Emporia State’s women’s soccer team ended Friday night’s season opener exactly where they started. After 110 minutes of total play, the Hornet’s ended the game in a 0-0 tie against the Rambelles of Angelo State in this weekend’s MIAA/Lone Star Challenge.

Although able to keep up with the Rams during the first half, the Hornets found it difficult to maintain possession, unable to register any opportunities offensively. The Rambelles were able to generate three shots in the first half, but were denied by freshman goalie Natalie Hoernig twice – a theme that would occur throughout the game.

The second half showed more promise as the Hornets produced six goal opportunities but were unable to cash in on them.

“We got into a situation where they let us have portions of the field, and we didn’t do as good a job of taking as we should have,” said Head Coach Jim Schneiderhahn.  “I think it’s a lot of impatience from the standpoint of first game jitters and trying to sort everybody out.”

Despite being outshot through regulation 11 to six, the Hornets were able to hold their own defensively and force the game into overtime thanks to the play of Hoernig in her first outing.

“I got over (the jitters) pretty well,” Hoernig said. “The Defense played really well together, communicated well, and executed pretty good defense.”

In overtime, the Hornets continued to struggle to get much going offensively creating only one goal opportunity and allowing five. Hoernig saved three during the period, giving her 10 for the game.

“Early on (Hoernig) showed some jitters, but then came up with a couple of huge saves for us there at the end, and that’s what she needs to do for us,” Schneiderhahn said.

The Hornets were led by midfielder Jessica Decker, forward Ashley Hill, and defender Hannah Carlson, each contributing two shots for the Hornets. Midfielder Sarah Anderson also helped provide the Hornets with offense with one shot. For the Rambelles, Brandie Debacker led the way with eight shots.

Defensively, the future looks bright for the Hornets with Hoernig becoming the first ESU freshman to earn a shutout in her debut.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to play some more games as a freshman, and it gives me a good look forward into more years to come,” Hoernig said.

The Hornets continue play in the MIAA/Lone Star challenge on Sunday when they take on East Central.

Brandon Schneeberger/The Bulletin

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Head Coach Jim Schneiderhahn talks to his players before their exhibition game against Ottawa Friday evening at the ESU Pitch. Megan Gartner/ The Bulletin

What is your personal background?

I grew up playing soccer, baseball, football and basketball in St. Louis. Soccer is just the one that stuck. Being from St. Louis, it’s natural to be a baseball fan and root for the Cardinals. After I saw my first curveball, I knew my days of baseball were numbered. After high school, I attended Benedictine University from 1986-1990 to play soccer as a goalkeeper. My major was Journalism, with a minor in Business.

Did you step right into the coaching field?

Actually I took some time off. I worked for a service company of my father’s for three years, and then was a commercial photographer for two and a half years. I went back to Benedictine to get my teaching certificate to teach history at the high school level, and coach soccer at that level. That’s when I started coaching in the KC area for a soccer club until I got offered a job at Tulane University. I was the number one assistant, and the recruiting coordinator from 2000-2005.

What brought you to Emporia State?

I was there during Hurricane Katrina, which obviously had a big impact of where I am today. I lived just outside New Orleans, and my area was fortunate not to be flooded. However the building in which I worked had anywhere between five to 10 feet of water. Tulane suspended 11 other sports besides soccer. One thing I will never forget though is that many of our students were taken in as Tulane students by Texas A&M University. The work and hospitality that university showed is something I will never forget, and I will be appreciative to them for. In that summer, a personal friend contacted me about a job opening up here, and that May I moved back to Kansas.

What were your thoughts on last weeks’ exhibition game?

I liked about 80-85 percent of what they did. They did a nice job creating opportunities to score, but just didn’t capitalize on those chances. It is very critical to finish those plays when you have chances.

What are the biggest challenges going into this season?

Most people don’t realize that this is one of, if not the, best conference in the MIAA. The challenge is going to be week in and week out, playing tough competition. This year’s team isn’t as deep, so the team will have to really be more focused on what we are trying to get done. It sounds cliché, but we just need to take it one game at a time and get better every day.

