HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

TCU Freshman Jordan Calhoun nominated for National Player of the Year

TCU Soccer Freshman Jordan Calhoun has been named one of 32 finalists for Soccer News Net National Player of the Year. 40% of the award is based upon fan voting and I'm asking for your help in going to the website below and casting your vote for Jordan.
http://dallassoccernews.com/college/wplayerpoll.php
Jordan ranked nationally in goals and points in her first season here at TCU. Thanks for your support and we'll keep you posted on how Jordan does!

Starns to Co-Host The Home Team on Fox Sports Radio Tomorrow

One facet of our program I like to emphasize is preparing our student-athletes for the best opportunities available upon graduation. That's why in our year-end individual meetings we talk with each player not only about their on field experiences, but also where they are positioned from a career standpoint.

Every spring we hold a mentoring luncheon where we have influential and successful business people in the careers our girls have an interest in come and meet with the team. Last year we even had a secret service agent on the President's detail come for Katie Taylor who is interested in the CIA or FBI. It's a fun part of what we do and to see the our young women excel is important to us.

But Senior Caroline Starns certainly out did herself by landing a co-hosting gig on Fox Sports Radio's The Home Team Show. Throughout our season the hosts Ward Whites and Charlie Hodges would interview players on our team and keep track of our progress. They were so impressed with Caroline that they asked her to come in and help co-host this weeks show.

Caroline certainly has the personality for radio and TV and I suspect this will be the start of a great career in broadcasting. It does help that TCU has one of the top communication schools in the country so she's been working hard at this for 3 1/2 years!

So tune in tomorrow from 11:00am--2:00pm on Fox Sports Radio 1460 in the metroplex and you'll get the chance to listen to a star in the making!

Random Thoughts on the NCAA's

It was certainly tough watching the NCAA games and not being involved this past weekend. Nearly every publication out there had as one of the teams being in, so it was even more difficult to see scores. But I think our young team has definitely learned a lot from the experience and emotions over the past 2 weeks, which will serve us well moving forward.

It was great to see a couple of upsets, with the big one being South Dakota State over Colorado in the first round. Something probably most people don't realize is the fact a number of teams lost key players before the NCAA tournament stated to travel with the US Under 20 National Team to the world championships in Chile. This definitely hit Colorado who lost Nikki Marshall, one of the top strikers in the country.

I was glad to see BYU from our conference have a good run in beating ACC opponent Virginia Tech in the first round, before falling to defending national champion USC in a shootout. Our conference traditionally has been a 3 team conference for the NCAAs, so it was important for BYU to have a strong showing to continue to improve the profile of our league.

I was sad two of my good friends, Ada Greenwood at USD and Mauricio Ignacio at Long Beach State, had to meet each other in the first round. Both have done a great job of building solid championship programs, so they had to duke it out for the right to play UCLA in the 2nd round. USD got the chance and from the gametracker looked like they took the bruins all the way to the end before succumbing to a 1-0 loss.

I'm really looking forward to the matchups this weekend-in particular USC-UCLA!

Calhoun Named To TopDrawer Soccer National All-Rookie Team

Freshman Jordan Calhoun, who scored 15 goals on her rookie campaign, was named to the Top Drawer Soccer 2nd Team All-Rookie Squad today. It's her third major honor of the year after being named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Mountain West Conference.

6 Year Plan Right On Course

With the team together last night to view the NCAA Selection Show, our season unfortunately came to an end. At 14-4-2, I was extremely proud of the girls for the effort they put in this year. It was unquestionably a turning point for our program, which was probably most noticeable with the disappointment in our player's faces last night. You might ask why I view that as a positive-well it's quite simple: most programs that win 14 games in a year will walk away satisfied, this group didn't, they voiced their hunger for more and are twice as motivated to work harder for next season.

