Avalanche player Crystal Shaffie slammed the So Cal Blues with a goal to give the Slammers a 1-0 win in the 2008 College Sur Cup finals. Crystal was guest playing for the Slammers Team, who advanced to the championship round after a 2-1 victory in overtime against the Real So Cal. Great job Shaffie!

Avalanche players Abby Dahlkemper and Sandra Ley will spend another Thanksgiving at the InterRegional ODP Camp in Florida. The duo will travel and compete with the Region IV ODP Team next month. Sandra was also selected along with Kelly Jarvis, Crystal Shaffie and Kelsey Foo to the player pool for the Cal-North State ODP Team that will compete in the Region IV ODP Championships held in Pheonix, Arizona in January.

The MVLA Avalanche Team won the 2008 SoCal Blues Cup Tournament this weekend by defeating the Arsenal Team 1-0 in the Championship game in San Juan Capistrano.  MVLA won their first two bracket games 2-0 over Cypress FC Elite (Cal-South), 6-0 over the Gilbert SC-Arsenal Team (Arizona), then battled to a 1-1 tie against the San Diego Surf White team to move out of bracket. They finished one point behind the San Diego Surf White in bracket play, and went through to beat Santa Clarita (SoCal) in a penalty kick shootout after a tie game in regualtion play during the QuarterFinal round. The AVs moved-on to SemiFinals and met the SoCal Blues Gebhart Team this morning. MVLA dominated the game but could only find one goal in the first half to win 1-0 over SoCal Blues. The victory placed MVLA into the championship game where they would face one of their rivals from SoCal, the Arsenal Team who were 2007 Coast Soccer League Champions. Both teams know each other well between previous games at Surf Cup or the Las Vegas Showcase Tournaments, or because both teams have players competing together through National and Regional ODP Teams.  The first half of the game ended in a 0-0 tie, then MVLA opened-up the second-half with a quick goal to take the lead 1-0. The AVs held-on to win the game!

MVLA kicks-off their first season competing in the GSSL League with games against the Mustang Earthquakes and the Bay Oaks Blasters this coming weekend.

The MVLA Avalanche Team finished as QuarterFinalists at the Surf Cup Tournament last weekend after falling to the Slammers Team in a penalty kick shoot-out. The Sunday afternoon QuarterFinal match was a fiercely contested battle between both teams. MVLA pressed the Slammers hard and nailed a goal mid-way through the first half when Rachel Wimmer poked a bouncing ball into the net after it flew into the Slammers goal box on a free kick by Steph Sorg. MVLA had good momentum during the first half, and most of the second half, but the Slammers turned the game into an even battle with about 10 minutes left and scored a goal to tie the game with only 90 seconds left in the match.  The tie sent the game immediately into a penalty kick shoot-out, and unfortunately, MVLA wound-up on the short-end. The team played really well against one of the top teams in the country. In previous bracket games leading to the QuarterFinals, MVLA beat the Bethesda Dragons from Maryland 2-0, FC Milwakuee 1-0, and lost a close game to San Diego Surf 0-1.  The team will compete at the Mustang Stampede Tournament beginning this Friday and runs through the weekend.

The Avalanche finished the 2008 Far West Regional Tournament as Semi-Finalists after falling to Real SoCal 0-3 on Saturday, June 21st. The team had a handful of scoring opportunities that would have kept the game close, but they did not convert them against a very tough team. The Avalanche girls were really tired after they defeated the SoCal Blues Dodge Team on Friday in a 2.5 hour battle in the QuarterFinal game. It was a very good run for MVLA as they finished one step higher at Regionals this year compared to last year when they made it to QuarterFinals in Las Vegas.

The Avalanche's record at Regionals was 3 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss with 12 goals for and 4 against the team. They defeated the Honolulu SC Bulls (Hawaii State Champions) 4-0, CISC Velocity 6-0 (Alaska State Champions) and SoCal Blues Dodge 2-1 (FarWest Regional League Champions), tied Alberqurque United 0-0 (New Mexico State Champions) and only lost to Real SoCal (Cal-South Champions).  Real SoCal eventually lost 1-4 against the Slammers Team from Southern California.

The team returns to home and will take two weeks-off from training, but 7 players will attend the Regional ODP Camp at the University of Pacific at the end of the month and into July, and 1 player is attending the U17 US National Team camp. Congratulations to everyone!

