ASC Women’s Soccer Team is Ready to Kick it into High Gear

Kim Vialpando
The Paw Print

The Adams State women’s soccer team set off their 2010-2011 season this past weekend as they played two scrimmages. The women showed great talent and skill on the field while battling it out against Garden City Community College on Friday.
Although no score was recorded because the game was only a scrimmage, it was clear that the Grizzly girls came out on top. The crowd couldn’t have been more impressed. “They are really looking good out there” said spectator Mark Rogers. “Looks like it’ll be a good season for these ladies.”
Despite being picked to finish tenth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll, the Grizzlies look to prove doubters wrong.
With 17 returning players and 15 newcomers, Coach Tom Cliff could not be more excited looking forward into the season. According to Cliff, “This is the first time I’ve had so many experienced players on the field.”  The new additions to the Grizzly women’s soccer team are also pulling their weight. “The freshmen are coming around and certainly getting in the swing of things,” Cliff said of his newcomers. Experience and dedication is exactly what the team needs to have an amazing season.
The team has been hard at practice since August 17 and have being concentrating strongly on working together as players. All that hard work truly showed when the women stepped out on the field. “We’re getting along great, we all mesh really well,” said junior Brianna Boyd, who is in her first year as a soccer player and is also an outfielder for the Grizzly softball team.  Getting along with your teammates is vital to success, and it’s clear they are in for a very thriving season.
Boyd and the rest of the team are getting ready for the big season opener against CSU-Pueblo next weekend. “It should be a great game, CSU will be tough competition” she said.
Cliff says “We’ve always had a high spirited rivalry with the Pueblo, and I expect this year’s game to get very physical.”
Be sure to catch the ladies take on the ThunderWolves in a non-conference match this Friday, Sept. 3 at 3 p.m. Murphy Field. That game will be the second half of a doubleheader, with the Grizzly men beginning their second ever campaign against Eastern New Mexico. The Grizzlies will then host Midland Lutheran (Neb.) College for the first time in school history on Sunday, Sept. 5 at 3:30 p.m., again as the second half of a men’s & women’s doubleheader.  The Grizzlies will begin their RMAC games on Sept. 17 hosting 8-time defending RMAC Regular Season Champion Metro State in the first of three home games in six days.   The squad also hosts Colorado Christian and New Mexico Highlands on Sept. 19 and Sept. 22, respectively before continuing a busy stretch with road matches at Mesa State and Fort Lewis on Sept. 24 and 26, respectively.