NOLAN SOCCER FEATURED ON ESPN.com

Seven-Year Itch
After seven straight state runner-up finishes, Nolan Catholic (Fort Worth, Texas), behind a strong senior lineup, is poised to finally take home a title. MORE

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Nolan Catholic Highlights/Recruiting

ESPN Top 25 – Nolan Catholic Women's Soccer Moves to #12

The Nolan Catholic Women’s Soccer Team is undefeated with a mark of 12-0 and have moved up in the National Rankings to #12 by ESPN. A total of 8 players have double digits in points which shows the depth this Lady Viking team has this year. Senior captains, Mallory Baum (9 goals/8 assists/26 points) and Morgan Ulliman (11 goals/4 assists/26 points) and junior Emily Grider (7 goals/6 assists/20 points) lead the Lady Vikings with at least 20 points in 12 games. The backline of Chelsea Heiman, Sam Henggeler, Emily Baker, and Kaytee O’Brien rounded out by goalkeeper, McKenzie Sauerwein have only given up 2 goals on the season.

The Lady Vikings need only 1 point to clinch the district championship and they have 2 district games left to play. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier through the brutal month of January. They start out by hosting one of the nation’s premier showcase events, the 2009 Red Bull Nolan Showcase taking on nationally ranked Southlake Carroll (#19) and McKinney Boyd (#47). Other nationally ranked teams the Lady Vikings will come across are #3 Marcus and #4 Plano West.

Complete List of National Rankings can be found for Week 2 by clicking on the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/soccer/news/story?id=3774977

For State by State High School Rankings click on the following link:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/highschoolsoccer

The Nations #17 and #18 Team Battle on Wednesday Night

The #17 Lady Vikings Soccer Team moves to 11-0-0 as they notch a 1-0 win against district rival #18 Ursuline at Jesuit High School on Wednesday night. Ursuline mounted an impressive attack throughout the first half but the Lady Vikings we able to turn the tides a bit in the second half and chip away at the 18-time TAPPS State Champion, Lady Bears. The game started to open up for both teams just when junior midfielder, Maygan Ditucci (insert) was able to take a throw-in from fellow junior, Kaytee O'Brien, to the goal getting around a Lady Bear defender to the top of the box and was able to put away the eventual game-winner to the far post, her second in as many games. The Lady Bears, who usually answer after getting scored on were not able to get in behind the stubborn Nolan defense and the Lady Vikings held on for a 1-0 shutout win taking a 9 point lead over the 2nd place Bears in district play. This marks the first time the Lady Vikings were able to shutout Ursuline in the history of the program.

Ditucci scores number 3, 4, and 5 on the year in her last 3 games. She also has 5 assists for a total of 15 points. She also scored during the first meeting with Ursuline.

Click on the following link to see the story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

http://www.star-telegram.com/highschools//story/1089385.html

The Nolan Women's Soccer Team played host to Plano Prestonwood on Friday night and moved to 12-0 on the season with a 6-0 victory. Haley Spotts started the scoring off for the Lady Vikings while Baum, Smith, Rios, Smithey, and Ulliman each scored a goal. The Lady Vikings head into Finals next week and Christmas Break so an unblemished record for 2008 is a first in program history. The Lady Vikings are back in action on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 for the Alumni Game at 11:00am at Doskocil Stadium.

District Updates - Week #5

The Lady Vikings move to 9-0 with 2 more district wins over Faith Christian and Bishop Dunne by a combined score of 15-0. Eight different players scored for the Lady Vikings. Emily Grider scored 3 goals between the 2 matches as well as seniors, Mallory Baum and Morgan Ulliman. The Lady Vikings have a busy week next week with matches against Lynch, Ursuline, and Prestonwood.

