Written by ESNN (Elite Soccer News Network)
April 30, 2009

The Minnesota Thunder U15 Girls continue to progress through the competitive trials of elite youth soccer. This weekend could be their next big accomplishment, as winning two of three matches will make them the first Minnesota team to win the Midwest Regional League Premier division.

Coach Mark Cook cited team balance as a primary characteristic of the squad.

"This is a pretty solid group. All in all they don't have too many weaknesses," Cook said. "They were regional champions at U13 and then lost to Michigan Hawks in overtime of the semifinals of U14 last year. They've had good national success already.

"We primarily focus on playing quality possession soccer," Cook continued. "We still spend time on the technical part of the game including receiving, passing and ball-striking. I'm a big fan of watching professional games and I like for us to try playing the beautiful game. We are trying to make them better players down the road. Sometimes it comes out in the game and sometimes we struggle, but in the end it forces them to be better soccer players."

The Thunder lineup starts with regional-level goalkeeper Tori Fuglister, who is a good shot-stopper that Cook credits with having improved her game in the air.

The starting defenders, right-to-left, include Jillian Richgels (quick and tough), Rebecca Roberts (great in the air and the team leader in the back), Brianna Stelzer (a move-in this year from Houston club Eclipse) and Rachael Van Keulen, a technically proficient left back. Rachel Gratz is a fast and physical defender who completes the unit.

In midfield, Bianca Diaz and Madison Nelson provide good service from the flanks, with Hannah Werth's solid ball-striking and Lauren Nash, just returning from a long-term injury, providing depth. Centrally, Mackenzie Lewis is dominant in the air and in disrupting the opposition attack, with Kaelyn Korte a technically-gifted possession player and Taylor Brownrigg a mixture of the two.

U15 Girls National Team player Lauren Miller is a stalwart in the forward line, with the fast and hard-working Kylie Schwartz complementing her up front, and Mallory Getchell providing support as a good distributor of the ball.

Cook said an MRL title would also help his team relax heading into the Minnesota State Cup schedule.

"We're hoping to win the league and go into the State Cup being able to to work on our game and not having to worry about results."

Hmmm...

I hear word that we may be moving to DeKalb (IL) or Hebron (IN).  Fun. 

We stayed with our 3-5-2 formation, and threatened from the get go.  With the wind at our backs we pressed the attack and created a number of chances in the first part of the half.  We lacked some finishing precision and didn’t get numbers in the box when we attacked the endline wide.

OP played 3 up top, so our only real tactical change was to invert our central midfield triangle to allow Ripper to play the lone defensive mid, floating in front of the OP attackers. 

The half ended 0-0.

OP was not better than us, they just out worked us in the game.  They wanted more than we did.  OP won most every air ball and 50/50 battle and had a talented player in the central midfield position who basically had her way with our central midfield players. 

3 minutes into the second half, we gave up a bad goal.  We knocked the ball out of bounds 10 yards into our own half on the left side, and then proceeded to tune out.  OP took a quick throw in and caught many of our girls by surprise and out of position.  Our panic led to a half clearance that OP won back and sent in a cross to the top of our box.  The ball took a hop past Hannah (RD) and an OP forward raced behind our back three to lob the ball over an on rushing Macky in goal.  Ugh. 

The rest of the half was one to forget.  We just lacked energy, effort, and passion on the field.  OP was decent but not better than us.  We just couldn’t get anything going.  It was very frustrating because I know the level that these girls can play at.  We didn’t get the results today, results that would have likely sent us to the MRL Premier League, but that wasn’t what had me concerned.  I just questioned if we were good enough to fight for a Regional title next weekend.  If we came in with the performances of the last two games, we’d be happy to go 2-1-0 in group play (because we wouldn’t beat Vardar) and make the drive back to MN.

By the way, when I say one to forget, we'll all never forget it.  We want to learn from it and build upon it to maximise future performance and development. 

Cook and I had a come to Jesus talk with the girls at the field after the game.  Everyone we came against this weekend and everyone we could come up against next weekend knows we are Region champs.  This means that our opponents are going to be focused and intense against us, knowing the level of competition they face.  We need to match that focus and intensity.  We need to battle harder for loose balls and in tackles.  We need to play with pride and desire in each and every game - today we didn’t.  We can’t make the girls want to play, make them want to compete.  Coaches can help motivate, but in the end the girls have to find that little extra in themselves if they want to excel at the top level. 

