Homecoming/YUWA Charity Game!  

St. Olaf: 1-0

We were excited to have local youth soccer players (first row of 3 girls) come and help as ball girls for our YUWA charity game!

It was a windy day as the girls faced off with the Oles of St. Olaf.  It was a very exciting game, as the girls began to really build up some excellent attacks, but struggled however, to find the back of the net as the game ended in favor of the Oles at 1-0.   

We were very impressed with the girls’ ability to begin knocking the ball around very well throughout the game, starting right from the kickoff with far more energy than they had come out in our last match against St. Mary’s, and the newfound energy was very noticeable as the girls got in numerous times, even forcing a goal line safe from the Ole defenders when a ball was beautifully sent in from the right and senior Heather Geoff managed to get a touch on the ball past the goalkeeper but was barely denied the goal as a St. Olaf defender cleared the shot off of the line at the last second.

The girls were doing great to press from all over the field, creating an exciting battle throughout the midfield as gusties Sophie and Moni worked hard to match up with a trio of Oles in the midfield. Unfortunately, St. Olaf managed to build up an attack early in the second half ending with an absolutely stunning shot from the side, managing to find its way right into the far top corner of the net.

The gusties weren’t don’t yet, though, as they began to battle back and even though the bench was fairly short due to pressing injuries, fought every minute for an equalizer which nearly arrived off of a pass from freshman Sophie Leininger up to freshman Hannah Sturtz in past the St. Olaf defense, managing to beat the goalkeeper on the dribble and narrowly denied a goal by an Olaf player getting herself in the way of the shot at the last moment.

It was a tough game to play as St. Olaf was a very strong side, giving up nothing easy and forcing the girls to work for every touch on the ball, as well as the wind proving a complicating factor on the day.  Once again, huge improvements are being made as the girls are beginning to find their rhythm more consistently and playing with more energy; we are very excited going into our next match at UW River Falls on Wednesday, which is certain to be another great matchup.

 YUWA Dinner

After the game, the team and fans enjoyed a fantastic dinner out at the LoneStar, a local restaurant here in Saint Peter.  The event was a charity game for YUWA, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization which reaches out to girls in rural India, specifically Jharkland, and utilizes team sports such as soccer to act as a platform for young women to gain confidence and develop leadership in order to make a change in their world.

 

Everybody enjoyed their meal at the Lone Star following the exciting match

The event offered an array of silent auction prizes from a variety of local businesses, ranging anywhere from locally made jewelry to free rounds of golf at the North Links golf course.  The LoneStar was fantastic in providing delicious food deals for our clan of soccer players and fans, which was truly a delight. Between donations at the game and at the dinner, supporters of the Women’s soccer team managed to raise over $600 for YUWA, which was absolutely incredible to see! We’re more  than happy with the turnout, and very pleased that everybody seemed to enjoy the day.

Women’s Soccer Falls to St. Olaf 1-0

Posted on October 4^th, 2014 by Nick Hoelmer

 

Freshman Ellyn Adelmann dribbles the ball during Saturday's match against St. Olaf College

St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team fell to St. Olaf College 1-0 on Saturday afternoon in a match at the Gustie Soccer Field. With the loss, Gustavus moves to 0-3-2 in the MIAC and 1-6-3 overall, while St. Olaf moves to 2-2-1 in the MIAC and 2-7-1 overall.

“We came out a lot stronger this game which is a huge improvement from some of our last games,” said head coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “We were fighting hard the whole time. The wind was tough to play in, but I thought we kept the ball on the ground and moved it around quite well. We had some opportunities today, but they just didn’t go our way. They scored off a great shot, so it’s something where we did battle, but we just couldn’t find a way to equalize.”

The first half proved to be even and the match went into halftime knotted at 0-0. However, 11 minutes into the second half, the Ole’s Emily Sierakowski scored her first goal of the season on an unassisted boot past Gustavus keeper Caroline Olson (Sr., York, Penn.) to put St. Olaf up 1-0. That goal proved to be the difference maker, as neither team would score for the remainder of the game.

“The overall consistency was there for us today,” said Burnett-Kurie. “We’ve been pretty up and down so far this season, but today our energy was up the whole time and there weren’t any lulls really. Just continuing to find that consistency is going to make us better and better. We also brought several players off the bench again and they went in and played very well for us, so it’s great to see that those players are getting their time in and stepping up.”

St. Olaf held the advantage in shots taken on the day 11-4 and also held the advantage in corner kicks 4-2.

Olson suffered the loss for Gustavus and her record now stands at 1-5-3 on the season. She allowed just the one goal and made six saves on the day. St. Olaf keeper Ruth Hesse was awarded the win after needing to make just two saves.

Gustavus will be in action again on Wednesday when they travel to River Falls, Wisconsin for a 7 p.m. non-conference match against UW-River Falls.