When I first came to TCU 4 years ago, we put together a 6 year plan to take our program into the top tier in the country. The first 2 years were about changing the culture; the 3rd about beating top 25 teams (which we did twice); the 4th-the one we just finished-was about competing for a conference championship, winning a conference tournament game, placing ourselves in the top 50 in the country; Next year, the 5th, is about winning a conference championship and going to the NCAA Tournament; The 6th year is about giving ourselves a chance at making a run to the final four and a national championship.

I'm so proud of this team, not because of what they have accomplished, but for what they still are driven to accomplish! With that said I do want to share with you some of the successes we achieved this year:

* Best School Record in Program History: 14-4-2
* Most Goals in Program History: 47
* Fewest Goals Against & Lowest Goals Against Average in Program History: 17 & .81
* Most All Conference Selections in Program History: Jordan Calhoun, Lizzy Karoly, Katie Taylor * 1st Conference Freshman of the Year in program history: Jordan Calhoun
* 4 Players Named CoSida/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District: Lizzy Karoly, Kelsey Walters, Jackie Torda, Cheryl Martin
* 7 MWC Conference Players of the Week: Lizzy Karoly (3), Jordan Calhoun, Caroline Starns, Kelsey Walters, Cheryl Martin
* Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week Selection: Jordan Calhoun
* Program High #24 National RPI Ranking
* 2 MWC All Tournament Team Selections: Lizzy Karoly and Jackie Torda (first in program history)
* Ranked in all national Polls: SoccerBuzz #28, Soccer America #29, NSCAA #29, TopDrawer Soccer #29
* #29 Ranking in Won/Lost % nationally
* #18 Scoring team in the country
* Jordan Calhoun ranked #19 nationally in goals per game
* 6-1-0 road record
* Semi-Finalist MWC Championships (1st semi final appearance in program history)

What's most exciting is that we return 10 starters and 19 of 20 letter winners. Our 6 year plan is right on course, if maybe even a little ahead of schedule! GO FROGS!

Torda & Karoly Named to Mountain West Conference All Tournament Team

Junior Lizzy Karoly and Sophomore Jackie Torda were both named to the Mountain West Conference All-Tournament Team this past Saturday. The pair led the Horned Frogs to their First Conference Semi-Final in program history with a win over San Diego State and tough 2-1 overtime loss to Utah.

Karoly recorded 1 goal and 1 assist in the tournament (assist vs SDSU and goal vs Utah). She battled a sprained ankle suffered in the SDSU game to pace the Frogs against Utah. Meanwhile, Torda led the team as the heart and soul in both games, getting the game winner versus San Diego State while sprawled on the ground going after a loose ball.

Congrats to both Horned Frogs on the recognition!

Frogs Wait To Learn Their Fate

The 2008 season was a record setting one for the Frogs. At 14-4-2, the Frogs won more games than any other team in the history of the TCU Soccer program. The 4 losses are the least ever for a team in school history. We scored more goals and had more assists than any other team in TCU history. Jordan Calhoun was selected the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year while setting the single season scoring record at TCU. We were ranked nationally for the first time in school history and spent most of the season in the top 10 regionally. The accolades go on and on. Its been great, and hopefully it isn't over yet. On Monday, the NCAA will announce the 64 teams that have been selected for the NCAA tournament. We hope this record setting year will continue with another first for the program, an NCAA tournament spot.

Frogs Battle at MWC Championships

Wow....what a week here at the Mountain West Conference Championships. For the second time in a five days we took the field against San Diego State. The game was intense and full of energy as both teams were fighting for a spot in the semi-finals. The game was fast, exciting and very physical. We took a lead about 30 minutes in off a fantastic goal where Jackie Torda dribbled into the box finding Lizzy Karoly who one touched the ball to a cutting Jordan Calhoun who tucked the ball into the far post. It was one of the best goals of the year. San Diego State wouldn't back off and early in the second half they crossed a ball from the left flank and somehow it found the far post of the goal to tie the game. Although we were able to control the game and maintain constant pressure on the San Diego State goal, we were unable to get a second goal and the game went into overtime. In the overtime we kept up the pressure and were rewarded with about a minute and a half left in the first overtime. Kaylie Garcia sent a cornerkick into the box where Katie Taylor out jumped three San Diego St defenders to get a head on the ball which the Aztecs were able to clear off the line but in the ensuing scramble Jackie Torda was able to get a foot on the ball to win the game and move us on to the semi-finals. It was definitely an exciting ending.