It’s all very frustrating to me as I know the quality of talent we have on this team.  I have to look at myself as well here and re-evaluate if I’ve done what I could to get the girls to the point they need to be to compete next weekend. 

Man, I feel for the Hannah and Macky who stepped in to play GK today.  It couldn't have been easy on either of them and I was proud of their willingness to take one for the team, so to speak.  It would be really nice to have Zazu back next weekend. 

Cut into corn fields, the Hebron complex is expansive.  The fields are large and grassy, but hard and bumpy in many places.  Might be a tough weekend for us on these big fields with 3 subs to work with.

Game #1 vs Internationals (OH-N)

This is the team we played last year in the Region Finals, as well as the summer before in the U12 US Club Soccer Regon Finals.  They have some skilled players and I was interested to get a glimpse of how we matched up with them after a year of work.  

Things started out extremely poorly for us.  We didn't come to play and found ourselves under intense pressure for the first 10 minutes of the game.  Our right flank kept getting exposed with Bidi (RM) getting caught too far up in the attack, and Gratz (RD) finding herself against 2 attackers at least 3 or 4 times early on.  

We couldn't win a ball in midfield to save our lives and didn't have much drive to find the 50/50 balls.  8 minutes in it cost us.  The Internationals GK punted a ball the we let drop near midfield, though I felt we had at least one or probably two girls who could have made a play to stop the ball from hitting the ground.  The bounce dropped to an Internationals forward who played the ball wide up the right flank.  Their speedy right forward raced onto the ball and I think her quickness deceived Blondie (LD) a bit.  Blondie stepped up to make a challenge on the ball around 25 yards out, but the Internationals forward got their first and nicked the ball past Blondie.  The cross that followed was a good one to the far post, but Bidi was recovering in a good position to make a challenge on the attempted finish.  The ball popped back out to towards the penalty spot, and a trailing Internationals midfielder hit a left-foot volley into the far post.  Good goal in the end but a bit gifted as we made some preventable mistakes. 

Our GK Zazu was with the team but not playing this entire weekend, still with the lingering effects from a hard collision in ODP a few weeks back.  Hannah stepped up to play GK in this game.  Not an easy task against a team that forced Zazu into half a dozen fantastic saves last year.  Not much Hannah could do about this one though.

Two minutes later, again under pressure down our left flank, we gave up a corner.  The Internationals kick taker had great technique and power, and served a high ball the dropped on the head of her teammate completely unmarked in the middle of the 6 yard box.  I think the attacker herself was stunned to find so much space and headed a ball unchallenged into the net for their second.  

We were playing right next to the New United (WI) vs Michigan Rush Nike (MI) game and our benches were back to back.  I overheard the Michigan coach ask the Internationals coach, "Was that your second already?"  The Internationals coach, supremely cocky, said something like, "Yeah, I knew there was something wrong with these divisions.  These guys (Bangu) walked through their division and they're not good." 

Not a very good start, and I remember thinking that this was going to be a terribly long game.  However, the girls settled in after we made some changes and started to take press the attack.  The next 25 minutes were all us.  Finally able to build up and attack out of our own half, it became apparent that the Internationals played a very high offside trap.  We got caught by it a number of times early on, but that was OK.  Please keep playing this, I thought. 

20 minutes into the game we got on the board.  Jilly (RF) received a pass near midfield on the right side.  She turned up field, the Internationals defense stepped up in the trap, and Jilly dribbled past her marking defender and was left clear in space behind the Internationals defense.  Her quick defender caught up with her though, forcing Jilly to turn back, but she cut up field again and served a great early diagonal cross into the danger area towards Madie (LF).  Madie was marked by a defender, but the diagonal cross sailed over the defender's head.  Madie let the ball bounce once, then hit a terrific left-foot volley from the top of the box back to the far post past the diving Internationals GK.  What a goal! 

We continued to press the attack for the next 15 minutes.  Their coach could sense the change as his was the team that now struggled to clear their half.  However, he didn't change tactics defensively and his only instruction yelled out to the team constantly was "Hit the corner flag!".  We broke the trap again and again, and created a number of additional chances.  We couldn't capitalize and the half ended 2-1.  

