The Holidays...ALREADY?!?

It seems like just a few weeks ago that everyone reported to preseason camp. The season flew by this year, probably because this team was so enjoyable and the challenges we faced on and off the field demanded a lot of time. Regardless, it was a great fall. We finished the season 9-8-1, another above .500 record playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. We faced 5 nationally-ranked teams, 7 teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament, and 3 teams that made it to the Elite Eight of the national tournament (and one in the Final Four). It was by far the most challenging schedule in recent years and our results were impressive, though not exactly what we had envisioned. The bright side...this group ended the season more motivated and energized to build on the season and find even greater success next fall. In their minds, the 2011 season has already begun. That's great news for a coach!

Before the team went home for Winter Break, we took a break from Finals to have our annual end of season Holiday Party. This year was great! As usual, we had a gift exchange (with some coveted gifts and some laughable ones). The big hits this year were a few scarves and some other great Black Friday finds. Some of the more comical ones included the Bootie Bump and few others. We also changed the them and wore ugly holiday sweaters. There were some classics, especially Steph's!

The freshmen were great entertainment this year with their clever rendition of "The 12 Days of Preseason." Their performance certainly puts them in the running for best Holiday Party entertainment.

We also viewed our highlight film which featured some great play from the year, a collection of photos stolen from Vaci's mom's website, and a mini-tribute to this year's senior class (Annie Altenau, Amy Baumann, Steph Chinchen, Cicy Fusco, Frannie Hogan, and Megan Link).

We also announced this year's Spartan Award winner, Anna Kennedy. The Spartan Award is the only team award we give out and it's voted on by every player on the team. It's given to the most dedicated team member and Anna is incredibly deserving.

We also gave another congrats to this year's All-UAA honorees: Kristina Vaci, Kendra Simmons, and Deena Levey (Second Team); Leah Levey and Anna Kennedy (Honorable Mention).

And, finally, the team AGAIN earned the NSCAA Team Academic Award for our outstanding team GPA.

2010 was a great year. Collectively, we learned a ton about what's important and what we all need to give to get where we want to go. There's a ton to be excited about in 2011!!

Kicks for a Cause 2010

While many people would think going through what I had to go through these past 5 months would be miserable, somehow it has been an eye opening experience in so many ways. Getting diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma on June 9^th did throw me off, I won’t lie, but what helped keep me stable through it all was my support that I had surrounding me the whole time; especially my team, coaches, and school.

Coach Tiff has brought a special weekend to our soccer program that helps our team reach out to the community—Kicks for a Cause. Last year we raised money and helped raise awareness for the Alzheimer’s Association, but this year the team thought it would be a cool idea to support the cancer center that I received treatment at here in Cleveland. Even more specifically we wanted to put the money towards a specific program that University Hospital has, the Adolescent & Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Initiative. The main objective of the Adolescent & Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Initiative at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital is to not only to raise awareness, but help advance the development of new and needed approaches in the treatment and prevention of cancer (uhhospitals.org).

Like the team has done for me all season long, support me and my task at hand (to beat cancer’s butt), they stepped up and supported this great cause with the same determination they have when we take the field for any given match. So far we have already raised over $4600 through donations, a school bake sale, and 50/50 raffle at our Kicks for a Cause game, and we are still getting donations in!

Not only did my team step up with raising money for the AYA, we also stepped up and showed Westminster College just how serious we were about our cause… This weekend we won a very important game in our hunt for the playoffs 4-0. To make the night all the more special, it was senior night!! Before the game the juniors got to show our love for our fellow seniors by reading letters to each of them and presenting gifts to them.

I want to take this opportunity, in a blog-like-fashion, to thank my teammates and coaches (and all you supporters out there) for supporting such a great cause. Without programs like the Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Initiative, my journey could have ended a lot differently than it did. With our support, time, and commitment to helping the AYA at University Hospital’s Ireland Cancer Center, we can make a lot of other kid’s fight with cancer as successful as mine was.

That Vaci is so creative

As promised...a public apology to Vaci for not putting up her blog from our first home UAA game on October 9th. Here it is...finally. In all it's glory.

