DIMINUTIVE SCHERRER SCORES BIG FOR VCU
By Chris Kowalczyk
10-1-09

Kelsey Scherrer jogs towards midfield when she notices something out of the corner of her eye. It’s a steal, which means it’s officially ‘go’ time.

In a blink, she’s gone, reversing course in an instant. Legs churning, she barrels towards the goal like a heat-seeking missile. When the keeper races to intercept a pass to Scherrer on the left post, the Rams’ compact dynamo lunges towards the ball. Beating the keeper by a fraction of a second, she flips a shot over the helpless, prone defender and into the net, crashing to the turf in the process. Goal, VCU.

Scenes like this are becoming commonplace for Scherrer, VCU Field Hockey’s diminutive scoring machine. Just five-foot-one, Scherrer is turning the program, and the Colonial Athletic Association, on its ear with her afterburner-fueled, highlight-reel-quality goals. Through eight matches, Scherrer, a freshman from Chesapeake, Va., leads the Rams with eight goals and 18 points.

“She’s dynamic,” VCU Head Coach Kelly McQuade said. “She absolutely has the ability to change the momentum of games. She can basically take a game into her hands with one play.”

Scherrer doesn’t just have the ability to change games. She’s actually doing it. On Sept. 11, in a game at 17th-ranked Iowa, Scherrer slammed home a pair of goals late in the second half to give the Rams a 3-2 victory. It was VCU’s first win over a ranked team in six years, and signaled that these were no longer the hapless Rams of old.  

Fiercely competitive, yet bubbly, Scherrer hasn’t let her early success cloud her sense of team. Instead, she’s glad to be VCU’s humble, hubris-free star.

“I’m really surprised,” Scherrer said of her season to date. “But it’s easy to score goals when you have people behind you to set you up.”

THE VCU CONNECTION
Scherrer was part of an outstanding 2009 recruiting class assembled by McQuade and Assistant Coach Shannon Karl that included current starters Megan Botteri, Chelsea Hill and Meg Neylon. Scherrer was a bona fide high school star at Cape Henry Collegiate School, where she was named Second Team All-America as a senior.  

“She was a great, great get,” McQuade said. “To have that much talent and athleticism, that much speed. She’s truly a well-rounded athlete. You can’t teach that when they get here. You kind of have to recruit that. She’s just a beast.”

To get a player of Scherrer’s caliber to consider VCU, when top-20 schools like Louisville are calling, isn’t easy. So, it certainly didn’t hurt that Scherrer’s high school coach, Kristin Wheeler, played field hockey at VCU under former coach Pat Stauffer. Although a factor, Wheeler’s recommendations only went so far.

“She always kind of put the bug in my ear, but she never pushed it on me,” Scherrer said. “I never felt pressured to go here. She and I are really close, but I wouldn’t look on it as the deciding factor.

“As soon as I stepped on campus, I felt way more comfortable. Kelly [McQuade] and Shannon [Karl] made me feel so comfortable. They were so welcoming. I just loved the atmosphere and I just knew immediately.”

CATCHER ON THE FLY
Scherrer’s first foray into athletics was as the only girl on her little league baseball team. For three seasons she played catcher and learned how to use her speed to her advantage.

“I couldn’t really hit the ball, but if I could get on base, then I could run,” Scherrer said. “Bunting was my big thing.”  

Given the popularity of field hockey in the Chesapeake area, it was inevitable that Scherrer would eventually pick up a stick. In the seventh grade, Scherrer stepped onto the turf and never looked back. That’s not to say field hockey came easy to her. Actually, Scherrer struggled early.

“It was a sad story starting out,” Scherrer joked. “It was pretty pathetic actually, but I loved it. It didn’t matter that I was so bad in the beginning. I loved it, so I just kept working at it.

“I would run down the field, hand in one stick, arms flailing, just chasing the ball. They would put me on the field, no position, and I’d just be all over the place, everywhere, because I like to run.”

However, by the time she was a sophomore at Cape Henry, things began to click, and her hard work began to pay off. She was named Second Team All-State, the first wave in an avalanche of awards she would collect in field hockey, as well as lacrosse.

GAME CHANGER
Scherrer’s addition to a lineup that already included CAA Second Team pick Marle van Dessel has given VCU a dimension it hasn’t had in a long time. With two legitimate All-CAA quality scorers, teams have struggled to slow the Rams’ offensive front. Behind Scherrer and van Dessel, who also has eight goals, VCU has scored 25 times this season, the same number it had all of last season.

In a recent win over Towson, Scherrer carried a ball from midfield down the left sideline. Her defender, much taller with a longer stride, did everything she could to slow Scherrer. The result was a physical, bump-and-run type exchange reserved for NFL Sundays. Undeterred, Scherrer found another gear, and once she gained a two-step advantage, cut inside the circle, where she buried a shot into the back of the cage. It’s those types of plays, made possible by Scherrer’s mix of athletic gifts and sheer determination, that are welcome sights to McQuade.

“Now Marle can build the attack from midfield and have Kelsey to work with and pass to,” McQuade said. “Last year, it was kind of, “Marle, you’re going to come to midfield and get the ball and then sprint it up and take the shot on goal. And if you could, get your own rebound and maybe put it in.’”  

Although McQuade knows opponents will adjust defensively, she likes the direction, and the potential, of her 6-2 team. Scherrer, meanwhile, says she is always ready for more.

“I have the mindset of just, go, go, go, go.”

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