Denver Rated No. 1 School to Play Women’s Soccer by USA TODAY

In a recent poll released by the USA TODAY, the University of Denver was rated as the top institution in the country to play women's college soccer. "The ranking of women's soccer teams is based on the athletic success of the team, the overall quality of the school and the academic success of the players," the USA TODAY stated in its release. Read more about the methodology of selections here.

"Our four year graduation rate has been through the roof and we have had a lot of success on the field, but more importantly, we've had some awesome young women and their families come through this program to make it what it is today," head coach Jeff Hooker said. "Our state of the art facilities along with administrative support have made this a great place for me to coach and teach these young adults."

Hooker will enter into his 24th campaign with the DU women's soccer program this fall, and boasts a 315-114-40 women's record, and a 335-126-44 record overall at the University (coached both the men's and women's team for two seasons). In his tenure, Hooker is a nine-time conference coach of the year, and has led the Pioneers to seven regular season and eight league tournament titles, while also making nine NCAA Division I Tournament appearances.

My Championship Experience - 2014 Women's Soccer Edition

My Championship Experience is a diary blog written by Summit League student-athletes detailing their experiences at each of the 19 Championships.

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Hello and welcome to the 2014 Summit League Women’s Soccer Championships! My name is Samantha Harder and I have the pleasure of recording my experiences throughout the duration of this year’s tournament.  I am a senior defender and I have to honor of playing for the University of Denver.  This is my fourth conference tournament, my second Summit League Tournament.

This year at the tournament my team will be joined by South Dakota State, North Dakota State, and IUPUI.

11/5/14

Today was our last prep day before the tournament begins and we are all very excited.  This morning we trained at our normal time making some final preparations and working out some kinks before the tournament begins tomorrow.  Training was good and the energy was high, as the team is getting very excited for the chance to defend the title that we won last year.  In addition to training and classes, we had the conference banquet this evening in which they announced the awards for the year and we enjoyed each other’s company and a delicious dinner of pasta, salad, and chicken, the perfect pregame meal!  After the awards were announced and the speeches were given we all went our separate ways and began physically and mentally preparing for the games ahead, starting with getting a good night’s sleep.  Congratulations to South Dakota State on winning the regular season championship, as well as a big congrats to all the players and coaches who received awards.  Good night and good luck to all!

11/6/14

Waking up knowing it’s game day is quite possibly the best feeling in the world.  This morning we had team breakfast in the locker room and sat around and chatted for a while about the excitement of the game before people headed off to their first and only classes of the day.  Because we are at home our preparations are a little bit different than they would be on the road.  When classes were finished at noon we had a cardio spike, just a way for us to get our legs moving and our hearts pumping to help prepare our bodies for the big game.  Following the cardio spike, we enjoyed a wonderful team lunch at Mod Market just down the road from campus and then we all went on our way to get some pregame naps in.  Upon arriving to the locker room for pregame routines and prep, we all changed into our warm up gear and began listening to music to get us pumped up. We engaged in our traditional pregame dance party and before we knew it, it was ready to head out to the field and begin warming up.  Excited to play, we all were anxious to hear the starting lineups.  The game began and was a battle from the very first whistle; neither team was able to find the breakthrough and we went into the locker room 0-0 at halftime.  We heard from our coaches on what we needed to fix and headed back out excited to find a way to win the game.  The game continued and we ended up winning 1-0 off a goal from one of the sophomores on our team.  We were going to the championship!! 

Additionally today, North Dakota State and South Dakota State battled hard and South Dakota State ended up coming out on top with a 2-1 win.  I didn’t get to see the game but from what I heard it was a great game to watch! 

11/7/14

The day after a game is never easy to wake up on.  But feeling fatigued and sore didn’t bother us much because we were still very excited to be moving on to the championship game.  We all enjoyed some down time on our own and had to report to training at 1:45 p.m.  Training was light as it was focused on regeneration and just staying mentally sharp for the game tomorrow.  Following our afternoon practice we had a wonderful team dinner at the great restaurant called Steakhouse 10 in Denver.  It was delicious and great spending time with the team.  After dinner, it was time to head home and get some sleep.  After all, we have a rather big game to play tomorrow!