The Legend of the Murder Mystery Mob: A True Tale of Glory

By Kristina Vaci

It was a dark and stormy night, the year was 1914 and only a fool would be caught out in the foggy streets of London. But that’s irrelevant, so we fast-forward to the rugged streets of Cleveland, 2010. The city had been swept up into a life of violence, liquor, and jazz and rival gangs were constantly trying to win street cred. Somehow the current lead gang was the Pansies…or well Violets invading over from New York City. They were trying to slowly take over the world, which brings us to October 6, 2010. Laura, the drifter, was walking the streets glaring down anyone who even thought to look her way. She’d been laying low due to the violet outbreaks when she heard a cry of pain coming from a small alleyway. Always looking for a good fight, Laura dashed in to find a short blond girl standing over a couple of what appeared to be buff football players whimpering. As Laura approached she heard the girl say,

“And you can tell your boss Debuljek if he tries to prank me again I will use all of my training to get him back!” She made a few choppy arm movements that was a mixture of dance and fight to scare them away.

Laura was moved by the fight and approached the girl.

“Hey, wanna start a gang?” Laura asked. The girl eyed her up and down and figured her lanky tall figure would make her great in a fight.

“Sure, why not. Names Kristina, people call me Vaci. Don’t ask why or I have to kill you.” And with that a gang was formed. Both turned down the street, when another blond girl and what could only be a majestic bald eagle ran by quick as lightning with an entire team chasing after them. The duo looked at eachother and nodded and ran after, it had to be interesting. They came onto a field where the girl sturned around thinking they were done for. The team had an intense look in their eyes. Laura and Vaci looked and saw that the single girl had a golden ball and the other one, who turned out to be a body building keeper, was already knocked down in pain. The two girls must have stolen it. Without thinking they rushed to their side and backed them up. The team of girls went into a 4-5-1 formation to start the attack. Suddenly a flash of orange came out of nowhere and joined next to Laura. She had a crazy look in her eye and smelled of oyster crackers. Together they assumed a fighting stance and got ready to battle.

The team from what could only be the slums of Hiram cried out and ran at them but after 90 long minutes were no more. The four fighters looked at each other and applauded their job well done. They picked up the keeper and dashed off into the night.

The talk on the streets were wild with news of this new mob that had murdered the Hiram ladies. No one knew who they were and had never heard of them existing before. Could this be a new rising gang to take over the City of Cleveland? Names floated about but the general consensus was the Murder Mystery Mob.

The violets were not happy to hear of this new mob and immediately took action. They assembled their top 18 fighters and declared an official battle with the mob that Saturday at high noon. The mob sent a parrot to their headquarters saying 11 would work better with the schedules and so it was decided! A battle to gain all street cred of Cleveland!

At 11 that Saturday a crowd assembled to watch what bloodshed would occur. They saw the violets warming up, prancing around and the crowd grew nervous for the mob. As badass music sounded 4 figures approached from the shadows. They had swagger like no one had ever seen. They went to the center of the field and positioned themselves in a line. Sammy the bold on the right with Laura and crazy Maeve in the middle. Vaci ending it on the left. Maeve and Vaci did an intimidating handshake to further send the violets shaking in their shoes and a whistle blew…signaling the fight to begin. The violets came at them in a 4-3-3 formation attacking straight down the middle. It was even ground and though the mob was outnumbered they held their own. Somewhere between the 60-70^th minute the mob pushed forward and the winner was soon decided afterwards. The mob had suffered a few blows but nothing to what the violets could handle. Running in terror the violets retreated back to New York City and the Murder Mystery Mob took over Cleveland. Other cities threaten to attack but the mob will always hold their own whether against the hood of Chicago(October 17) or the streets of Washington U(October 15 come watch!). No one really knows what the murder mystery mob looks like…some say they are titans stomping out all others while others say they are immortals living amongst us. All that is known is that you can tell who they are by the fact that each one has a braid going across their head. And so lives on…the legend of the murder mystery mob.

**Some details may be exaggerated in that the murder mystery mob had the help of about 23 awesome other players who actually scored/won the war J they just don’t have cool braids.

THE END

We Dance for Anna!!!

Anna Selser (Left, Anna K's best friend...shaved her head too!) and Anna Kennedy (right) during preseason.