Though we dug ourselves a hole, we were playing better.  We got the girls out at midfield to illustrate some ideas about breaking the trap and I was confident that based on our assessment of the opposing coach, there was a good chance that we'd see more of the trap in the second half.  We talked about slotting the ball through with measured pace instead of kicking it up field with power to bring their GK into play, we talked about dribbling past the marking defender (like Jilly did), we talked about finding our delayed midfield runners and wide mids with through balls, and we talked about the importance of our forwards working to stay onside even if the ball was back in our defensive third as long balls from our defenders could turn into scoring opportunities. 

Cook talked to the girls about stopping making the game look pretty.  This was a game to play direct and get the ball forward, play ugly, to capitalize on an opposing team's weakness and get a result.  

 Lastly, I talked about the importance of our next goal.  We'd seen this team twice, both times falling behind 0-2.  Both times we'd come back to equalize and take the game into extra time.  I could see the faces of the Internationals players when we scored in the first half.  It was a lot of "Oh boy, here we go again!".  We needed the next goal.

We came out in the second half and continued our dominance.  Much to our pleasure, Internationals kept the trap going.  It was only a matter of time til we'd break it and equalize.   

7 minutes in we did.  Ripper (Def Mid) played a great slotted through pass to Millie who raced onto goal.  The Internationals GK came out to make a play on the ball, but Millie poked the ball past her and was taken down.  Penalty kick.  That's a red card, I thought also, but the ref, after consulting her AR, didn't even issue a yellow card.  Cook questioned the AR and ref about the rec card claiming that the GK was the last man, but to no avail.  Millie clearly would have reached the ball in time and there was no International defender around who would have stopped a chance at goal.  Disappointing as Zazu was issued a red card in Portland for a similar occurrence, but at least we were given the PK. 

I saw Millie step up to take it and I had a distinct thought to call her off the kick.  She wasn't playing up to her normal sharpness and moreover just got fouled.  I scanned the field and thought "Madie" to myself, but since I was distracted with the refs, Millie was already in place and set to take the shot.  I held off my desire to change the shooter, and Millie proceed to miss the goal wide left.  Crap. 

A minute later, almost off the ensuing goal kick, the Internationals countered down our left flank.  We failed to clear a number of chances, and the ball was eventually served in to the far post area and finished by a charging right forward.  Double crap.  From a great chance of equalizing to down two goals again.  

That took a bit of the wind from our sales.  Millie was obviously ruffled by the PK miss, so much so that I had to pull her off the field so she could try and refocus.  The girls continued to try and press forward, but we lacked a bit of the spark we had found in the first half and early in the second.  

5 minutes later, Internationals put the game away.  A ball was played into our box that fell behind Becs (CD).  The ball rolled diagonally in towards goal, and Becs shielded it and thought Hannah would come and get it.  Before either of our players could react,  an Internationals forward snuck in and poked the ball past Hannah.

The girls did what they could to get back in the game.  Millie finished a breakaway at the 25 minute mark from another through ball by Ripper, but it was too little too late.

Disappointing result for sure against a dangerous team that I believe we are better than.   

Heading down to Hebron (IA) this weekend for the MRL First Division playoffs.  Here's the scoop.

There are 4 divisions in the First Division, NW, NE, SW, and SE.  The top three teams from each division are here to battle it out against three from another division, with the reward being the team that wins their group is automatically promoted to MRL Premier next season.  

We are in the NW division and here is how things ended for us -

So New United, our White team, and us are the top three teams here this weekend.

In the NE division, here is where things stood when all was said and done -

Internationals, Michigan Rush Nike, and Ohio Premier Green made it. 

Teams carry into this weekend their results against the other top teams in their division from the spring season, play the other three teams from the other division, and the winner is the team with the most points.  Taking all 6 teams' results into consideration, here is where things are at heading into this weekend's competition -

 We open up the weekend tomorrow morning against Internationals, the team we lost to two years ago in the U12 US Club Regional Championship, then beat last year at the U13 Midwest Regional Championships.  It is sure to be a tough contest for us, especially since we're still missing our one and only GK and will be forced to use a field player in net. 

We play Ohio Premier in the afternoon, so will likely have a good chance of knowing where we stand come tomorrow evening.

U15 MRL Premier would be nice, but it's not a huge deal to me if we don't qualify.  It's a goal of ours, for sure, but ultimately we're looking at using this weekend as a final tweak for next weekend in Rockford at Regionals.  