11/8/14

Championship Game Day!

The excitement on a day like this is incredible.  We all had breakfast on our own and spent some time getting our minds right and focused for the war ahead.  As we reported to the Ritchie Center at school to begin our pregame prep including rolling out and getting treatment the nerves began to set in, as we all knew what was at stake today.  We were playing for the right to play again.  The game began and our energy was flying.  Both teams came out strong but we were able to find the back of the net about halfway through the first half off a corner kick and header from the same teammate who scored in the first game of the weekend!  She was on fire and we were all excited!  We went into the locker room at half time and again heard from our coaches.  They were very pleased with how we were playing and we all agreed our focus needed to be on defense from this point on; if we didn’t give up a goal we would win the game.  We thought we were on our way to being crowned back-to-back Summit League Champions as the clock was winding down but with 31 seconds remaining South Dakota State tied it up and the game changed.  We went into overtime and double overtime and neither team could find the breakthrough, so the game would be decided by a penalty shootout.  Unfortunately for us, SDSU’s goalkeeper saved our first PK while they scored theirs.  We went back and forth until our goalie came up with a huge save in the third round and we were tied back up.  It went into sudden death; the first team to miss would lose.  Again SDSU’s goalie made a save on the sixth round and then they scored their 6^th round shot.  That was it, the game was over and we had lost.  With our hearts broken and our season over we had to congratulate SDSU on a good game and battling until the very last whistle. 

Coming away from this bittersweet weekend it was a great experience and we are so thankful to have had to opportunity to get to play two more home games this year.  On behalf of my whole team and the University of Denver we would like to thank all of the teams for coming out and helping make this tournament so successful.  Best of luck to South Dakota State as they represent The Summit League in the NCAA Tournament. 

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Don’t forget to check out the next edition of My Championship Experience as it follows the Men’s Soccer Championship, Nov. 13/15 and throughout the 2014-15 season for coverage at each of The Summit League Championships.

Women's Soccer Exhibition Scoreboard (Aug. 10)

DENVER -- The University of Denver women's soccer team opened the Colorado Cup with

Denver's Cassidy Rey

a 1-0 win over Air Force on Sunday morning at CIBER Field at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. 

After 30 minutes of working the preseason kinks out, junior forward Taylor Ivins (West Haven, Utah) found the breakthrough in the 31st minute off an assist from freshman midfielder Jocelyn Loomis (Sandy, Utah). Redshirt senior Shannen Johnson (Golden, Colo.) switched the point of attack to Loomis to begin the play. Loomis played a through ball in-between the outside back and center back to a running Ivins who tucked her strike inside the far post, past oncoming Falcon keeper Meghan Strang.

My Championship Experience – Women’s Soccer Edition

My Championship Experience is a diary blog written by Summit League student-athletes detailing their experiences at each of the 19 Championships.

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Denver senior Shannen Johnson writes about her experience at the 2013 Summit League Women's Soccer Championship:

Welcome to the 2013 Summit League Women’s Soccer Championships! My name is Shannen Johnson and I am honored to be recording my daily occurrences of the tournament. To give some background information on where my thoughts and opinions are coming from you should know that I am a senior midfielder playing for the University of Denver and have attended the conference tournament three out of the four times my team has gone due to a red-shirt sophomore year. Overall, this will be our third conference we have played in as a senior class.

This year at the tournament my team will be joined by North Dakota State, South Dakota State and host Fort Wayne, who my teammates and I would like to thank ahead of time for hosting us!
 

11/7/2013

Rising bright and early, we all congregated in the locker room packing and chatting excitedly as we rushed to be on the bus by 7:15 a.m., otherwise we wouldn’t be traveling. The team was ready to go and hopefully bring home a tournament win, something that hasn’t been done in four years. Heading to the Denver International Airport (DIA) many girls devoured their Breugger Bagels and promptly headed back to sleep. After the usual checking in and getting through security we were on the plane. Landing before we knew it, we boarded the bus and began the one-movie long (or 2 hour) bus ride that stretched out ahead of us, no one seemed to mind the journey as the tunes of Footloose blared through the bus speakers. As the movie ended and we pulled up and it was time to change clothes and head to dinner. Dinner was at a fabulous steakhouse where we managed to rack up quite the bill and headed to the hotel. It was time for bed and we all tried to get some rest before our tournament training began.