Chris Hopkins/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State soccer team added another loss against the Washburn Lady Blues on Nov. 1 at the ESU Pitch, 1-2. Now ESU (1-15-1 on the season) is faced with a 12 game losing streak.

ESU has not had a win since they defeated Missouri Western, 1-0, on Sep. 17.

ESU played very aggressively during their first possession. They got a first corner kick chance and missed the shot on the goal. Even though they did not make the goal, the team was still confident. The Lady Blues’ luck was absent – a shot by WU from the middle distance in the first half hit the crossbar.

However, Washburn dominated the game with their good pass work skills. They shot the ball seven times during just eight minutes. It was a one sided game. WU kept the ball nearly the entire match. Junior goalkeeper Katrina Goscha was very busy, while the Washburn goal keeper was doing nothing. Goscha showed great defense; she did not allow any goals in the first half, even though WU tried nine shots. Near the end of the first half, senior forward Tina Commons had many chances to score, but she did not succeed. ESU finished the first half 0-0.

WU kept pushing against ESU in the second half. Finally the tie was broken at minute 73. Washburn forward Keeley Lambeth shot the ball high at the right corner. The ball went into the net over Goscha’s hand.

“It was an unfortunate goal,” Goscha said. “It was a real fluke.”

WU was never satisfied with their first goal. Nine minutes after their first goal, they had a second chance. Washburn forward Tia Stovall made a second score with her right in-step kick assisted by midfielder Ashley Taylor.

The Hornets never gave up. They were trying to keep attacking even though they did not have enough time to upset the Lady Blues. Commons shot the ball in front of the goal area at the 87th minute –the ball hit the left side of the goal net, which brought the score to 1-2, but there was no time to celebrate.

ESU did not have enough fire power for the game. Freshmen forwards Ashley Hill (four goals on the season) and Amanda Penny could not play due to illness and family-related issues.

“I appreciate to the effort of players,” said Head Coach Jim Schneiderhahn. “This game really showed we were lacking who is missing right now. It is a personal concern. We missed some players because of flu and family things. We were just short handed.”

Commons had a good performance by making her second goal of the season. Her first goal of this season was also against Washburn on Oct.15.

“I am definitely not so happy,” Commons said. “I got a lot of chances and enough opportunities. We had to score before first goal.”

Schneiderhahn was satisfied with her Commons’ play.

“Tina is tremendous,” Schneiderhahn said. “She started a little slowly this year comeback from off-season surgery. The last three weeks, she was a one of the most consistent players…she does simple things very well. We should do that more to compete.”

The Hornets now have two more games in the season. The team would like to get their first home game win in front of many ESU students. Schneiderhahn has a strong belief in his players – he does not feel any pressure about the 12-game losing streak

“I think pressure is self imposed,” Schneiderhahn said. “I can not look at that and worry about it. My job is to try and coach the girls to my best ability and hopefully be successful…it is about us trying to succeed.”

Schneiderhahn has a confidence about rest of his season, as well.

“We’ve got two more games,” Schneiderhahn said. “We try to prove to everybody that we are not as bad as we look. We are looking at the big picture. It is lucky that we have more opportunities to prove ourselves.”

JungHwan Seo/The Bulletin

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Midfielder/Forward Lauren Cathey looks to pass Sunday afternoon on the ESU Pitch. The Hornets fell to the Mavericks 1-4. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

The Emporia State University Hornets soccer team fell short to the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks by 4-1 on Sunday afternoon. The Hornets had seven shots on goal for the day, while holding the Mavericks to only 12.

Freshman midfielder/defender Ashley Hill scored the lone goal for the Hornets from a pass from senior forward Tina Commons during the 44^th minute of the match. The goal was Hill’s fourth of the season, while Commons added her first assist.