* * * * *

Things didn't start off very well today.  Due to torrential rains and flooding in Wisconsin, traffic was diverted to back roads in Mauston (WI), about 70 miles shy of Madison.  No lie, we probably traveled 8 miles in 2 hours.  The highway was a parking lot, with people leaving their cars to hang out on the side of the road.  

At least we were in a bus; not stressed to be behind the wheel, able to watch movies, and able to use a bathroom.  Could have been worse. 

We eventually rolled into our hotel in Merriville (IA) around 8:30PM, nearly 11 hours after meeting the bus at the Home Depot in Woodbury this morning.  Wow.  

All in all I think the girls had a good time on the bus.  We rode down with our Whtie team and they're staying across the highway from us in a different hotel.

We pre-ordered pizza for the girls, talked about the weekend while we ate, then hustled them off to bed for some needed rest.  

Should be a fun test this weekend. 

(June 12, 2008) The Minnesota Thunder Professional Soccer Team has taken a bold new step to help reshape the soccer landscape and make Minnesota a national innovator in soccer development.  After seven months of extensive dialogue and collaborative research, the Thunder has combined two of the elite soccer clubs in Minnesota under the Thunder banner to add a new dimension to youth soccer in the state.  With the inclusion of Bangu Tsunami FC and Wings SC, the Thunder Academy will begin with over 90 competitive teams forming one of the largest clubs in the Midwest.  Together the two elite clubs have produced 39 State Cup Champions, 6 Regional Finalists, and 3 Regional Champions since 2002. 

Coinciding with the inception of the Minnesota Thunder Academy (MTA), the Thunder will offer an Open Affiliate Program which is available to all soccer clubs.  This program is designed to help Minnesota soccer youth organizations promote the sport in their community, by offering access to the Thunder’s growing network of resources, players, and coaches.  “Since our inception in 1990 the Thunder has served as a soccer ambassador to the Minnesota community,” comments Thunder owner Dean Johnson, “This new program is an extension of our overall cooperative vision.”

The Minnesota Thunder Academy will be comprised of Regional Academies (North, South, East, West, and Urban) and the Minnesota Thunder Elite Academy. 

Regional Academies are open to all interested players and will provide professional leadership for recreational and competitive players ages 4 to 19.  “The great thing about this collaboration is that these Regional Academies will embrace the structure and programming of both Bangu Tsunami FC and Wings SC, in addition to the youth development philosophy of the Minnesota Thunder,”  says team President Manny Lagos.

The Minnesota Thunder Elite Academy will be focused on the development of Minnesota’s top players.  There will be two teams formed at each age group/gender from U13 to U19 with the goal of regional and national success.  “Our philosophy is to bring together talented players under the guidance of top-level coaches in order to help the players reach their full potential,” states Thunder Technical Director Steve Bellis. 

Including Thunder Regional Academies and the Thunder Elite Academy, over 1400 players will wear the Thunder badge beginning in the fall of 2008.

Modeling the structure on existing European and South American academies, the Minnesota Thunder Academy will provide a uniquely American path from youth to professional.  “I’m committed to adding more Minnesota players to the Thunder roster,” states Thunder Head Coach Amos Magee,  “This youth initiative will help us identify and develop future Thunder and Lightning first team prospects.”

The Minnesota Thunder Academy has hired the following Directors to oversee this progressive program:

    Mark Cook - MTA Girls Elite Team Director
    Chad Moore - MTA Girls Elite Team Director
    Rob Zahl - MTA Boys Elite Team Director
    Tod Herskovitz - MTA Boys Elite Team Director
    Mark Abboud - MTA Technical Director
    Steve Bellis - MTA Technical Director   

The Thunder Academy’s innovative youth to pro structure, along with its history of successful soccer in the Midwest, has already sparked dialogue and interest from potential European partners.  These relationships are expected to include player and coach exchange as well as shared best practices. 

The Thunder Academy will be a non-profit organization focused on providing soccer opportunities for all participants regardless of economic status.  “In the United States, many high potential athletes are prohibited from taking advantage of professional-level training due to financial restraints.  A goal of the Thunder Academy is to provide cost reduction and eventual program cost elimination for all players through Thunder partnerships and sponsorships,” adds Thunder Technical Director Mark Abboud.