11/8/2013

With a good hotel breakfast in our stomachs, we headed to IPFW for the first practice of the tournament. We played the traditional game of “screw” and finished off with running plays, then we were off to eat again. With the choice of Chipotle, Panera or East Coast Subs we were satisfied and headed back to the hotel to sleep and for the ambitious few, to do homework. Tonight was the night of the banquet and what a good one it turned out to be. The team enjoyed the speeches given, especially the one concerning how much heart being a collegiate takes, both metaphorically and literally. After a great dinner and awards show, all teams headed to their respective hotels to get a good night sleep before the game. Congratulations to every player who received an award and to those who didn’t, they couldn’t have done it without you! Good luck to everyone!

11/9/2013

 GAME DAY at IPFW!! This morning my team and I awoke with an anxious energy as we prepared for our first match against IPFW. Our preparations included a good lunch at Panera, a film session, rolling out and lots of naps and downtime. As we headed to the field, each player became lost in their music and pregame rituals before we entered the stadium. Upon entering the stadium, the team came alive and we were ready to play. Hanging out in the locker room as we get our gear on, we discussed how it was all or nothing at this point and we wanted the league championship that no one in this group had won yet. Receiving the lineup, we ran through our usual warm up and braced ourselves for the game ahead. We knew IPFW was not going to be easy to beat, especially on their home field and re-entered the locker room 1-0 at halftime. As the second half continued, we managed to battle against their unique formation and came out with a 4-0 win. We were on to the finals!!

IPFW was a tough competitor and really proved to us that every game was going to be a battle, we needed to bring 100 percent to if we wanted to win overall.
 

The game after us between North Dakota State and South Dakota State ended up with North Dakota State winning 2-1. I can only imagine the battle that ensued between the two teams as both were difficult competitors in regular season play. 

11/10/2013

Waking up sore and tired from the game the night before, we enjoyed another delicious breakfast at the hotel and once again continued onto another practice over at IPFW. This practice was a bit more enjoyable seeing as we played small sided continuous versus running routes as we did on Thursday. After the goalies somehow managed to win the penalty kick competition, the seniors quickly redeemed themselves with a win in horseshoe.

With practice over, we were soon on our way to our three favorite lunch places again, (Chipotle, Panera and East Coast Subs) where we ended up eating with the opposition, North Dakota State, making for a crowded restaurant. 

After lunch, it was more downtime, which again included more naps then homework and ending with dinner at an Italian Restaurant and early bed for everyone. 

11/11/2013

CHAMPIONSHIP DAY!

The team met for an early breakfast in the hotel and all morning the lounge was filled with people yelling, “We’re going to the ‘ship!” An excited feeling took over all of us as we rolled out and began to prepare for the game against North Dakota State later in the day.  Bags packed and the bus boarded, we head to IPFW for the last time of the weekend. 

Arriving at the fields, we ran through warm ups and began the final.

Within 11 minutes, we were up 2-1. By half it was 5-1 but North Dakota State was still coming at us with the force they started with. 

Talking at half, we knew that they were still creating chances and we could not let them back into the game.
 

As the whistle blew, it was an amazing feeling to have not only won the league championship but to end the game with every single senior playing on the field. After a quick but delightful ceremony, we were once again grabbing Chipotle (fan favorite!) and bussing to the airport. Heading home with the league win felt fantastic. We are all anxious to see what the NCAA Tournament selection show will bring us tomorrow afternoon, while sad to be back to the reality of school.

            Coming off of a successful weekend, we must thank IPFW for hosting such a wonderful tournament and graciously hosting us at their campus along with the other teams in the conference who challenged us every single step of the way! We hope to make The Summit League proud as we take on the NCAA’s!

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Don’t forget to check out the next edition of My Championship Experience as it follows the Men’s Soccer Championship, Nov. 15/17 and throughout the 2013-14 season for coverage at each of The Summit League Championships.