The Hornets had a total of nine shots on the day, seven on goal. Commons led the way for the Hornets on the day with three shots, followed closely by senior forward/midfielder Amanda Miano with two. Hill, senior goal keeper Katrina Goscha, senior midfielder/forward Raquel White, and sophomore midfielder/forward Sarah Anderson all had one shot.

Freshman goal keeper Nikki Schmitz had a total of eight saves on the day, allowing four goals.

Although the team fell short on the afternoon, they looked much more physical than in previous outings.

“Our defense especially has been working on being more physical, but as a team in general we’re trying to be more physical,” Commons said. “Sometimes we do get pushed around, and we can’t take that. We’re in college soccer and we can’t get bullied around.”

Injuries also seem to plague the Hornets this year, with three starters already out, and a fourth going down right before the game. Head Coach Jim Schneiderhahn doesn’t seem to be worried about playing his reserve players.

“Hard work is not an option,” Schneiderhahn said. “Regardless, if we had two subs on the sideline or 20, you ask any coach, hard work is not an option – it’s a requirement.”

Forward Amanda Penney works to shoot past a defender Sunday afternoon on the ESU Pitch. The Hornets fell to the Mavericks 1-4. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

The Hornets were playing the ball and playing defensively stronger than they had in past games.

“It’s our own field, so we have our own little mentality of how the ball is going to be played, and where it’s going to be played,” Commons said. “Especially with your own team, you can see and feel where it’s going to be played at.”

The Hornets still are optimistic about the upcoming games.

“We have to keep working hard, keep our heads up,” Hill said.

“They say losing is character building, we’ve got a lot of character over the past two years,” Schneiderhahn said. “I think losing is certainly a harsher critic, where your mistakes are exposed. I think in the euphoria of wins, you have a tendency to overlook your mistakes or discount them a little bit. We continue to look at film, make adjustments and get better. We still need some other players to give us a hand. The biggest thing I take from it; I like the way that we’re battling. As I told the girls after the game, I have no qualms with the effort in the past matches. I have no disappointment and I’m not ticked off with the lack of effort. It’s nice to see, because sometime we haven’t had that.”

The Hornets will be back in action at 2 p.m. Oct. 22 at the ESU pitch against the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats.

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Midfield/ Forward Sarah Anderson takes a free kick Saturday afternoon on the ESU pitch during the Hornets soccer match against University of Central Missouri. Anderson was the only Hornet to score against the Jennie defense. Jonathan Elliott/The Bulletin

After a 4-1 heartbreaking loss to Central Missouri, the Emporia State soccer team will travel to Joplin, Mo., to square off against the Lions of Missouri Southern.

The Hornets are 1-6-1 on the season and look to improve their record with a road win against a tough MIAA opponent.

“It’s going to be interesting from the standpoint that Missouri Southern is having somewhat of a down year as well,” said head soccer coach Jim Schneiderhahn. “They had an outstanding player that played up top for them and finished a lot of goals and things like that, and she graduated. They’re in the process of trying to manufacture goals, as well. That’s one of the things that we’re struggling with is manufacturing goals.

I think we can expect another really tough affair. I know we’re beat up, and that seems to be the word around the conference, that everyone is beat up. I’m hoping that they’ll be a little bit beat up as we will.”

The Hornets have pin-pointed what they need to improve upon during the game and aim to finally do so in their upcoming match.

“We’re going to have to come together more as a team to lift each other up, and be positive,” said Lauren Cathey, junior midfielder. “ (We need to) make sure that we’re helping each other out and telling each other what we’re supposed to be doing and encouraging each other.”

Freshman goalkeeper Nikki Schmitz said that the team often gets down on themselves early.

“We can’t get down and become frustrated,” Schmitz said. “After one goal gets down we get frustrated, put down and it just goes on from there.”

Part of the Hornets’ struggles this year has come from the recent position changes – but with risk comes reward.

