Finally. It's about time. We shot the way today that I thought we could have shot all season long. We pieced it together well today. It was a great performance today by everyone. We are really pleased, and hopefully we can build on it some more. |
Hopefully, this will be the start of us stringing some success together. We have a big month coming up in our push to make the NCAA Tournament, starting with a qualifying meet on Feb. 12, and our match with Army. We are getting into the stretch run of the season and, hopefully, we can continue to improve. |
I have seen lots of maturity from this group. There is no panic in them and they know what they need to do. This week, we posted our counting team on Monday and let people challenge their spots. The counting team rose to the occasion and felt the pressure and performed very well. Hopefully this weekend's scores will back that up. |
I thought Christina Schade shot very well today. This was the first time she was in the counting group and she responded very well. I thought we were very consistent today. We didn't have great scores, but we didn't have any real bad ones either. |
It was a good performance for us. We just faced a team that is better than we are. Plain and simple. |
It was a pretty inspiring evening for the kids. |
It was a very good way to back up our performance yesterday. I was worried a little bit about a letdown, but they came out and shot very well again today. We had a very strong weekend. |
It's a big relief that she is back. We didn't have her in the lineup today, but her performance was very encouraging. She is such a trooper. She's been coming in early and staying after practice and knows what it takes to be successful. She will provide a big boost to our lineup as we continue on this year. |
It's always difficult in the first match back from break and having not shot as a team for a couple of months. We have been back for about 10 days training, but traditionally we haven't shot as well the first time out as we typically do. |
It's always great to shoot against Alaska-Fairbanks no matter how good they are. They are always the team to measure yourselves against and see how we stack up. The kids are very excited and motivated. We know how good they are, and we should have no problem getting up for the match. |
One thing I have noticed is that this team is very self-motivated, and that we have taken a different approach to our training this week. We have focused on our intensity and created competition amongst ourselves. I think it has really helped. They had a good week of practice, they are shooting well and want to come out and put their best foot forward. |
The ones who shot at the Jr. Olympic Qualifier seem to be shooting really well. I hope they can carry that into the weekend. We've had a good attitude and are fighting to get better. We hope we can hang a good score up there at Palmyra and let the others see it and let them know that we are going to be there in the end. |
They were all shooting against very good competition and performed well. There were USA national team members and US Olympic Team members shooting, so to place that high and perform that well is a good sign. |
This has been one of the craziest weeks I have ever experienced as a coach. I had kidney stones last weekend so I missed two days of practice, so the kids were on their own. Then Chris Schneider (Fort Mill, S.C.) gets pneumonia early this week, and is in closed quarters for the entire week basically. To have our third-best score of the year is a remarkable achievement. They have shown great perseverance all year and to have a performance like this when it really counts is a testament to their character and commitment. |
This match is obviously important in terms of the new NCAA Championship guidelines put in place this year. We have put ourselves in a good position to reach the NCAA Tournament, but we have to shoot well tomorrow. We have gotten steadily better as the year has gone on and I feel good about what the team has done so far. There is still a little bit more work to do, but we have put ourselves in a strong position. |