Aug. 4, 2010
Photo Gallery • Player Blog
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Head coach Erica Walsh and her coaching staff welcomed back the 2010 edition of the Penn State women's soccer team with a spirited morning session on Wednesday morning, the first official day of practice.
"The group has come back fit and healthy and inspired," said Walsh, the reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year. "They look good."
The Nittany Lions began the training session with a fitness and conditioning test before moving on to other drills on a warm, muggy and hazy morning at Jeffrey Field's training complex. Getting re-acclimated to the pace of college soccer again is one of the main goals the coaching staff has for the squad early on.
"We worked them pretty hard and on their mentality," Walsh added. "So far so good. What we're trying to get through to [the players] is that it's not about survival, but it's about getting better each session. We've talked a lot about creating that championship environment out here at training."
Penn State hit the field with 17 returning members of last year's squad, which captured its record-tying 12th straight Big Ten title. Another Big Ten title gives the Nittany Lions sole possession of the most consecutive Big Ten championships by a women's program. PSU is tied with Michigan swimming & diving from the 1990s and the current Northwestern tennis team, which competes in the spring.
Megan Monroig (Northumberland, Pa.) and Emma Thomson (Nottinghamshire, England) were formally introduced as team captains for the 2010 season. The duo has been a hard-working pair, giving Penn State a solid defensive core.
Also returning to the squad are two of the top three scorers from a year ago in Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) and Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.). Toney and Nairn each earned All-Big Ten and NSCAA All-Great Lakes First Team accolades in 2009 with Toney being named the Philly Soccer News Net Player of the Year and Nairn capturing TopDrawerSoccer.com and Big Ten's Rookie of the Year awards, respectively.
PSU will work on two-a-day training sessions for the first six days and start up again next week with them as well. The Nittany Lions travel to Villanova on Saturday, Aug. 11 for a preseason match against the Wildcats. Penn State officially opens the season with a road game at West Virginia on Friday, Aug. 20.
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--NITTANY LIONS--