When questioned about an immediate positive impact on the team from position changes, Schneiderhahn said, “Sometimes, to be quite honest, sometimes I see a positive impact, and sometimes I see a negative impact. I think part of what we try to do is anything we can t be successful. The goal sometimes is to put people in places where they can succeed, and that’s certainly my goal.”

The players themselves have also noticed the change and how it could impact the Hornets during the season.

“We’ve been switching people’s positions to try and get a better connection between people, and we’ve had some injuries, so we’re trying to switch positions to see where people fit,” Cathey said. “I think that’s been a little bit of the problem. I think with us switching and actually being able to practice where we’re going will really help. We’ve been switching off and on – whenever we get new freshman and personnel we have to switch around and see where everybody fits in different positions. We usually have to move a couple of people, but since we’ve had injuries, and the system wasn’t working with some things, we decided to switch it up and see if it would work other ways.”

Zac Burt/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State Soccer team has spent the first third of their season on the road, facing opponents on unfamiliar ground. They’re looking forward to a homecoming today versus Southwest Baptist at 4 p.m. and a chance to turn their season around.

The road trip hasn’t been kind to the Lady Hornets. During the month-long road trip, the soccer team is 1-5, with one tie. The lone win came against Missouri Southern, with the Hornets winning 1-0 in a tight MIAA battle. The players are feeling the effects – yet they’re not the only ones.

“I’m happy that for the first time in four weeks I’m not spending my time preparing for the road,” said Jim Schneiderhahn, head coach of the soccer team. “The hardest thing is getting all 20 players, the equipment and myself at one place and ready for a game. I know the girls are excited to play at home, and I hope that we’re able to channel that excitement into some activity when we kick-off on Thursday.”

The Southwest Baptist Bearcats are a team that the Hornets faced and lost to 3-0 earlier this season. The team looks to change the outcome this time around, using home field advantage the best that they can.

“We just saw SBU two weeks ago – it’s always difficult to play teams twice,” Schneiderhahn said. “We lost the first game 3-0, and we made a few physical errors. We didn’t see the work rate we need to see out of some players. This is a team we can match up with pretty well. They play a very hard game and they have some very savvy kids up top that can create for themselves.”

Ashley Hill, freshman secondary education major, is the leading scorer for the Lady Hornets with three goals on the season. Hill said she is extremely excited to play in her first collegiate home game – she will be looking to add to those goal totals and hopes winning this game will give ESU Soccer what it need to turn this season around.

“We need to come out ready to play and play to our full ability,” Hill said. “I think if we can win this game, it will give us the confidence to beat other teams this season.”

The Hornets will need to exploit every advantage they have to defeat a Southwest Baptist team that is 4-1-1. Amanda Miano, senior math education major, knows what it will to take to come away with a W.

“They’re really good in the middle, they win every 50-50 ball and they can shoot the ball well,” Miano said. “We’re looking to take players on, and we need to win more balls in the middle.”

The team has had difficulty putting the ball into the net this season, only scoring four goals in seven games. Schneiderhahn hopes that his game day strategy will be enough to produce goals.

“We need the forwards to create space and create runs for themselves off the ball, and we need the mid-fielders to get the ball there – they both need to step it up,” Schneiderhahn said. “Our wing mid-fielders need to step it up, particularly on the attacking end. They’re doing great defensively, but we’re not getting any punch from them on the attacking end of the ball. Our forwards need to be a little more dynamic up front. They need to be willing to risk a little bit more.”

-Austin Wagoner/The Bulletin.

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When you think about the soccer program at ESU, the word ‘improvement’ comes to mind.  After a winless 2007 season, the Hornets came back in the 2008 season, tallying four wins.

“First and foremost, the improvement has been the mentality of the girls here and the girls that have stuck with the program,” said Head Coach Jim Schneiderhahn.  “When I first got here, it was probably difficult to be a soccer player at Emporia.  My impression was that they kept going through coaches, that they were just out there.

I don’t want to say that nobody cared about them, but that’s kind of what seemed to be.  They, I think, believed in themselves, but I think that they didn’t feel liked.  We’ve gotten much better, and we feel a part of the athletic program.”

