Colorado University Athletics
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Kornieck Caps Busy Summer With U-20 USWNT Goal
July 18, 2017 | Soccer
The 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year believes she can have an even better season in 2017
BOULDER – Taylor Kornieck capped her busy summer with some of her best soccer to date. She was selected to the U-20 United States Women's National Team earlier this year, competing in six matches between the U-20 and U-19 national teams, scoring her first international goal and assisting on two others.
Her busy summer abroad started in June with two matches as part of the U-19 USWNT squad in Prague. Her team faced off with the Czech Republic U-19 team and the Czech full national team. Kornieck started both times, earning an assist in a 5-2 loss to the full national team.
She continued her travels in July with trips to England and Germany for four matches with the U-20 squad. Kornieck started three times and appeared in all four competitions. She scored her first career international goal on July 7 in a 2-0 win over England. In the 35th minute, she collected a ball in the box and finished into the upper-left corner of the net. She also had an assist against England.
"It was pretty surreal, honestly," Kornieck said of her goal. "I never thought I'd know what it would feel like [to score for the United States]."
Back On U.S. Soil
In between her travels to Europe, Kornieck competed with Motor City FC, a semipro team from Detroit that competes in the Women's Premier Soccer League. She was only in the United States for two matches with MCFC, but scored a goal for the still-undefeated squad.
She also returned to her ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) club team to compete for San Diego Surf, leading them to a second-place finish at nationals. Kornieck was eligible to compete again this summer because she does not turn 19 years old until Nov. 22.
How Much Can Kornieck Improve From A Record-Breaking Freshman Season
Kornieck is hoping all of her competition this summer will help prepare her for a sophomore campaign that comes on the heels of being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and first-team Freshman All-America by Top Drawer Soccer in 2016. In her first season in Boulder, she scored 11 goals and had four assists for 26 points and broke several records, including consecutive matches with a goal. It was the second-best season ever for a CU freshman. Former USWNT player Nikki Marshall had 17 goals and three assists as a freshman in 2006 for the Buffs.
Marshall's production dropped a bit as her career wore on as opponents focused on her more, but head coach Danny Sanchez believes fans can expect similar production from Kornieck as a sophomore as she had during her freshman year, and believes she was a focus of opponents already a year ago. He also says she has improved from 2016.
"I don't think she was a surprise to anybody," Sanchez said. "Anyone in the recruiting circles knew her and knew her qualities so it wasn't like she came out of nowhere. She had a fantastic freshman year and we really challenged her [this] spring and through the summer to get better and we like her attitude, like where she's at, and feel that she'll continue her upward trajectory as a player."
Replacing Two Other Top Scorers
The Buffs graduated two other top scorers in Danica Evans (11 goals) and Emily Bruder (four goals), but CU should have a more balanced attack with several returners that have improved and several newcomers that are expected to make an immediate impact.
"Obviously Danica is a big loss and Emily Bruder did a really good job for us, especially in Pac-12 play and later in the season," Sanchez said. "But we feel we have players in-house and new players that have the capability of stepping in and having similar impacts. With players like Megan Massey, Sarah Kinzner and Taylor in the midfield, we expect them to continue their development and produce even more. [Scoring is] always going to be by-committee for us and last year we had a good committee and we're hoping to grow the committee."
Kinzner scored four goals and had three assists last season as a sophomore. Massey was held out of the scoring column, but started all 22 matches as a sophomore transfer in 2016. Those two players each had three assists this spring in five exhibitions.
The most obvious additions to the lineup are freshman Martine Puketapu, who is a member of New Zealand's full national team and tied with Kornieck for a team-high three goals in the spring, and Jorian Baucom, a transfer from LSU. Baucom scored 33 goals in three seasons with the Tigers and was a first-team All-SEC selection as a sophomore, scoring 15 goals in 2015, and adding 10 more as a junior.
Several other freshmen and transfers could also have an immediate impact in the scoring column.
"I wasn't really expecting the year I had last year, but I hope to have the same impact that I did last year," Kornieck said, modestly. "With all of these new players, we're going to have a really good attacking mindset."
She also mentioned that the newcomers are all fitting in well with the returners, noting a lot of outgoing, fun personalities among her new teammates.
Kornieck's 2017 Outlook
There is no doubt that Kornieck will have plenty of talent around her this fall. Sanchez and the CU faithful hope she can continue where she left off over the summer with the U-20 USWNT.
"Playing with the U-19s in one camp and U-20s in two camps this summer, it's an opportunity for her to grow as a player," Sanchez said. "She's put into an environment with different coaches, different coaching staffs and different philosophies, and just like anytime you play at the international level, you have to make adjustments to your game to fit the team you're playing with. We feel like she played her best soccer with the national teams in this last event in Germany and England."
Kornieck has set the bar high for this season's expectations.
