkins headed home a great goal while Kierstin Stevenson hit the post and Amanda Wharton forced the UCEM keeper to make several terrific saves.  We head to the San Carlos region of Costa Rica tomorrow near the active Arenal volcano!

We've Arrived in Costa Rica!

After our workout in Frederick on the way to National Airport, we had a change in our travel plans and spent the evening in Charlotte before continuing on to San Jose today.  The flights were great and on-time as we touched down to 75 degree temperatures!  Our hotel in the Capital is a 4-Star Barcelo property and it is fantastic.  We worked out at a nearby field before having a great dinner and were then treated to a fun presentation of traditional Costa Rican dance.  Our first game is tomorrow after a good nights sleep...

We're going to Costa Rica!

Our team trip to Costa Rica begins on Wednesday.  We'll create an image gallery on this site as soon as we can upload photos from the trip. Our trip information is available here:
Costa Rica Trip Info Page

Academic Excellence

The 2010 season was memorable and remarkable in many ways but nothing is more important than the academic achievements of our student-athletes.  The team earned its highest ever semester GPA with a 3.474 average for the Fall term.  5 players earned perfect 4.0's while 15 earned a 3.5 or better. Fully 21 of our 24 rostered players earned a 3.0 or better in the Fall.  3 of our Seniors, Lauren Russell, Kierstin Stevenson, and Shonna Ferree were named to NSCAA Scholar All-Region teams - the first time 3 of our players have received this honor in the same year.  The commitment, athleticism, and intelligence that these players have displayed this year and throughout their academic careers has been truly impressive.

2010 Annual Awards Banquet

Our Senior Class at the 2010 Awards Banquet

2010 Annual Team Awards:

Scholar Athlete, Kierstin Stevenson

Offensive MVP, Lauren Russell

Defensive MVP, Heather Fleishell

Unsung Hero, Shonna Ferree

Most Improved Player, Erin Proctor

Best New Player, Taylor Jenkins

Most Sportsmanlike Player, Kierstin Stevenson

What did we do this season?

• earned our highest ever semester GPA with a team average 3.47
• had 3 Seniors named to NSCAA Scholar All-Region Teams (Lauren Russell, Shonna Ferree, and Kierstin Stevenson)
• won 17 games while scoring 77 Goals (14th Best Offense in the Nation)
• shut out 14 opponents allowing only 13 goals (2nd fewest in FSU History)
• made our 12th Consecutive Appearance in our Conference Championship Game
• made our 10th Consecutive Post-Season Tournament Appearance (NCAA or ECAC)
• were regionally ranked in the South Atlantic Region Poll for 8 weeks (as high as #7)
• had 2 players named to NSCAA All-Region Teams (Amanda Wharton and Heather Fleishell)
• placed 4 players on All-Conference Teams
• in our first year in the CAC, had FSU players lead the Conference in Goals, Assists, Points, Save %, and Goals Against Avg.
• watched Sophomore Amanda Wharton tie the FSU seasonal scoring record with 27 goals (good for 3rd in the Nation in Division III this year)
• watched Senior Lauren Russell finish her career as the All-Time FSU Assists Leader (39) and climb to 2nd on the Career Goals Scored List (64)
• had the only CAC players represented on the ECAC South Region All-Star Team (Wharton, Russell, and Fleishell)
• and most impressively, 4 of our Seniors set new records for games played at FSU with 87 (or 88) appearances (that's every game played at FSU in 4 years!)

Final Goal of the Week for 2010

Senior Defender Heather Fleishell heads home the last goal of her career in the ECAC Tournament at FSU on Nov. 11th. She scored about 25 of these, many were game winners.

Why we play

We choose to play in the ECAC tournament for lots of reasons - it's a competitive, week long tournament that enables us to play home games against teams we usually don't see in the regular season.  In 2 of the past 3 years, we have played in 6 ECAC post-season games here in our home stadium and have not allowed a goal.  Unfortunately, we have not had much success in penalty kick shootouts.  The 2 photos below help show why these post-season games have meaning.  1 from Saturday night shows what a beautiful place FSU can be to play soccer and the 2nd photo shows 2 of our injured Seniors appearing in the starting lineup one last time in Bobcat Stadium.  On Sunday, 4 of our Seniors set a new record appearing in their 88th game in an FSU uniform.

Final Friday Practice

With our season coming to a close this weekend, Friday was the last practice session for our 2010 Senior Class.  On Friday's we let our players wear whatever colors they want at training but we traditionally have a few stipulations. This year's Seniors decided to throw the tie-dye's on for their last practice, and yes, Coach Parker found one in his closet too...

FSU Season Continues!

This is our 10th consecutive NCAA or ECAC Tournament appearance and the 2nd time we've been selected as the #1 seed and hosted the ECAC South Region Tournament.
Links to main ECAC Website

ECAC Round 1 - Wednesday, 11/10
Frostburg 3, Lebanon Valley 0.

ECAC Semifinal - Saturday, 11/13
Frostburg 1 vs Alvernia 0.

ECAC Final - Sunday, 11/14
Marywood 0, Frostburg 0. (Marywood 4-1 in pks)

The Fine Line...

As any fan or former player knows, soccer is a cruel game sometimes.  The results of games are often determined by individual split-second moments that can occur at any time in the course of a game that can last as long as 110 minutes at the college level.  That moment in the CAC conference final did not go our way on Saturday.  In spite of playing well enough to win, leading in every statistical category, and actually putting a goal in at one point, we did not prevail.
Full credit goes to our opponents for having the mental toughness to hang in there and give themselves the opportunity to make that moment go their way in the 2nd overtime.  We wish them well as they represent the CAC in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Survive and Advance!

Not the prettiest game we've played but our Semifinal win over St. Mary's puts us into our 12th consecutive conference final, but our 1st in our new conference, the CAC. The winner on Saturday will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

CAC Championship Game
Sat. Nov. 6th - 1pm FSU at Stevenson
11001 Owings Mills Boulevard, Owings Mills, Md 21117
 Directions/Map