The Thunder Academy is actively seeking out the most interested soccer players and coaches to participate in structured, year-round training within team contexts.   Tryouts for U8-U11 players will be in July and for U12 and older players in August.  Tryouts will be open to all interested players, regardless of previous club affiliation and led by Thunder Academy Directors, Thunder Academy professional staff members, and Thunder/Lightning players. 

Full program details will be available by June 30, 2008, at the Thunder website, www.mnthunder.com

John Jerabek, Wings SC Board Member
Wings SC is extremely excited about this opportunity.  One of our main goals in structuring this arrangement was to provide opportunities for growth for all players within the organization, without requiring the children to leave their neighborhood teams at an early age or lose the community programming that both clubs have found successful.  The combined programs will provide for the development of every player at every ability and level of interest by bringing together Minnesota's top youth and professional coaching staffs, providing additional training opportunities for all players and enhancing those programs that have a proven track record of success.  This model provides the best of both worlds for the children in our community and provides a model organization for Minnesota youth soccer where the good of the players and families come first.

Rob Zahl, Bangu Tsunami FC Boys Coaching Director
I have been with Bangu Tsunami FC as a player, coach and director for nearly 20 years and have seen us grow from a handful of teams to the most competitive club in the state.  We began discussions with the Thunder late last year and the end result is an amazing collaboration for Minnesota soccer.

Along with the Wings SC and the Minnesota Thunder, we have created a unique development environment that will enable us to set the curve not only statewide but also nationally.  I am thrilled to be involved with this group and very excited to see the quality opportunity we will provide for the soccer community.

Day 2, game 1, Chicago Sockers (IL)

 

Note from MA - due to unforeseen family circumstances, I had to forego the trip this weekend to Portland for the Nike Manchester United Premier Cup.  Needless to say, I was totally bummed.  However, the girls are in very capable hands with Cook, and he has graciously decided to update us all with the happenings in Portland this weekend.  

I'm also going to try and post some video as PVK has been able to email out some .avi files for us.  Hopefully these post OK here! 

Posted by Mark Cook.

Here it goes, I am going to try and give the readers some updates from the Manchester United Cup (Man Cup) in Portland, Oregon.  First off this is not Mark (Abboud) writing this, it’s the other Mark (Cook) taking a shot at giving all of you the chance to hear what is happening in Oregon.  You may be wondering why I am writing this and not the other Mark.  Unfortunately, he had to stay at home with his wife and daughter because his wife was not feeling well, so you are going to have to deal with updates from me this weekend.  I will say that I am by no means the writer that the other Mark is and could probably use an editor for this (Schaefer); what can I say, I was a public speaking major, good at talking but not so much with typing.  So here it goes……Drum role please!

Arrival and opening ceremonies

Let me start by giving some background for those of you who don’t know what the Man Cup is.  This event is hosted at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.  It is a U14 boys and girls only event, it is the United States Finals – with the winning boys and girls team will advancing to the World Finals.  The winning girls team will advance to the Gothia Cup in Sweden (I’m not sure where the Boys’ Finals are held), all expenses paid by Nike (not a bad little prize).  There were hundreds of teams that applied to play in this event and only 32 teams were chosen to participate this year.  Some teams qualified by winning certain tournaments (US Club Nationals, Jefferson Cup, Sockers Nike Cup, Sereno Classic, etc…), while the rest of the teams were excepted on merit.  We were fortunate enough to get in as the defending Region 2 Champions and believe me when I say fortunate, this list of teams is very impressive.

As any tournament does, we started this tournament with team check-in.  The unique thing with this event is that the girls were asked to come to check in to meet with a representative from Nike and the tournament organizers.  At check-in we were given six boxes of Nike gear for the players and coaches…very cool! The players were given a new backpack with the tournament logo, shirts and a miniature Manchester United soccer ball, all of which the kids were pumped about.  As for the coaches, we received the brand new Nike Manchester United jacket, which for me, this could not have been any cooler as I am a huge Manchester United fan. Oh, by the way did I mention that they had just won the Champions League the day before (glory, glory Man United!!!!).

From the team check in we went to the Nike World Headquarters and met at the Tiger Woods Event Center for the opening ceremonies. 