In honor of Anna Kennedy's ('12, Evanston, IL) final round of chemotherapy this past Thursday, the team created a video to celebrate. Anna was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma over the summer and has undergone surgery and chemotherapy treatments. She has played throughout the entire process, except when she's too ill to perform. She's inspiring and absolutely amazing. Enjoy our salute to Anna!!!

And, stay tuned for details on our October 23rd "Kicks for a Cause" game where we will be raising money for UH's Ireland Cancer Center in honor of Anna's victory.

CONGRATS ANNA!!!!!!! We are so proud of you.

Our Family - by Katie Dunn '14

Freshman Katie Dunn (Silver Spring, MD) showed her creative writing talents before Tuesday's game when she read this poem as a part of our pre-game. Must've worked! The girls were victors 3-1 over Baldwin-Wallace.

Our Family

Like most families, we're pretty strange.

But it's something we can't change.

Sometimes the coaches mock us,

And refuse to post the best video of the bus.

Some of us are in Lord of the Rings,

Awkwardly funny as Chelsea sings.

Some are in a romantic pair,

Kendra and Ashley have us there.

And did you know, we have a zoo?

An owl and some penguins too!

We play and laugh and run,

This group of animals is too fun.

Yes, we're silly, but serious as well.

Postseason appearance? Only time will tell.

Juked John Carroll, outplayed Oberlin,

Grasped Grove City, and killed Kenyon.

Our family is like a crutch.

Our family has love, so much.

Our family is ready to play,

Our family will beat Baldwin Wallace today!

JCU Tournament - by Frannie Hogan '11

This past weekend, the Case Women’s Soccer team piled into three vans and headed across town to play Oberlin and Grove City in the John Carroll Classic Tournament. While I’m sure Coach Tiff and Buddy’s van rides were fun, undoubtedly the best van was Coach Taylor’s. On Friday, we jammed to some groovy tunes from our front seat radio DJ Amanda Woj. The next morning, we were treated to a mix by Vaci with Top-40 hits along with old winners such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! Our dancing shook the van and got the attention of some other drivers, including an older man who put his hands in the air and gave us a shout out.

Once we arrived at John Carroll on Friday, we warmed up and got going against Oberlin. We knew we could win the game if we put it away early, and Leah started us out only 8 minutes into the match by slotting her first goal of the year…and her career! We became a little disorganized after her goal, but refocused on our possession in the second half. Ashley put us ahead when she beat an Oberlin defender and hit the back of the net early after halftime. We picked up momentum from Ashley’s goal, and soon after, Becca knocked in a goal from a beautiful corner kick from Devo.

A few minutes later, I received the ball in the box and scored for the first time in a long time. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, I had a flashback to a goal I’d scored my sophomore year. That time, I was so excited that I immediately began jumping for joy and hugging my teammates, only to notice afterward the sideline referee was still holding up the offside flag. Remembering that embarrassing situation, I stopped this time to check and make sure the goal counted. When I got the OK, I celebrated! Scoring felt great, but the hugs and congratulations from my teammates made it even better. We ended up blanking Oberlin 4-0, and headed back to campus for a good night’s sleep.

Saturday morning started with a fruit and bagel team breakfast courtesy of Amy Baumann. We packed up and headed back to John Carroll for Day 2 of the Tournament. Grove City was going to be a tough game, and we knew we had to come focused and ready. We got on the board early again, when Becca scored her second goal of the tournament as she slipped the ball past the keeper. Looks like Coach Tiff’s “Toe Poke” drills from a few years ago have paid off! With Becca’s goal, we pushed against Grove City even harder, and I was able to chip the ball in over the keeper about 20 minutes later. How excited was I? More excited than when The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition DVD was released (in other words, a lot).

Grove City never stopped working, and they managed to notch one goal against us in the second half. Case kept the lead to the end, however, making us the John Carroll Classic Co-Champions! As a team, we definitely learned a lot about our strengths this weekend, as well as our weaknesses and how to overcome them. Our first official home game is this Wednesday at 7:30pm versus John Carroll. Hope to see you there!