ESPN RANKS LADY VIKINGS #17 in the NATION

The pre-season National Rankings were released on Tuesday by ESPN and the Lady Vikings sit at #17, which is the second highest pre-season ranking in Nolan history. The Lady Vikings are 8-0-0 on the season and just started a 4-game road trip defeating Faith Christian 8-0 on Monday. Wednesday they travel to Bishop Dunne and follow up with Bishop Lynch next Monday and #18 Ursuline on Wednesday before they return home to host Plano Prestonwood to close out the semester.

To see the Top 25 visit ESPN at http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/soccer/news/story?id=3739596.

THANKSGIVING WITH LVS09

Lady Vikings Soccer wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

NOLAN WOMEN'S SOCCER VIDEO COMPILATION

Presented by JATO Media

District Updates - Week #4

The Lady Vikings extend their unbeaten streak to 7 as they defeated Bishop Lynch 6-0 at home on Monday night. Morgan Ulliman recorded a hat trick and Emily Grider, Haley Spotts, and Sarah Williamson each added one of their own. With half of the district season in the books, Nolan is 7-0-0 with 21 points and at the top of the table. The Lady Vikings will travel to Grapevine Faith the Monday following Thanskgiving Break and then to Bishop Dunne 2 days later on Wednesday. They will wrap-up 2008 the following week away to Lynch and Ursuline and then home vs Prestonwood prior to Final Exam week.

JV Soccer Update

The JV Soccer team competed in the Liberty Christian Varsity Tournament this past weekend. They defeated Prince of Peace 4-2 in the first game, drew with eventual tournament champion, Liberty Christian 0-0, and defeated Houston Lutheran 4-0 in pool play. They finished 1 point behind Liberty Christian with 23 points to finish second in the pool. They advanced to the semi-final against last years TAPPS DII State Champion, Tyler All Saints. The Lady Vikings suffered their first loss of the season (actually only their 2nd loss in 2 years) by a score of 2-0. The game was back and forth and kept knocking at the door all game but came up short. The Lady Vikings are 3-1-0 on the season outscoring their opponents by a score of 15-4.

Up Next:
Home vs Bishop Lynch @ 6:30pm (Monday, Nov. 24th)
Home Scrimmage vs Sting West 95 @ 6:30pm (Tuesday, Nov. 25th)

District Updates - Week #3

The Lady Vikings had 2 matches on the week as they traveled to Plano Prestonwood on Monday and played host to John Paul II on Wednesday - both resulting in victories to move to 6-0-0 on the season and in district play. Prestonwood played great hosts to Nolan as after the game all the players brought Gatorade bottles to our players - it was a very nice jesture. The Lady Vikings were up 6-0 at halftime on goals Sam Clark, Presley Smith, Mallory Baum, Maygan Ditucci, and 2 by Chelsea Heimann. Annie Smithey and Emily Grider added 1 each in the 2nd half. It was a very balanced game where the buid-up play came from a lot of different areans of the field resulting in goals being scored from different spots as well. The final score was 8-0. On Wednesday, John Paul II looked to avenge a State Semi-Final loss to the Lady Vikings. The Lady Vikings got better as the game went on - were fkat and not sharp at all in the first half. The 2nd half was a different story - Morgan Ulliman was coming off a concussion she suffered a week ago but found a way to to find the back of the net. The Lady Vikings were knocking at the door the entire night and then Mallory Baum finally broke through to put the Lady Vikings on the board, outside backs Chelsea Heimann and Kaytee O'Brien were also involved in the play. The final score was 2-0. Newcomers Annie Smithey, Lauren Gonzalez, and Haley Spotts added an extra dimension to the game and helped get a consistent rhythm for the group.

JV Updates:
They defeated the John Paul II Lady Cardnals by a score of 3-0 to remain undefeated as well in district play. They will play in the Liberty Christian Varsity Tournament Friday (4pm and 7pm) and Saturday (8am and Semis are at 12:00pm and Finals at 3:30pm).

Up Next:
The Varsity will host Bishop Lynch on Monday, Nov. 24th at 8:00pm. This game was reschedule from an earlier match that was rained out. The JV will play at 6:30pm.

