Vol. 1: Aug. 13

Welcome to our UND soccer blog. I'm #4 Kirsten Zachman and I'm #18 Mandi Boehmer.  We are the Bame-Sauced Zach Attack, bringing you the inside scoop about the UND women's soccer team. Follow our journey this season as it is our last. We promise to make you laugh, make you smile, and of course bring you as close to the action as if you were with us on the field.

We are starting week two of camp and already we love the multiple ice baths we take daily...thank you Renae (our trainer)! Our first official day was last Thursday and we have five newcomers on our team this year: Jess Gutierrez, Sheri Stapf, CJ Haring, Rachel Dallman and Rhaya Ballon.

The first day was draining because to us it was still summer and for most of us we have been enjoying our time outside the classroom, so the meetings we had all day made us look forward to class again in three weeks. Thursday we had three fitness tests and Coach Kristen Gay was really excited with our results and we all felt we started out on the right track ready to pick up where we left off. We have two training sessions during most days and then at night we are split into teams of four and we play each other in a round-robin tournament. We all have fun with this and like to plan our team's uniforms as they consist of crazy colors (like our goal keeper's in every shade of pink) and just have fun playing soccer.

During preseason we eat all our meals together and it reflects a sort of family time. We get to know each other on a different level outside of soccer. Zach is always acting her appropriate age as she likes to throw grapes at people's heads. Penner, Lauren and V are constantly reminding us how amazing Canada is and during meals Penner is so adamant about her ketchup on her chicken, whether it is a baked chicken breast or chicken chopped in her pasta. We are surprised Wilkerson Dining Center still has a supply of Powerade with all the glasses we consume during each meal.

So far practice has been tough and everyone has been getting after it. We are at the highest competition level during practice since the last time I can remember. At the end of every session everyone is exhausted and dripping in sweat but happy to walk away feeling like we accomplished something and are continuing to move in the right direction towards winning our first ever Division I conference championship.