Locker rooms usually echo with the nervous hustle and bustle that accompany pre-game jitters. But Colleen Marcum's locker room is relatively silent ­ almost silent enough to hear a pin drop.

When the young women on Kent State's women's soccer team are told to lie down on the locker room floor and close their eyes, they are certain they won't be taking a cat nap. They're in for some hard work.

"I want everyone to visualize the field and the net," says coach Colleen Marcum. "You've just stolen the ball, and now you are running the ball towards the net. Keep going. Keep running. You run past the opposition's defense. Yes. You've just scored for our team."The team members slowly open their eyes and smiles erupt across their faces.

I was always taught that if you can visualize doing something, you can usually do it," Marcum says. "Meditating also helps everyone release pre-game tension and it lets everyone set some personal goals before the game."

Freshman forward Stacey Presock benefits from Marcum's unconventional coaching techniques. "The meditation really helps me during the game. I've often visualized myself playing very well while lying on this floor, and when I get out on the field, I just try to go through the same motions in my head," Presock says.

For the Kent State women's soccer team, the game is a victory whether they win or lose: these 22 women and their coaches are making sports history at Kent State. This is the team's first year as a varsity sport.

After several years of existing at the club level, Kent State's women's soccer program is now recognized as a Division I team. In fact, most of the team's players had previously been involved with club soccer. At their very first game in August, the players were cheered on by a crowd of about 200 fans.

Colleen Marcum didn't come to Kent State this fall just to coach a team. She came to help build a new program. Kent State chose Marcum as the new women's soccer coach out of 144 applicants. Before coming to Kent, Marcum, 28, coached women's soccer at Robert Morris College, where she received an award for being the "winningest coach" in the school's history. She helped the team clinch six wins within two years. Marcum realizes that this record isn't outstanding, but for Robert Morris it was a step up.

"I know that six wins doesn't seem like very much, but when I first started coaching at Robert Morris, the women's team really didn't win many games," Marcum says. "I had to rebuild that program. That's what I do. I help to build programs."

Marcum thinks the move to Kent State was just what she was looking for - a chance to help a team get off to a fresh start. "We have a clean canvas that we can create anything we want on. We can be the artists and paint anything we want.

" I like the fact that our team can start this program out, minus the cockiness and the attitudes that some teams have. We don't put up with attitudes on our team. If you can't stay positive and if you can't be part of our family, then we really don't need you."

Prescock says she admires Marcum's ceaseless optimism. "When we lose a game, she never lingers on it," she says. "She just focuses on what we did right. She is so energetic, and she's always clapping her hands and cracking jokes. She makes playing the game a lot more fun."

To find coach Marcum sitting down is rare. She can usually be spotted wearing a bright yellow jacket, standing with her team in the middle of the soccer field during practice.

"I'm not into paperwork and sitting at my desk throwing commands around," she says. "That's just not me. My job is to motivate and to accentuate the positive. You can't do that sitting behind a desk. You've gotta get out there and you have to become part of the action.

Mia Quintanilla feels like she's part of a family rather than a soccer team. "We are there for each other in good times and in bad times, and in most cases, we live with each other in the dorms," she says. "I love the fact that I have family away from home. It's great."

Quintanilla, a sophomore forward, says the team shares a close bond. "With a women's team, you always have closeness, but you can also have a lot of attitude. We don't have that. We all realize that if we stay unified, we really can do anything we set our minds to."

Presock and stopper Sally Manley, both freshmen players, are team members and roommates. "The coach usually puts team members together because our schedules are the same," Manley says. "We both have early class, then we have practice in the afternoon, and then study table a few nights a week. It works out well having Stacey as my roommate, because we understand what it's like to play a sport and also go to class. It's tough being a student athlete, but we have a lot of fun with it."

While Bridget Wiese, a sophomore left-back, stretched her hamstring muscles on the grass, teammate Quintanilla just couldn't resist giving her a boost. "I just want everyone to know that Bridge is awesome. She's our star outside defender," Quintanilla shouts as she pats Wiese on the back.

"Thanks," Wiese says, blushing. "She's so crazy but she helps make practice a lot of fun."

Throughout the team's practice, frequent smiles indicate the sense of community between teammates. Pats on the back are frequent, and shouts of encouragement are uncountable.

The support team members receive from each other makes their stressful lifestyles a little more bearable. "Being a student isn't easy," Marcum says. "These women work hard, and they aren't only tired mentally at the end of the day. They're also worn out physically. When you are running four to six miles in every practice and when you are smashing into other people like Mac trucks, it can kind of bring you down. That's when the support from your team kicks in, because they really know what you're going through."

The team finished its first season with a 3-14-2 record that Marcum says they should be very proud of.

"I've never coached a better group team than I did this season. We learned so much and everyone stayed very dedicated and very committed," Marcum says.

"We brought a group of young women together who were at all different levels and who were all very dynamic and fascinating in their own ways, and we were cohesive and successful. We made history at Kent State. That's something to be proud of."

With attendence at games rivaling that of Kent's more established sports such as football and field hockey, the team doesn't seem to be lacking spectator encouragement. "I can't believe the amount of support I've gotten from other coaches and teams," Marcum says. "After our inaugural game, the volleyball coach and the football coaches came in and dropped a few words of encouragement. It makes all the difference."

Looking out to the bleachers filled with cheering soccer fans is enough to lift the spirits of any tired player.

"I feel like I'm in heaven here at Kent. We have so much support here, rain or shine, it blows my mind," Quintanilla says.

Wiese says she thinks all the sports at Kent receive equal attention. "We receive as much support as any men's team ever has."

As the game begins, it is an almost soothing sport to watch, or so it may appear.

"It seems as though the game starts off with mainly passing around the ball, but in actuality, the game really starts when we start smashing into each other and then we have to try to bounce right back," says Cherie Brusky, a freshman who as keeper stands first in the Mid-American Conference and second in the Great Lakes Region. She was fifth in the nation with 60 saves through five matches.

"I love the feeling of running onto that field and knowing that my parents are out in the stands and that I'm going to try to play my very best," Presock says.

For Quintanilla, nothing can surpass the feeling of getting a goal. "I love that rush I get right before I put the ball into the net. It probably is one of the best feelings in the world. I work hard at playing this game because I love that feeling. I wish it could last forever."