District Updates - Week #2

Fresh off a 2-1 Ursuline win - the Lady Vikings continue their 4 game winning streak with a 2-1 win over TCA but it took a 84th minute "golden goal" by senior, Sarah Williamson. It was her second of the night. She scored in the 5th minute as well. The Lady Vikings outshot the Trojans 14-4. The Trojan goalkeeper came up big for TCA - she made several saves to keep them within 1 goal of tying the game up. Mallory Baum, Maygan Ditucci, and Kaytee O'Brien each had 4 great chances each to put the Trojans away but just came up short on each of their chances. Sarah Williamson started up top and then was moved out wide. As soon as she was moved back up top it only took her one more touch as she received a ball at the top of the 18 from Baum, she spun the sweeper and poked the ball under the Trojans goalkeeper for the golden-goal game-winner 4 minutes into overtime.

Up Next for the Lady Vikings:
Plano Prestonwood plays host to the Lady Vikings on Monday for a 6:00pm kick-off and then John Paul II comes to Doskocil Stadium on Wednesday for an 8:00pm start.

JV Update:
The Lady Vikings JV extend their 9-game district winning streak to TCA and defeat the Trojans 3-0 and now are unbeaten in 10 straight district games dating back to the beginning of last year. Plano Prestonwood doesn't have a JV team so the Lady Vikings won't play a game until John Paul II on Wednesday for a 6:30pm kick-off. Then they play All Saints on Thursday and then will play in the Liberty Christian Pre-Thanskgiving Varsity Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

ESPN: High School Soccer

Not only does ESPN cover the world best professional and college athelets but not they are "celebrating high school athletics" through a new website ESPNRise. ESPN will now handle the national and regional rankings of high school sports, which includes high school soccer. The first rankings will be posted after Thanksgiving but the Nolan Catholic Women's Soccer Team has already received recoginition early on during this young season.


Click on the following link to view the brand new ESPN website http://myespn.go.com/blogs/highschoolsoccer. Once you go to the following website click on the "soccer blog" for the latest boys and girls high school soccer news and there is a story of Winter Soccer Surprises.

THE BATTLE for #1 STARTS HERE...

7th ANNUAL EVENT
“Where the Best Come to Play”

WHEN/WHERE
January 8-10, 2009
Fort Worth, Texas

The 2009 RED BULL/NIKE NOLAN SHOWCASE will bring together the top girls high school teams from around the country. Teams from Texas, California, Florida, Arizona, and Louisiana will be represented. It is a true college showcase for high school soccer. The Nolan Showcase is touted as the top event for high school soccer in Texas if not in the country. Last year’s event featured 6 of the TOP 10 teams in the country and 10 of the 14 teams in the event were ranked nationally in the TOP 30. The Nolan Showcase always helps in producing the Nation’s #1 team.

The top players in the country have participated in the event over the past 7 years: US National Team Player and Olympic Gold Medalist, Amy Rodriguez (Santa Margarita) and US U-21 National Team Player and UNC’s Jessica Maxwell (Colleyville Heritage). UNC’s Courtney Jones (Monte Vista), the University of Florida’s Jazmyne Avant (Coppell), BYU’s Lauren Anderson (Monte Vista), TCU’s Alex Mechalske (Nolan), Texas’ Kendall Frizzell (Tyler Lee) and University of Kentucky’s Laura Burton (Amador Valley) participated in 08, as well as Notre Dame recruit Jazmine Hall (Marcus). US under-16 National Pool Player, Whitney Jaynes (Plano West) and Lexi Harris (Plano West) were also in attendance. Jaynes and Harris were both headed to New Zealand with the National Team following the event. Other notable showcase participants were University of Texas standouts Caitlin Kennedy (Colleyville Heritage) and Kendall Campisi (Ursuline), as well as LSU’s Michelle Makasini (Colleyville Heritage), Texas A&M’s Becky Olson (Nolan) University of Virginia’s Caitlin Miskel (St. Thomas Aquinas), Stanford standout Kiki Bosio (Santa Margarita), USC National Champion JJ Johnson (Santa Margarita), and TCU’s Jackie Torda (Nolan).


