Women's Soccer Week That Was: Week 5
9/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Sept. 15, 2008
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama soccer team concluded its most successful weekend of the season thus far by earning two shutout victories. Despite the short week due to the cross country travel from the California trip the Crimson Tide were able to earn six points, including a win over 2007 NCAA tournament participant Samford.
"For our whole team, I like the way we bounced back from the weekend in that we found a way to get results," head coach Todd Bramble said. "Samford, although they're not the level of Southern Cal, it's a program that's established and they've got some history, so to come out and get a win against them, I think that helps us.
Even though the game yesterday was an open end-to-end type of game which doesn't really suit us, it's not the type of game we want to play in. In spite of that we found a way to get a result in that game too. When exhaustion was setting in and mental fatigue and concentration was there awe gutted it out. I'm proud of our team for that."
Junior goalkeeper Kara Gudmens was rewarded for her efforts over the weekend as she was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Gudmens recorded two shutouts and made a total of 12 saves. Alabama has yet to yield a goal at home this season.
Junior forward Kelsey King was the hero for Alabama on the offensive side of the things. King drilled a one-touch finish in the 105th minute to secure a 1-0 double overtime win over Wright State on Sunday.
Due to last week's travel the Crimson Tide did not train on Monday or Tuesday. Alabama did have a 7:30 a.m. session on Wednesday and then took to the pitch once again on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. The coaching staff made a concerted effort to get the squad to bounce back and take advantage of the four-game home stand.
"We certainly as a staff made conscious decision that we weren't going to coddle them and feel sorry for ourselves for what had happened," Bramble said. "We continued to push them, push them physically, mentally, and emotionally so that we can get better. We'll talk about it (our standards) this week and going into next week, we got two results from the weekend, but our performance is still not as good as we want it to be, so we're going to continue to keep pushing so we can set a high standard here."
The Crimson Tide did get a boost from their own as the weekend marked the return of the soccer alumni. The two matches were tabbed Alumni Weekend as 13 players returned to the UA Soccer Complex to get recognized at halftime.
"Coming off the weekend, it was tremendous to see the amount of former players that came back," Bramble said. "We had an alumni reunion and got a chance to go out after the game on Friday and start to get to know each other a little better and the support we're feeling from that group is tremendous and we're hoping that not only will that continue but will grow in numbers. It's going to be an annual event that I know the coaching staff and players are really looking forward to."
The Crimson Tide will return to the pitch when it hosts its only tournament of the season. Alabama will play two matches and a total of four will be played at the UA Soccer Complex next weekend. The Crimson Tide opens the weekend against UTC on Friday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