The Avalanche pulled-out a huge victory, advancing to the SemiFinals of the Far West Regional Championship after defeating the SoCal Blues Team in a penalty kick shootout. The Blues got on the score board with a power shot from 20 yards out during the first half.  MVLA responded at the beginning of the second half with a great through-ball pass from "E" to Abby, who made a quick turn with the ball and fired a powerful 30 yard shot that hit the crossbar and bounced into the back of the SoCal to tie the game 1-1. Both teams pressed each others' goal but strong defense from both sides kept the game level.  The game was sent into overtime and both teams were getting tired and dehydrated from the warmer field conditions and heat and humidity on Friday.  The first 15 minute overtime period ended with little chances from both teams as they both dug-in and continued to play a tough battle. At the begining of the second 15 minute overtime period, MVLA had a slight wind at their backs and the best scoring opportunity came when outside midfielder, Crystal took a rocket shot from the top of the 18 yard box that barely missed the top left corner skimming the crossbar.  At the end of the second 15 minute overtime period, the match entered into a penaly kick shoot-out. During the penalty kick shootout, the SoCal Blues missed two shots, and Stephanie (Avalanche keeper) blocked two shots. The SoCal keeper managed to block two Avalanche shots but could not stop Stephanie Sorg's final winning PK goal, sending the Avalanche into the SemiFinal match. MVLA plays Real SoCal at 10am tomorrow morning. Go AVs!

The MVLA Avalanche Team came out on fire at the opening game of the 2008 Far West Regional Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii. About 8,000 soccer players from the 13 Western Regional States traveled to compete at the Waipio Soccer Complex; a beautiful location with 23 soccer fields and a soccer stadium located about 20 minutes from Waikiki.

During the the Avalanche Team's opening game, they delivered a 4-0 win over a tenacious and technically skilled Honolulu SC Bulls Team. The Bulls are a well coached and talented team that also hosted MVLA with a delicious potluck party last Saturday when our team arrived in Hawaii. The second pool play game was against a bigger and very physical New Mexico Team. The Alberqurque United 4-time New Mexico State Champs played a tough, high pressure game, playing primarily in a defensive posture with 5-6 players in the back and were playing long-balls to try and score on a counter-attack. The first half of the game ended without a goal, and MVLA wore the United Team down in the second half of the game and maintained ball posession on the New Mexico Team's side of the field, but the AVs could not capitalize on their scoring opportunities. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, so MVLA only needed to tie their last bracket game to advance out of the D Bracket. The third game against the CISC Velocity (Alaska State Champs) saw MVLA deliver on multiple scoring opportunities, downing Alaska 6-0 and proceeding to win the bracket and advance on to the QuarterFinals.  Hawaii defeated a very tired New Mexico Team on Wednesday to finish second in the D Bracket.

The Surf Cup Tournament posted the list of 28 teams in the Girls U16 Age Group that were accepted to compete in the August event. Along with the Avalanche Team, the Mustang Earthquakes, Pleasanton Rage and Santa Rosa United Thunder teams will all represent Cal-North. Visit the Surf Cup website to view the complete list of teams.

The 2008 Far West Regionals schedules were posted last weekend and the Avalanche Team will open-up their second trip to the FWRs with games against the Hawaii, New Mexico and Alaska State Champions in their first round of games in Bracket D of the U15 Girls Age Group. The Avalanche play the Honolulu SC Bulls at 12pm on Monday, June 16th, Albuquerque United (NM) at 4pm on Tuesday the 17th, and CISC Velocity Team (AK) at 10am on Wednesday the 18th. If the Avalanche Team win their bracket competition, they will move forward to QuarterFinals and face the 2nd Place team in Bracket A, and if MVLA finishes 2nd in bracket play, they face the winner of Bracket A. The two teams in Bracket A most likey to come-out on top are the Slammers FC (Cal-South State Cup Champs), and SoCal Blues (winners of the FarWest Regional League Fall season).

The '93 Cal-North State ODP Team flew to Denver at 6am Friday morning, and kicked-off the Colorado Showcase Tournament with a 3-1 victory over the Washington State ODP Team on May 23rd. Avalanchers Kelly Jarvis and Sandra Ley are competing for Cal-North this weekend; Sandra tallied one of the goals in first game. On Saturday, May 24th, the Cal-North State Team crushed the Sagebrush Gunners from Nevada by a score of 8-0.

Crystal Shaffie and Kristina Garrido are competing for the '92 Cal-North State ODP Team. The '92 Cal-North State ODP Team dropped their first game 0-3 to the Oregon State ODP Team, but rebounded to defeat the Toro Deportivo (Nevada) Team 5-0.