Labor Day Weekend - by Devyn Lee '13 (State College, PA)

Devo outdueling her opposing center mid

After two hard-fought games this weekend, I think it’s safe to say that most of us members of the Case women’s soccer team will spend Labor Day attempting to do anything but labor…

The weekend began with a trip to Panera in Strongsville on the way to Kenyon. Everyone loaded up with various bagels and sandwiches, much t o the chagrin of the employees. Upon arriving at Kenyon, everyone was awed by the beautiful new athletic center on campus, but being that we arrived a little later than we would have liked, we did not have time to explore. After an initial mixup that would have had us sharing a locker room with the Oberlin football team, we all changed quickly and trekked down to the field for a somewhat abbreviated warmup.

Heading into the match, I think we were all eager to improve upon a disappointing performance at Wooster, so there was definitely a lot of excitement, and from the opening tap, it was clear that this was going to be a very different game. We were proved right, when about 20 minutes in, a sophomore midfielder netted her first collegiate goal, poking the ball into the net after sliding in between the keeper and a defender. Haha, so I was the one who scored, much to the excitement of my teammates and parents, who made the trip to Gambier from PA. At halftime the score remained 1-0, though we did have several other close opportunities.

The second half was a little tighter than the first. Kenyon came out full of fire, and certainly had a few chances that made us all nervous, but our excellent back line and keeper managed to keep the ball out of our own net. Finally, Kendra scored on a beautiful shot with about 10 minutes left, and the nail was all but pounded into the proverbial coffin for Kenyon. Notably, Woj saw her first collegiate game action, if only for a few seconds at the end of the match. But she did get a touch on the ball!

After showering, we headed to the Leveys’ house in Bexley, some of us on the bus, and some riding with our parents for the chance to catch up. The Leveys’ house offered tons of yummy food, excellent conversation, and a chance to play with their adorable Bernese Mountain Dog, appropriately named “Moose.” It was a great chance to relax and allowed parents, siblings, coaches, and players to mingle and enjoy each other’s company. A select few of us even learned Buddy’s middle name, which out of consideration for him will not be repeated here.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we had a chance to flop onto our beds and check out the wireless internet connection before we gathered in a conference room for some team-building. We played “Two Truths and a Lie,” where we learned, among other things, Maeve is not allergic to iodine, Vaci has never kissed a hamster on the lips, and Coach Taylor hates to swim. After that, we did an exercise in which everyone put their name on a sheet of paper, and then we passed them around the circle, and you wrote down something you love about each person on the team. It was a good bonding experience, and left everyone with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The Carnegie Mellon team was actually staying at the same hotel, and after some consideration, we decided it would probably be a bit classless to vandalize their bus, so we refrained.

After some much needed rest, we met up on Sunday morning for a scenic stroll on a path along the highway, ate some of the splendid continental breakfast, then headed to Denison.

A stirring pep talk from Coach helped to get us psyched for the match against Denison, and if that didn’t prepare us enough, the first few minutes of the game showed us what a good team they were, and if we didn’t get our act together, they were going to dominate us. It was a tough contest all the way through, with close chances coming from both sides, and some very physical play. We had to forget our tired legs from the previous match and put everything possible into the game.

Our efforts were rewarded somewhat when it was still 0-0 at the end of regulation, but that meant that we still had 20 minutes left to finish a chance and earn the win. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find the net during overtime, but neither was Denison, so it worked out ok. We came away partially satisfied that we held our own against such a good team, but also angry that we weren’t able to pull out a win. That shows just how hungry everyone on our team is to have a great season this year, and I think this weekend showed us glimpses of our true potential.

Devo with her parents at last year's Parent Picnic.

Preseason Day Four - Sammy Sarett '12

(Sammy (center - striped shirt) with her teammates on a bus trip from the '09 season)

Today was our last day of preseason before classes start tomorrow. We practiced in the afternoon; it was cloudy and drizzling, great soccer weather. We focused on ball skills for the beginning of practice, moving on to a channel drill that rewarded creativity in attacking. It was a tough but overall fun end to our preseason.

After our practice today, we had a lifting session with the track coach. WE didn't actually lift, but he discussed with us the importance of building strength, power, and balance to our soccer skills. He gave us a quick but effective weightlifting workout, and took us through the exercises. It was a little like weightlifting for dummies, but I thought it was very helpful, even for the returning players, to see the correct techniques. And while I may not end the season buff, I can definitely feel a difference when I stick to the workouts.

