Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo by Nancy Grier Soccer with flair. Senior defender Amy Vanden Hogen stays ahead of the competition and kicks off to her teammates. [Click to enlarge]

"Our record wasn't great, but our team had a lot of growth in terms of soccer development," says James Kloes, head coach of women's soccer, summing up his season.

While the Red Hawks had few wins to show for their effort, Kloes praises the team for its resolve.

"We had a lot of endurance and very good tenacity going through the games," he says. "We had a few injuries and only two substitutes, so many players played close to 90 minutes."

Midfielder junior Mary Sterrett credits the team's endurance to their new assistant coach and training regimen.

"Our largely junior and sophomore team has put in a lot of conditioning work with our new assistant coach Chris Trudell, which has made all those close games possible," she says.

Sterrett notes that although the team has improved, the results were disappointing. "Roughly four games were lost by a one or two goal margin, and two were battled out in overtime," she says. "No one likes that kind of an ending to a 90 minute game."

Kloes is hopeful that the next year's team will beef up its numbers, and the returning players will capitalize on the experience they gained this season.

"We're only losing two seniors, and while they will be hard to replace hopefully our girls returning will be able to make up for them," he says.

Sterrett also has high hopes for next season. She says, "Come to the games. They'll be worth watching."

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