The next day we took the field against Utah who had a bye into the semi-finals and didn't have to play on Wednesday. The Frogs took the challenge and played a very entertaining, exciting and hard fought game. We thought we went up midway through the first half as a Jordan Calhoun shot was saved by the Utah goalkeeper and Lizzy Karoly jumped on the rebound and knocked it into the goal. But the goal was called back as Lizzy was called offside by the referees. With the game still 0-0, Utah was awarded a penalty kick about 15 minutes into the second half. They converted and went up 1-0. But the Frogs wouldn't stop fighting. We had three fantastic opportunities as we continued to apply pressure on the Utah goal as Lizzy's breakaway went wide and two shots off headers went over the bar. With about a minute and a half left Katie Taylor flicked a ball through to Lizzy who drilled the ball past the Utah keeper to knot the game up. We headed into overtime looking for the win. Early in the overtime a Utah player crossed a ball that deflected off on of our defenders and past our goalkeeper to end the game. It was a disappointing way to end the game that is for sure.

The loss brought an end to our regular season with a 14-4-2 record. The best ever in the history of TCU Soccer. Now we await the NCAA Tournament selection to see if we will continue our season.

Rankings continue into Post-Season

As the regular season finished up last weekend we continued our presence in the final regular season national and regional polls.

SoccerBuzz has the team ranked #7 in the central region, as well as, receiving votes nationally.

Topdrawer Soccer has us posted as the #29 team in the country in there tournament selection.

In the NSCAA polls, we continue to hold on the #8 spot in the central region.

Meanwhile, Soccer America predicted us to be a NCAA qualifying team if the selection was to take place today.

We've still got a lot of work to do with the conference tournament this week, before we see if any of those predictions come to fruition!

3 Frogs Honored By Conference

Jordan Calhoun was named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year Tonight. Calhoun finished conference play with 4 goals total, 3 game winners in conference play. On the year Calhoun has 14 goals and 2 assists.

Calhoun was also named to the 1st team All-Mountain West Conference Team. Joining Calhoun on the All-Conference Squad was Junior Lizzy Karoly and Freshman Katie Taylor, who were both named to the second team. Karoly repeats her all-conference performance from last year and has scored 10 goals and 6 assists on the year. Taylor, finished up the regular season with 1 goal and 5 assists as a defender, while also helping to pace the Horned Frogs to a program best 0.77 goal against average.

Halloween Treat for Frogs

We got back Saturday night after a 2-1 win over San Diego State that moved us to 13-3-2 on the year. It was great as we got 2 second half goals from 2 of our California girls in front of their families -- Nikki Wilbur, Laguna Niguel, and Lizzy Karoly, San Diego; Also, Katie Taylor, also from San Diego, got an assist on the first goal.

After the game though is when the fun started. We had a Halloween party and all of the girls and staff brought costumes. The Taylor Family were generous to open up the house to the team and all of the families for a great pasta dinner. It was really neat to see how many fans we had at the game-just a ton of family and friends. Thank you so much to the Taylor's for their hospitality and to all of the Horned Frog Fans who showed up to the game!

Whenever we play in Southern California I always like to get a later flight out on the day after the game-we have so many players from California and the west coast that it gives them a chance to spend more time with family. It also gives the rest of the team a chance to take a break and have a little fun. Saturday it ended up as a shopping trip down at Pacific Beach. And the team always knows after a win they'll get a chance to stop for an In n' Out Burger.

Enjoy the Halloween pictures. It's back to the training field today as we get ready for a trip out to Las Vegas and the Mountain West Conference Championships. We'll play SDSU again on Wednesday, a game that will definitely prove to be a battle.