Derek Montgomery Photography >> Blog » Soccer

2011 Saints Women’s Soccer

DRock — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:21:36 +0000

Back in my newspaper days, I shot a ton of sports. I worked the evening shift at the Duluth News Tribune so I'd end up shooting soccer, hockey, football, softball, baseball, basketball, you name it. I loved it since shootings sports was one of the big reasons I got into photography. It's the best reality entertainment out there. No script. Unpredictability reigns.

So it was a bonus that my wife is a soccer coach at St. Scholastica. Double bonus that her team is really really good. In between shooting lots of weddings and engagements in the fall, I could transition to something a little different than couples in love. Maybe not so different. I would imagine the first photo below might look like an engagement session in a mosh pit. Maybe?

Anyway, the Saints women's soccer team wrapped up their season this past weekend in San Antonio at the NCAA Division 3 soccer championships. After winning their seventh straight regular season conference championship, the Saints defeated Bethany Lutheran and the University of Minnesota-Morris to advance to their fourth NCAA tournament in five years. Their first round opponent this year was no. 3 ranked Trinity University (20-0). The Saints played the Tigers tough as they entered halftime down 3-2. Those two goals were half as many as the Tigers had allowed during the entire season. In the end, Trinity prevailed 5-2, but it was another solid season for the Saints.

Congrats to seniors Bailey Mahlum, Molly Bergmann, Megan Flesvig and Malia Grosskreutz on being part of an outstanding senior class that never lost a conference game, compiled a record of 68-17-5 overall and 51-0-3 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and qualified for three NCAA tournaments.

2010 St. Scholastica Women’s Soccer recap

DRock — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:21:37 +0000

As some of you might know, my fiance, wife-to-be, significant other, better half, whatever you want to call it, Kristin Lammi, is an assistant coach/goalkeeper's coach for the College of St. Scholastica women's soccer team. The team is pretty good too having won seven straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular season titles while currently running off a streak of 85 regular season games where the Saints have not lost to a conference opponent. In other words, they've had some success.

Since my fiance, wife-to-be, significant other, better half, whatever you want to call it, Kristin Lammi, is an assistant coach/goalkeeper's coach and I really like to shoot sports, I often tagged along with her at home games and a couple away games this year. I really started to enjoy shooting soccer toward the end of my time at the Duluth News Tribune so it is pretty fun to be able to shoot a good team on a regular basis for a few months of the year.

Here are some of my favorites from 2010 along with two shots from a men's game I covered as well.

A Return to Public Schools Stadium

DRock — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:01:27 +0000

This evening I made my triumphant return to Public Schools Stadium and the first thing I did after stepping inside was ordering two hot dogs, a Kit Kat bar and a Gatorade. Those three things more than anything else tell me that fall has descended upon Duluth. Don't mind the changing of the leaves, the threat of snowflakes on the Minnesota-Canada border or the increasingly frequent need to don long-sleeve attire. No, none of that tells me fall is here. It's that wonderful concoction of two hot dogs, a candy bar and a Gatorade that tell me fall sports have begun.

When I worked at the Duluth News Tribune, it marked the beginning of my favorite seven months on the job. I could hardly believe I was getting paid to attend sporting matches and take photographs.

Well all that is in the past now, but I don't plan on giving that up and the same indicators of fall descending upon Duluth remain. That's how I found myself at Public Schools Stadium tonight shooting a matchup of Duluth East and Duluth Central girls soccer. While the match wasn't that competitive, East won 11-0, I was able to make a few decent frames and get back into the swing of things so to say.

I've got a really cool project I'm working on right now that I'll keep quiet about, but when it happens you are going to see a ton of cool stuff on here when it is done.

And here are three frames from tonight's game...

Sunday Soccer at St. Scholastica

DRock — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:28:57 +0000

Say that five times fast (the title of this post). With the high schools, colleges and universities getting back into gear, that means sports are starting to heat up. Today I found myself at St. Scholastica following their women's soccer team while they played UW-River Falls.

The score was tied at one apiece at the end of the first half and stayed that way until time ran out. That's where Megan Stingle comes in. In the 94th minute, Stingle broke just ahead of a River Falls defender and advanced on the net. Just inside the box, she did a sliding kick that beat the goalie to the right and the game was over. It was a great first soccer game to shoot this year and it's a sport that I enjoy shooting more and more each year.

The first shot is her reaction after scoring while the other two are typical game action.