We all know that we need to stay focused especially as we get into schoolwork. Still, I'm so excited for when we start our regular season games, and I know that the challenge of juggling soccer and school won't take away from the excitement.

Day Three - Soccer and Ice cream

by Becca Vaughan '12

Going into my third preseason was no different than the first two, waking up early and two-a-days in ninety degree weather. Today started with an upperclassmen practice since the new players were meeting their academic advisors. As usual, no upperclassmen practice can go without music provided by our team DJ, Kristina Vaci. We played games and ran relays and ended the light practice with our new stretching routine created by the track coach. Since there was a large break before our next practice, I did what most of the team did. I took a nap. I was told my freshman year that when I became a junior that my body would not bounce back as quickly as it used to. That was the truth; my body was sore and every tackle felt so much harder.

The second practice of the day shed some light on how the upcoming season was going to be. After completing drills and fitness we were finally able to have our first intersquad scrimmage, which I personally have been looking forward to since arriving on campus. The scrimmage gave us a glimpse of what is to come and allowed us to grow as a team before our first preseason scrimmage against Ashland University. By the end of practice we were all excited for what was to come during this season. The day ended with ice cream and a movie in the Village. We laughed as we watched She’s the Man and ate ice cream. Once the movie was done and the ice cream was gone we all headed back to our dorms for a good night’s rest before the scrimmage.

Now let the games begin!!!!!

Sophomores Deene Levey and Ashley Debeljak after a rough two-a-day.

Sophomore Amanda Wojahn and freshman Katie Dunn.

Day Two - a freshman's perspective :)

By Rachel Bourque '14

The best way to describe preseason is, nerves. No matter what we are doing I’ve been nervous, whether getting to fribley on time or practice on time to even synchronized swimming (wasn’t quite expecting that one) I’ve been nervous. It isn’t because the girls aren’t nice, because they are extremely nice, or that the coaches aren’t nice, because again they are, its just that every little single thing is new. The locker room is new the field is new the people are new the streets are new and the entire area is new. Let me just tell you that I’ve never had to wait to cross the street so much as I do here. In New Hampshire if I had to wait for two cars I would get frustrated, but that’s a whole other subject. So this morning was a surprise, all I really knew was that each grade had to make up its own synchronized swimming routine, I mean how hard is that?...very hard. I don’t know how those people do it, the very first thing we did (a very beautiful and obviously graceful sideways dive) I got nailed in the face underwater. But we kept right on going into our attempt to try to spell CWRUWS which I’m not sure if any of the other freshmen realized was backwards to the audience but again we kept going into a little dance us freshmen learned last night... which we failed miserably at again and last but not least our throw of Leah up in the air where she yells “FRESHMEN” which resulted in Leah basically doing a side flop yelling something that may have slightly sounded like fresh… But what we had that no other group had, that totally should have had us in first, was music, none the less Jason Mraz. But that was in the morning, I won’t go into too much about the afternoon, I’d rather not think about it too much. J All I’m going to say is that it was really hot, really sweaty, and included a lot of running, oh and I got a very nice nail mark in my arm, so maybe it was a little rough too.

Preseason 2010 - Day One Reflection

by Amanda Wojahn '12 from Centennial, Colorado (and returning to play after her second ACL surgery)

So its preseason time again and even though we’ve been through Case preseason before and countless others throughout high school, I think everyone is feeling the excitement and maybe a little angst. After last season’s successes and the goals we’ve set for ourselves and the team for the coming season I think everyone is especially ready to get back to playing and back to working hard. We spend all summer dreaming about getting back to soccer and training to get ready; so basically in the summer I think everyone’s only feeling the excitement. The funny thing about preseason is that it always manages to turn some of the excitement into anxiety and nerves. Recently I’ve been thinking about why we change like that. What I’ve gone through with my knee reminds me of how a lot of people treat preseason. There has been literally years of buildup to me getting back on the field and so much time spent in therapy and training, and a week before coming back to school I was feeling extremely nervous about what the doc was going to say, and what my play was going to be like, etc. It’s like I built it up so much in my head that I guess I was afraid that I could never reach the expectations I had been building up for the past year and a half. So here’s my realization…the one that it took me a year and a half to understand…that starting to play again, or preseason, or the beep test, or whatever it may be isn’t our ultimate goal, it only another part of the process. Same as each summer workout, same as each day spent in therapy, same as each game. I think it took me that long to see that because doctors and therapists always talk about returning to playing like you can mark a day on your calendar and on that day you’ll be totally back to normal. It’s not like we’re going to wake up one day and suddenly be ready. So I guess I just wanted to say that preseason is just part of the process, so whether you made the beep test or didn’t, or had a good practice or didn’t that it’s not end of the world, not even close. So I’ve made a little pact with myself to throw those silly expectations we subconsciously build up in our heads, make us feel anxious and nervous out the window, and just try to do my very best every day, every practice, every game, every time I touch the ball; because if being injured has taught me anything it’s that being able to play such a great game with such great teammates is truly a gift. Seriously, this is awesome, we get to go out everyday this week and play the game we all love for the whole day…what could be better?