Divisions are Set (Schedules Posted 11/14/08)...

INVITATIONAL DIVISION
Nolan Catholic (Fort Worth, TX)
Southlake Carroll (Southlake, TX)
Mayfair (Lakewood, CA)
Kingwood (Kingwood, TX)
Grapvine (Grapevine, TX)
Martin (Arlington, TX)
Midland (Midland, TX)
St. Stephen's (Austin, TX)
Marcus (Flower Mound, TX)
Corona del Mar (Newport Beach, CA)
Ursuline (Dallas, TX)
Klein Oak (Klein, TX)
Plano West (Plano, TX)
St. Thomas More (Lafayette, LA)
Flower Mound (Flower Mound, TX)
Keller (Keller, TX)
Coppell (Coppell, TX)
Colleyville Heritage (Colleyville, TX)
Tyler Lee (Tyler, TX)
McKinney Boyd (McKinney, TX)

PLATINUM DIVISION
Mansfield Summit (Mansfield, TX)
Hockaday School (Dallas, TX)
Antonion College Prep (San Antonio, TX)
Amarillo High School (Amarillo, TX)
Lewisville High School (Lewisville, TX)
Lake Highlands High School (Lake Highlands, TX)
San Angelo Central High School (San Angelo, TX)
Colony High School (Colony, TX)
Bishop Lynch High School (Dallas, TX)
Deer Park High School (Deer Park, TX)

District Updates - Week #1

The Lady Vikings Soccer Team is 3 games into the season and hold a mark of 3-0-0. The first game was against Faith Christian, who is new to the district. The Lady Vikings got on the board early in the first 5 miuntes on goal by Sarah Williamson, the first of 3 on the night. Emily Grider and Presley Smith also had multiple goal nights each adding 2. Mallory Baum, Morgan Ulliman, and Annie Smithey each added 1 a piece to bring the Lady Viking goal total for the night to 10. Smith and Smithey each scored their 1st career goals. Two days after the Lady Vikings played host to Bishop Dunne and again scored early and kept the foot on the gas the entire first half as they stormed out to a 5-0 halftime lead on 2 goals from Morgan Ulliman and 1 each for Chelsea Heimann and Mallory Baum. Haley Spotts scored her first career high school goal and Kaytee O'Brien scored her first goal as a Lady Viking. O'Brien is a junior, transfer from Colleyville Heritage High School. Bishop Lynch came to town on Monday night but the match was postponed due to strong storms that blew through at gametime - that match has been rescheduled for Monday, November 24th. So game #3 for the Lady Vikings saw a rematch of last years State Championship - the Lady Bears came to Doskocil Stadium on Wednesday night and the lady Vikings were not the best of hosts as Lady Vikings of Nolan Catholic took the first meeting of the 08-09 season from the Bears by a score of 2-1. Maygan Ditucci scored in the 30th minute off a corner and assist by Ulliman. The Bears answered as they always do and evened the match in the 38th minute. The Lady Vikings brushed that off and started right were they started the game, tied, but that didn't last long as the Vikings scored a very nice goal to prove all they needed to remain undefeated on the season. Heimann threw the ball into Emily Grider who spun a defender and slipped a ball into Baum who beat an Ursuline defender, cut insdie across the top of the 18 and from about 25 hit a bomb just under the crossbar to put the Lady Vikings on ahead. Ursuline mounted a feirce attack for the final 15 minutes but Nolan was able to put plenty of numbers behind the ball and with an amazing effort from junior, goalkeeper McKenzie Sauerwein were able to preserve the win. The Lady Vikings are 3-0-0 on the season.

Junior Varsity:
The Lady Vikings JV Team opened their season Wednesday night and were able to shutout the Lady Bears from ursuline for the 3rd time in the last 3 meetings by a score of 1-0.

Up Next:
Friday, November 14th @ TCA 7:30pm (6:00pm JV)