The MVLA Avalanche Team won thier second consecutive State Cup Championship today in thier third trip to the Finals. On a breezy afternoon on the turf field in Morgan Hill, the Avalanche Team delivered to its fans a convincing 4-1 victory over a strong Santa Rosa United Team. During their 2008 State Cup run, the team won 7 consecutive games scoring 36 goals while only allowing 4 into their net.

With a slight wind on thier backs and a high-pressure attack from the start, MVLA immediately threaten the Santa Rosa goal within the first 10 minutes after kick-off. The first goal game off an incredible 40-yard free kick by Abby. At the 20 minute mark, Sandra was streaking into the goal on the left side, the SR keeper dove and the ball squirted to the 8 yard line, where Tamara was waiting, took a shot as a Santa Rosa defender collided with her and put the Avalanche up by two goals. Both teams battled hard and Santa Rosa threatened with some quick counter attacks that MVLA held-off until the whistle blew to end the first half. Santa Rosa started the second half with a stronger tailwind on their backs and pressed the MVLA goal repeatedly. A cross from the left side of the field took a squirely negative bounce then twisted into the MVLA goal to make the score 2-1. With 35 minutes left in the game, both teams went into overdrive on a growingly windy field trying to find another goal. With 7 minutes remaining in the game, Kelly set-up a give-and-go play with Crystal to put herself into a 1 vs. 1 against the SR United keeper and seal the game with a 3rd goal for MVLA. Minutes later, Sandra bolted past the United defense and scored a 4th goal while getting taken-down in the box from behind.

Check out the first goal of the game below

Tamara's Goal sequence

The MVLA Avalanche Team won their Semi-Final State Cup match against Marin FC today by a score of 3-2, and earned a berth to the State Cup Championship game. This marks the 3rd time the Avalanche Team advanced to the final round of the Cal-North State Cup Tournament. The Avalanche faced the Danville Mustangs at U12, narrowly losing 1-0, then defeated the DeAnza Force at U14 to win the State Cup last year.

MVLA got on the score-board with a penalty kick after a Marin defender took-down a rushing Avalanche forward. But Marin fought back and scored two goals before the end of the first half on a corner kick and a free kick. The AVs came-out fired-up in the second half and scored on a corner kick to tie the game.  They scored the game winning goal on another penalty kick when another Marin defender took down an Avalanche player in the Marin goal box. It was a well-played game between Marin and MVLA.  The Avalanche Team will have their hands full next weekend against Santa Rosa United. The game is schedule for 2pm Saturday, May 3rd at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex.  GO AVs!

Congratulations goes out to Abby Dahlkemper who received a call-up to train with the U17G US National Team yesterday. She had two very stong performances when the U15G National Team scrimmaged against Stanford and Oregon last week in Palo Alto. The U17 Team is training and making player selections for the FIFA Under-17 Womens World Cup to be held in New Zealand from Oct. 28-Nov. 16, 2008.

The US U15G Team fell one goal short against Oregon in a tight 1-2 game on Friday night at Stanford. The US Team played a pretty even match, held good possession of the ball and create some attacks on goal, but fell short against the Ducks on a chilly night in Palo Alto.  MVLA Avalanchers Abby and Kelsey started the game as center backs for the US Team. Click for photos.

The US U15G Team battled last night against the Stanford Womens Soccer Team and fell short 0-2 on the scoreboard, but displayed an abundance of skill and athleticism with their own scoring opportunities and fast speed of play. Abby started and played the entire game as the center-back, holding-off attacks from Stanford and starting quick counter-attacks racing through the Cardinal backfield and midfield. Kelsey started and played as a holding-mid stopping many Stanford offensive drives and transitioning the game into a US Team attack. The US U15 Team plays Oregon at 4:30pm on Wednesday at Stanford. Click for photos.

Exciting news from San Carlos, Costa Rica as Avalanche player Sandra Ley scored a goal and made an assist during the April 5th game between the '93 US Region IV ODP Team against the U20 Honduran National Team. Her Regional ODP Team defeated the Honduran National Team 8-0, and will play Chile and Mexico later this week before returning home. Sandra is competing at the Torneo Feminio Internacional Tournament, and she is also blogging online with other athletes and sharing her experience at the event.

The MVLA Avalanche Team won thier prelimenary round of games in the 2008 State Cup Tournament and will advance to the Round-of-16. Despite missing Sandra Ley who is playing with the Region IV ODP Team in Costa Rica, and Saylor Gibbs and Rachel Wimmer who are sidelined due to injuries, the Avalanche pulled in some convincing victories, winning 2-0 over Bay Oaks Blasters, 3-0 over the Napa Titans and 10-0 over the other Bay Oaks Blazers . The Avalanche Team will face South Valley United out of Visalia for the Round-of-16 on Saturday, April 19th at 11am in Morgan Hill.

