Memories of Costa Rica

An important part of our team trip to Costa Rica was our visit to a Children's Center in the Capital of San Jose.  We presented some books and gifts to the children and then spent time with the preschoolers in the school courtyard. It was a moving experience for many of our players and parents.

This Way to the Beach!

We began our 3-day stay at Flamingo Beach on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica today.  80 degrees and simply beautiful.  This resort is fantastic!  The rooms, food, and location are all outstanding.  Some photos of today's sunset and the larger panoramic photo above are on the slideshow linked on the right of this page. As they say in Costa Rica "Pura Vida" !

A Great Game in the Mountains of Costa Rica!

FSU and the San Carlos Team after our game on Jan. 17th

A great game at the Tilajari Resort field saw FSU score 5 times on the way to a convincing victory on tour in Costa Rica.  Adria Graham put in a 1st-half goal before Amanda Wharton scored a hat-trick with 3 in a row over a 10 minute span in the 2nd half.  Erin Ford headed home a Liz Seligman corner to finish the scoring.  The San Carlos players, coaches, and parents were all wonderful hosts sharing gifts and local fruit after the game.  Perhaps the zip-line tour in the shadow of an active Volcano and visit to the Baldi Hot Springs resort provided the Frostburg players some inspiration!
Arenal Zip Line "Sky Trek"
Baldi Hot Springs

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...