Amanda (on far right) at last year's "Kicks for a Cause" game

Spring in Spain - Steph Chinchen '11

I spent this past semester away from Case, studying abroad in Granada, Spain. Studying abroad has thus far been one of the best decisions of my life. For anyone planning on or thinking about studying abroad, be warned - the process is extremely daunting and overwhelming and will probably at some point make you think it's not worth the trouble. However, after spending five months in Spain and learning and growing so much, I hardly remember all the hassle. It is sooo worth it.

I decided on Spain because I've always wanted to be fluent in Spanish. That didn't exactly happen...but I am certainly closer! Although my major is Biology and I plan to go to medial school, I've never stopped taking Spanish courses and I had the flexibility to take a semester off of Bio classes while still earning credits for graduation. In Granada, a city in the south of Spain, I took classes at the Center for Modern Languages, a part of the University of Granada. Although I took classes with all foreign students, all of my professors were Spanish and spoke only Spanish with us. There I lived with an older couple, their dog, and another American student. My "senora" fed us three (delicious!) meals a day, cleaned, did our laundry, and, of course, helped us with our Spanish.

I loved living in Granada. Life in general is so much more relaxed, stress free and sane. I feel as though I took a 5 month break from the hectic, stressful, always thinking about something lifestyle we lead in the US. Granada is a small city with around 200,000 people and it is also quite compact, pretty common for an old European city. All the daily life things were close enough so that I could walk everywhere. A typical day would involve going to class, eating a huuuge lunch, taking a little siesta (because it's impossible to be active after lunch), going back to class, and then meeting friends for a couple drinks and tapas before dinner. Life revolves around food. Granada is especially great because while getting tapas (little bits of food you generally eat with drinks) is a Spanish tradition, Granada is one of the few places that they are always free. Yep, order a drink and you get a free little plate of food. The province of Granada itself is incredible as well. You can literally go skiing and to the beach in the same day. Let's just say life in Spain wasn't very difficult to get used to.

Another reason I chose to go to Spain versus South or Central America is that it's in Europe. Flights are so cheap, it's tempting to plan trip after trip. I was lucky to do some pretty amazing traveling. Some of the highlights included Rome, Berlin, Morocco, and Portugal. Traveling was probably one of the most rewarding experiences in more ways than one. Not only did I see things that I would never dream of seeing, it was challenging. Ryanair flights to obscure locations outside our destination city, bus stations unexpectedly closing, volcanoes erupting, getting mugged, language barriers, broken tents, etc. There was not a single trip that went off without a glitch. But, I think that those experiences are what studying abroad is all about.

Things that aren't easy force you to grow up, mature, learn, and become a more self-reliant and confident person. To all undergraduates, if you are able to study abroad, I would DEFINITELY recommend it. Never again will you have such an easy opportunity to live in a different country. While I certainly missed my family, friends, and home, a semester or even a year is such a small amount of time in the grand scheme of your whole life. And it's well worth every minute!

Coliseum!

Soccer game in Rome- The other side had no fans…

Me in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Lagos, Portugal

Camel ride in Morocco- it’s quite jerky when they stand up.

Better late than never...

I take full responsibility for the blog being lackluster this spring. We had plenty to write about including our most productive spring season in my time at Case, our first spring game against Division I opponents only, another successful academic semester for the team, our alumni game, a junior recital, and the final send-off of a few of our soon-to-be greatest alumnae. I'm sorry you all missed that.