"[We can] win a Pac-12 championship, at least," Kornieck. "I feel like we can have if not the same, a better year than last year. Morgan [Stanton] was a big loss for us and so was Danica, but I feel like we have enough players here to fill their spots. No one can live up to Danica and Morgan, but we have more attacking players now so we can hopefully score some more goals."
Her busy summer abroad started in June with two matches as part of the U-19 USWNT squad in Prague. Her team faced off with the Czech Republic U-19 team and the Czech full national team. Kornieck started both times, earning an assist in a 5-2 loss to the full national team.
She continued her travels in July with trips to England and Germany for four matches with the U-20 squad. Kornieck started three times and appeared in all four competitions. She scored her first career international goal on July 7 in a 2-0 win over England. In the 35th minute, she collected a ball in the box and finished into the upper-left corner of the net. She also had an assist against England.
"It was pretty surreal, honestly," Kornieck said of her goal. "I never thought I'd know what it would feel like [to score for the United States]."
Back On U.S. Soil
In between her travels to Europe, Kornieck competed with Motor City FC, a semipro team from Detroit that competes in the Women's Premier Soccer League. She was only in the United States for two matches with MCFC, but scored a goal for the still-undefeated squad.
She also returned to her ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) club team to compete for San Diego Surf, leading them to a second-place finish at nationals. Kornieck was eligible to compete again this summer because she does not turn 19 years old until Nov. 22.
How Much Can Kornieck Improve From A Record-Breaking Freshman Season
Kornieck is hoping all of her competition this summer will help prepare her for a sophomore campaign that comes on the heels of being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and first-team Freshman All-America by Top Drawer Soccer in 2016. In her first season in Boulder, she scored 11 goals and had four assists for 26 points and broke several records, including consecutive matches with a goal. It was the second-best season ever for a CU freshman. Former USWNT player Nikki Marshall had 17 goals and three assists as a freshman in 2006 for the Buffs.
Marshall's production dropped a bit as her career wore on as opponents focused on her more, but head coach Danny Sanchez believes fans can expect similar production from Kornieck as a sophomore as she had during her freshman year, and believes she was a focus of opponents already a year ago. He also says she has improved from 2016.
"I don't think she was a surprise to anybody," Sanchez said. "Anyone in the recruiting circles knew her and knew her qualities so it wasn't like she came out of nowhere. She had a fantastic freshman year and we really challenged her [this] spring and through the summer to get better and we like her attitude, like where she's at, and feel that she'll continue her upward trajectory as a player."
Replacing Two Other Top Scorers
The Buffs graduated two other top scorers in Danica Evans (11 goals) and Emily Bruder (four goals), but CU should have a more balanced attack with several returners that have improved and several newcomers that are expected to make an immediate impact.
"Obviously Danica is a big loss and Emily Bruder did a really good job for us, especially in Pac-12 play and later in the season," Sanchez said. "But we feel we have players in-house and new players that have the capability of stepping in and having similar impacts. With players like Megan Massey, Sarah Kinzner and Taylor in the midfield, we expect them to continue their development and produce even more. [Scoring is] always going to be by-committee for us and last year we had a good committee and we're hoping to grow the committee."
Kinzner scored four goals and had three assists last season as a sophomore. Massey was held out of the scoring column, but started all 22 matches as a sophomore transfer in 2016. Those two players each had three assists this spring in five exhibitions.
The most obvious additions to the lineup are freshman Martine Puketapu, who is a member of New Zealand's full national team and tied with Kornieck for a team-high three goals in the spring, and Jorian Baucom, a transfer from LSU. Baucom scored 33 goals in three seasons with the Tigers and was a first-team All-SEC selection as a sophomore, scoring 15 goals in 2015, and adding 10 more as a junior.
Several other freshmen and transfers could also have an immediate impact in the scoring column.
"I wasn't really expecting the year I had last year, but I hope to have the same impact that I did last year," Kornieck said, modestly. "With all of these new players, we're going to have a really good attacking mindset."
She also mentioned that the newcomers are all fitting in well with the returners, noting a lot of outgoing, fun personalities among her new teammates.
Kornieck's 2017 Outlook
There is no doubt that Kornieck will have plenty of talent around her this fall. Sanchez and the CU faithful hope she can continue where she left off over the summer with the U-20 USWNT.
"Playing with the U-19s in one camp and U-20s in two camps this summer, it's an opportunity for her to grow as a player," Sanchez said. "She's put into an environment with different coaches, different coaching staffs and different philosophies, and just like anytime you play at the international level, you have to make adjustments to your game to fit the team you're playing with. We feel like she played her best soccer with the national teams in this last event in Germany and England."
Kornieck has set the bar high for this season's expectations.
"[We can] win a Pac-12 championship, at least," Kornieck. "I feel like we can have if not the same, a better year than last year. Morgan [Stanton] was a big loss for us and so was Danica, but I feel like we have enough players here to fill their spots. No one can live up to Danica and Morgan, but we have more attacking players now so we can hopefully score some more goals."
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