Avalanche players Abby Dahlkemper and Kelsey Foo were called-up to the U15 US National Team Camp for a second time this Spring. The camp will be held April 14th-20th at Stanford University in Palo Alto. The U15 Team will train and compete against some regional collegiate teams.

U15 Team Game Schedule - Updated 4/4

• Wednesday, April 16, 7pm US U15 Team vs. Stanford University
• Friday, April 18th, 4:30pm US U15 Team vs. Oregon State University
• Saturday, April 19th, 9am US U15 Team vs Washington
• Saturday, April 19th, 10:15am US U15 Team vs USF
• All games played at Cagen Stadium - located at the northeast side of campus, near El Camino and Sam McDonald Road. It is adjacent to Sunken Diamond, and is across Sam McDonald Road from Stanford Stadium. It is visible from El Camino Real (Highway 82).

The MVLA Avalanche Team returned from the Las Vegas Showcase finishing 5th overall with a 3-1 record. The AVs traveled to Vegas to tune-up the team in preparation for State Cup, and to show their skills to interested college coaches attending their games. MVLA lost their opening game 1-3 to the Nationally ranked Arsenal Team from SoCal. The AVs played into a hurrendous headwind the first half and kept Arsenal from scoring. MVLA hammered a loose ball into the SoCal Team's net to take a 1-0 lead shortly after kick-off in the second half, but MVLA had a few mistakes that Arsenal capitalized on and defeated the Cal-North Champions. The team bounced-back to soundly defeat the Connecticut State ODP Team 3-1 in the afternoon. On Saturday, the team looked tired but still managed to beat the Eclipse 93 Team 1-0. Sunday morning the team woke-up to find snow on the foothills surrounding Las Vegas and had to brave chilly 30 degree temperatures to play Neusport from Vegas. The AVs scored in the first five minutes off a corner kick, and put a second goal into the net in the second half to win the game 2-0.

The MVLA Avalanche ended up as finalists in the inaugural NorCal Spring Showcase last weekend. Just a scant one-and-a-half weeks after completing the high school season, the Avalanche started off a bit rough trying to break through high school habits and quickly relearn how to play together. They managed to win 2-0 over the Mission Wildcats, 2-0 over the Alpine Pumas; then they found their rythme against Cal Rush Nike to soundly defeat them 4-1 and advance into the championship game. In the finals, MVLA faced a very determined Santa Rosa United Team who played very well together, pressed hard in the first half, and played a very physical game receiving two yellow cards for rough play. The Avalanche Team managed to score first on a rocket shot by Abby before the first half ended. Santa Rosa scored quickly in the second half, and got their winning goal with 10 minutes left in regulation play. It was a very tough well-played game and Santa Rosa looked like they had more game-time in their legs than any other team in the tournament. Good job by both teams and a great tune up for the Avalanche girls before Las Vegas.

Congratulations to Avalance players Kelly Jarvis and Rachel Wimmer as their St. Francis Lancers Varsity High School Soccer Team won the 2008 CCS Div 1 Soccer Championship on Feb. 28th. Jarvis was the sole freshman selected to play on the Women's Varsity Team this season. Wimmer had to sit-out the season due to an injury but helped manage the team. Check'em out on Cal-Hi Sports TV.

Three MVLA Avalanche players received invitations to attend the Girls U15/16 US National Developmental Camp from February 20th-25th at Cal-Poly Pomona, CA. Sandra Ley, Saylor Gibbs and Kelsey Foo were called into camp by Jason Goodson, the '93 Region IV ODP Coach. 100 Regional ODP players from across the country will descend into the camp next week to train and compete while evaluations take place by US National Team coaches. Good luck AVs!

The MVLA Avalanche Team will kick-off their 2008 Season on March 14th at the Las Vegas Showcase Tournament. The AVs have been busy playing high school soccer the past three months, and are looking forward to tuning-up the team to defend their State Cup crown. The Avalanche Team was placed in the D-Bracket in Las Vegas along with Arsenal FC (CalSouth), Eclipse 93 Black (Texas), and the U15 ODP Team from Connecticut. More information can be found online.

The three Avalanche players in the '93 National Team Pool were invited this week to attend training camps in Southern California. Sandra Ley was invited to attend the Girls U15-U16 National Developmental Camp (92/93’s) in Pomona, CA from February 21-25th. Abby Dahlkemper and Kelsey Foo were both invited to join the U-15 Girl's National Team domestic training camp at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. from January 20-25th.