Luckily, though, we were able to capture some of it on film.

Check out a few videos made by Annie Altenau '11 and Frannie Hogan '11 during our downtime at our spring game at Bowling Green State University on April 10th.

And, some pictures from our rainy Alumni Game held April 18th.

Alumnae: Mary Jean Starr, Katie Skillin, Kelly Goris, Allysen Arbelaez, Liz Altenau,

Jen Soo Hoo, Caitlin Miller, Ana Arruda, Katie Fromwiller, and Kirsten McClain

Current Team and Alumnae

And, a picture of the team (and others) showing up to support Frannie Hogan '11 in her junior recital where she was finally able to show us how very good she is at playing the flute!

Spring Season 2010

by Kendra Simmons '13 (pre-med from Medina, Ohio)

Where has the time gone!!? It seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote the “pre-season” blog for the team. It’s hard to believe that it is now April, and in just a short month, we will all be taking the dreaded final exams and heading home for the summer. This spring, I feel even busier than I did during the soccer season! Most people either have a lot of challenging classes or are filling their schedules with jobs and other activities. Personally, my science classes (Bio, Chem, Bio lab, and Chem lab) are taking over, but I’m trying to balance my time by volunteering at University Hospital in the Emergency Room and working out as often as possible. Along with work and volunteering, I’m currently trying to secure my first main research position in the Cleveland Clinic for the summer. Case’s pre-med curriculum sure keeps people busy, but I know it will be worth it in the end!

On top of all the focus on school and experiences in the medical field, I now get to play soccer three to four times a week! We recently started our spring season which consists of full-team practices on Tuesdays and Sundays and a “small group” training on another day during the week. The small-group training consists of about four or five people working with Tiff on mostly the technical parts of the game. From passing, to volleys, to shooting, to footwork, to simply getting touches on the ball, Tiff keeps us moving for a good, successful hour. The Tuesday and Sunday practices focus more on drills pertaining to possession but still aim to improve our individual skills. Also, on Fridays, we play pick-up soccer in Veale with whoever can make it (usually a mix between some of the soccer girls and boys). It feels great to be back on the field (gaining fitness through playing definitely beats running on a treadmill during the winter!!). I really look forward to preseason in the fall so, as a team, we can improve and hopefully achieve our many goals.

Overall, I could not be happier with my decision to come to Case. This school year (even though it’s not quite over) has been more than I expected. I have made amazing friends, I have gained a lot of knowledge from my difficult coursework, and I had great times being part of the soccer team. I came to Case to gain a lot of experience in the medical field through volunteering and research and to learn as much as possible in order to prepare me for medical school. Just from this freshman year, I can tell I am going right down that path. Also, I came here because of the comfortable mix between athletics and academics. It is nice to know that you are on a team full of girls who are committed to doing well in school and working hard to achieve goals for their future. I feel like Case is the perfect environment to achieve the goals I have planned, so I am very glad to be a student-athlete here!

Alumni Spotlight - Judy Gelber '03

Judy (center) on Pacaya Volcano during a recent service trip to Guatamala.

It has been 10 years since I first came to Case Western, crazy how time flies! I graduated from Case in 2003 with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Sports Medicine.

Now, I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and I am on faculty at Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, in the program in Physical Therapy. I treat adults who have neurologic conditions that affect their feet or their walking, such as Peripheral Neuropathy, Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis. I also have a special interest in treating foot and ankle pain – and I have decided that soccer footwear technology has been focused on the part of the shoe that touches the ball or the turf and secretly am hoping that someday Nike will contact me to work on the part of the shoe that touches the foot!

To me, being a collegiate athlete at a high caliber university is a unique and rewarding opportunity. Definitely life changing. You become comfortable with setting your standards high and working towards your goals, both on and off the field. You learn how to be more efficient in your work, so that you can fit everything in. You learn about being part of a team, about motivating yourself and pushing yourself and each other.

Soccer is still a part of my life; during graduate school I was fortunate to be a part of the coaching team for WashU women’s soccer (when I came they jokingly told me that I saw the light, I jokingly replied that I went to the dark side…) and I still do a little youth soccer coaching. I play on a women’s outdoor team and a co-ed indoor team in my spare time, although I have to admit that they can’t fully replace collegiate soccer. For those of you who are current players, look for me when you come to WashU - I’m the one with the dog who is sitting on your half of the stands!