Schneiderhahn, or “Coach Snoop,” as he’s known by his soccer players, identified several key items that needed the most improvement.

“The biggest improvement from my standpoint is the ability to play on campus.  I think that was one of the huge things that went towards bringing in our girls and making them feel like this is a college program,” Schneiderhahn said.  “It’s something I wish I could have been able to do for the girls when I first got here.  There’s a little bit more pride for our girls when they can play in front of their classmates, and their classmates don’t have to travel across town to see a game…for us, the biggest step as a soccer program was getting on campus.”

The players have also noticed the team’s improvements.

Katrina Goscha, junior English secondary education major and goalkeeper for the Hornets, noticed the changes first hand.

“We’ve gotten a lot more competitive, the level of play increased drastically,” Goscha said.  “People are more skilled and the whole attitude is better. We really want to win.”

Amanda Miano, senior middle school education and math major and midfielder, has also been privy to the strides the team has recently made.

“Definitely offensively, and we’ve been better at defense.  We’ve been able to score a lot more than in the past,” Miano said.

Schneiderhahn is optimistic about the start of the upcoming season, but he also knows that nothing comes easy in the MIAA.

“I wish I could look into a crystal ball and say exactly what’s going to happen, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that there’s always going to be a surprise,” Scheiderhahn said. “You hope that it’s a positive surprise; you hope that it’s somebody you really weren’t counting on steps up and makes things happen, as opposed to something that is not good, whether its an injury or somebody that doesn’t show up to play.”

Schneiderhahn went on to talk about the difficulty of playing in the MIAA.

“The best way that I could put it is that the season is going to be tough,” he said. “It always is. The MIAA is an incredibly good conference.  It’s one of the best in the nation for soccer. We played five teams last year that made it into the NCAA National Tournament.  When you have that kind of schedule, you’re going to take your bumps…it’s going to be a learning season; I’m particularly interested to see how our sophomores do.  So far, they’ve done an excellent job.”

Team chemistry also seems to be a tremendous asset this year.

“The girls have commented to me that there is a really strong chemistry within the team.  It’s been my experience that people talk about team chemistry and use it as a noun, I like to use it as a verb, it’s continually going, it’s active.

Team chemistry isn’t just something that happens; you have to work at it.  The very first day the girls were on campus we went over to one of our girl’s parent house here in town and they had us over for dinner.  The girls played some backyard games.  It’s really grown to where the girls have dinner on their own to get an idea of each other.  We do those kinds of things throughout the year. I think that type of closeness is important in any type of endeavor where you’re working with a lot of people.  It’s important for one person to see what motivates another person.

Something else we do is a ‘show-and-tell’.  It’s the same type of thing that you did when you were in grade school.  We asked the kids to bring three things that are important to them; they get up in front of the team and tell them why.  For me particularly, it gives it a strong insight into the person’s personality,” he said.

The Hornets have set expectations for themselves this year, not only as a team, but personal as well.

“I want to be a starter, clock a lot of minutes in the goal, and ultimately to win and to help the team win,” Goscha said.  “Also, to be a team leader and help our team become a family.”

Miano shares similar goals.

“I want to win and help the team out as much as possible, and to help the freshman get into the college level as much as possible,” Miano said.

Hopes are high as the Hornets continue to improve year to year.

“I think we’ll do a lot better than in the past,” Miano said.  “Each year we’ve gotten better.  Hopefully this year will be even better.”

Even the soccer team’s motto this year is rejuvenated.

“Respect,” Goscha said.  “Basically that just encompasses everything that the word ‘respect’ does:  respecting the game that we play, respecting ourselves, not being idiots off the field, respecting each other,  respect the coaches and the decisions they make, respecting the officials, and respect our opponents.”

The Hornets will kick off the season against Rockhurst.  The game will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 28 at Wilfred C. Bourke Pitch in Kansas City, Mo.

Zac Burt/The Bulletin

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