Let me tell you, this was one very amazing event.  Since becoming a Nike Premier Club I have been fortunate enough to attend a few events here at Nike and knew that the opening ceremonies was going to be first class.  I can honestly say that it was better than that.  As you walked into the Stanford Theater (yes, named after the college that Tiger attended) you were greeted with base-filled hip-hop music and a full-sized video screen slide show that showed the stars of Manchester United along with photos of them hoisting the Premier League and Champions League trophies this past season.  I did not realize how popular Christiano Ronaldo was with 14 year old girls – Wow!  Every time his photo came up you heard loud shrieks from hundreds of girls and I don’t think it was only because he is a great player!!  Once all the teams were seated the lights went down and we watched a video with some of the worlds best players speaking in there own native language (yes, we did have subtitles to read), I wish I could give you the entire video run down but the general message was:  “Are you willing to take the final kick in a shootout? Are you first to arrive to training?  Are you the last to leave?”  Essentially, “Do you have what it takes?”  I think you get the message.  After the video we were greeted by Allen Hopkins – soccer announcer from ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel.  Allen spoke about the event and what it means to play in this event, as well as how Manchester United is committed to promoting the game worldwide for young players to enjoy.  After Allen was done he introduced the guest of honor, none other than Brandi Chastain, hero of the 1999 World Cup.  Brandi told the players her story of overcoming two ACL surgeries in college, having to adopt a new position for the Women’s National Team, missing an important PK against China preparing for the World Cup, and finally coming back and eventually scoring the winning PK in the 1999 World Cup.   All in all it was a very inspirational speech from one of the greatest persons to ever don the American jersey. 

Finally, the moment we all have been waiting for arrives…    The Draw!  On the stage there were two bowls with ping-pong balls in it.  One bowl contained all of the Cal. South teams, and the other bowl contained the rest of the teams.  First each team from Cal South was placed in one of the eight groups.    They then pulled a ball from the other bowl to round out the 8 groups of four teams.  Our draw ended up with the Irvine Strikers, FC Portland and Sockers FC, for the most part a good draw and teams we look forward to competing against.  The opening ceremonies ended with the latest Nike marketing video, Take it to the Next Level.  Now, we begin to prepare for our opponents and hope that we too can “take it to the next level.”

Game 1, Irvine Strikers

For our first game we were facing one of the Cal South teams, Irvine Strikers.  For anyone that follows youth soccer you know you are in for a battle anytime you face a team from Southern California. (I think it has something to do with the weather).  I spoke to each player before the game to prep them and build their confidence, as well as setting my expectations for their play.  The general message was that we needed to do a better job of winning balls and competing the entire game.  This was something that we did not do in our state cup final on Wednesday and it was a point of emphasis in last night’s team meeting.  I can honestly say that we accomplished that goal. Right from the opening whistle we dominated the 50/50 battle and took control of the game.  We created several good scoring chances, did a great job of getting our outside midfielders involved.  Both B.D. and Sophie had great first halves, we got good service in the box and we were unfortunate not to finish the chances we created. 

At halftime I made three changes and reinforced to the girls that we had to continue to change the point of attach and continue to get balls to our outside mids. 

Our first goal came on a ball played form Chilly our left mid into KK, who then played a pass to Nash about 40 yards from goal.  Nash’s fist look was to B.D. on the left flank.  The option was not there so she played a long diagonal ball into the box that Mac was able to run down and finish past the keeper. 

Irvine 1 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

With about seven minutes left in the game I added Maddie to the game, this was her first action in over a month due to a back injury.  Maddie made an immediate impact.  She received a great pass from Chilly on the left flank just outside the box, Maddie was able to beat her defender only to be fouled from behind for a PK.  Millie stepped up for the Pk and to all of our surprise, the keeper saved it.  Two minutes after the miss, Maddie forced their defender into a mistake and she played the ball out of bounds. Maddie quickly put the ball back into play for Millie who beat their last defender and shot far post for goal number 2. 

Two minutes after goal number two we were able to force a mistake in midfield, Millie won the ball and played a quick give and go with Mac on top of the box, the quick combination sent Millie in on goal for number 3. 

I have to give Millie lots of credit after the PK miss, she did slump her shoulders for a brief time but recovered mentally to put the game out of reach.  I will say that I was very pleased with our performance today and can only hope that we continue to play this well throughout.  I want to give special recognition to Nash, Maddie and Sophie for playing at “the next level” – just what we were hoping to see.  Let’s hope we do it all again tomorrow as we have two very difficult games ahead.

Day 1 Schedule/Scores 

Standings after Day 1