Judy (left) on a home visit during her service trip to Guatamala.

Offseason Update

contributed by Ashley Debeljak '13 (pictured above on the left with Kendra Simmons '13 and Deena Levey '13)

Off season for me = no off time. Yes, our days of soccer practices and games are over for now, but staying in shape and making yourself a better player is hard work (playoffs next year baby!). We have lifting 3 days a week, which is difficult but rewarding because I can tell I am getting stronger! Lifting with the team is great because you have their support to keep you motivated in the off season. I usually go to the gym with Kendra and Deena, but I also see a lot of my fellow teammates over at Veale.

IM basketball is also an activity the team does together to stay in touch! Despite the loss to the volleyball team, Team 1 had a very successful run! Don’t worry, we beat the volleyball team in everything else :). Congrats to the team though for making it to the finals! Kick some butt girls :) !

Classes are more time consuming than in the fall. I am taking more credit hours and it is a lot of work!

I’m really excited to get back in the swing of things once practices start again. I can’t wait to spend most of my time with my beautiful, wonderful teammates (miss you girls!). I’m also looking forward to some nicer weather!!

Well, that’s all for now - I need to study for a nutrition test! Hopefully, I can pull off a good grade despite the constant distractions from studying thanks to the Olympic Games! Go U.S.A.!

My Winter Break

by Frannie Hogan '11 (music major)

Kris Kringle, bells that jingle, eggnog, and holiday cheer. Sounds like Christmas, right? For my family, it’s more like barking dogs, a honey-glazed hog, Larry David, and store-bought birthday cakes. You could say we’re kind of quirky.

This holiday break was spent both at home in Ohio and at my grandmother’s in southern Illinois. With most of our family making the trip to Illinois from out-of-state, we celebrated Christmas on the 26^th to accommodate work and travel schedules. It’s more important that we spend time with one another than get together on a specific day. We’re not big on “traditional” traditions – no Christmas Eve stories by the fireplace or group photos in reindeer sweaters – but some trends have emerged over time.

The days leading up to Christmas were similar to those from years past, with Granny’s 88^th birthday, the annual Christmas Eve Wal-Mart run to pick up last minute gifts for unexpected relatives, and a trip to the movies on Christmas day. While Columbus has over twenty theaters within its city limits, Lawrenceville, Illinois, has one within a thirty-mile radius. Perhaps that’s why going to the movies on Christmas day in a small town is akin to navigating a sold-out, midnight Harry Potter book release. I’ve been in both situations, and I’m not sure which is more stressful. Hoards of people, strung out on potato casserole and turkey gravy and annoyed by their abominable relatives, who swarm the local cinema and force lines out the door, or hoards of nerds, revved up on Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and pumpkin juice, ready to “crucio” anyone who stands between them and the next series installment. After as sly family of sixteen cut in front of us in the ticket line, my aunt noted we had been taken advantage of, but she didn’t say it softly, and didn’t use euphemisms.

On the 26^th, everyone enjoyed some homemade fare. As my grandmother ages, she has begun to delegate more of the cooking to her grandchildren, and this year it was my cousin’s job to prepare the popular chocolate pudding pie. We needed spoons instead of forks to enjoy the dessert that ended up as a pool of chocolate pudding with bits of crust floating around inside, but it didn’t matter to us. It was made with love and good intentions, as well as lots of butter and sugar.

Next came presents. Highlights from the gift-giving included lotto and scratch-off tickets, a mini Jesus flashlight (a “Jesus-on-the-chain,” if you will), and a group YouTube viewing session that included such gems as “The Turtleman” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn8EQ0azXpQ) and “Worst Burglar Ever” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUGRkeynl6Q).

Returning home to Ohio, I was greeted with shipments of textbooks for the next semester. Nothing says relaxation as “Meteorology Today” does. Still, I’ve been determined to make the most out of my break; thus, I’ve made it known that anything short of a National Emergency is not a sufficient reason to wake me up before noon. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, but spring break isn’t too far away. I hope all your holidays were happy!