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Women's Soccer |
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Opening Weekend: August 29-30, 2008
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| With
opening weekend always comes a bit of nervousness. After two weeks
of preseason we finally get to play a team besides ourselves. We
begin to understand the three fitness tests we passed, the ice baths
we endured, and all our hard work has come to this moment. The start
of a new season - when it’s a first-year's very first college game,
and a senior's last home opener…and we once again have something to
prove. We listen to the new locker room mix, and watch Rachel and
Chelsea dance around. We suit up, lace our boots and sit in the
classroom with legs unable to be still. Then Lance comes in suited
up himself, and we sit in the dark and watch a little something to
get us pumped up.
Then off to the softball field to warm-up…where we then have to wait 20 minutes while the game playing before us goes into overtime...thanks Hardin-Simmons! ;-) We all get a little cranky about this. But then we are on the field and taking some shots…the excitement of the first game comes with the uneasiness of what our play will look like. But the first 11 step out onto the field and huddle up on our half. I look at the 10 faces around me. Katie Cowan - our first-year keeper who is also the youngest on the team - starting in her first college match ever. Then Rachel Johansen - a senior center back who will never play a season opener again. I watch the sophomores, antsy with anticipation for their chance. Then us juniors - expectations are almost overwhelming, and we are called to step up and exceed them. After 45 minutes we are down 2-0 to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The crowd is thickening in the stands, but the huge “0” on the board is what takes up our vision. Then back out under the lights, and we find the courage to come back and score four goals. There was Michelle Grambaeu’s beautiful flick of a header over the keeper's extended hands, and Robyn Brooks’ free kick that crashed the back of the net… then little Kelly Watts and her first two college goals that came from her acting like the Energizer bunny. She just keeps going and going… We sat stretching after the game, Lance making us quite aware that putting ourselves in such a hole cannot happen again. We agree… But the next night, versus University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, we again find ourselves losing 1-0 after only five minutes. Ten minutes later, Robyn Brooks - playing right back - hits the ball, like only she can, all the way to the opposite side of the field… where I am running onto it. The ball is coming to just inside the 18… and I get a head on it, to send the ball over the keeper and into the top right corner. To say the least…I was a bit excited… Sadly, Eau Claire scored two more goals against us…and our final effort in the 88th minute (a beautiful header from sophomore Danika Wright off a set piece) was not enough. We experienced our first defeat. What else is there to think on but regrets? And then even those must be moved aside because we still have 18 more games to play. |
Questions or comments:
athletics@trinity.edu
One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas
78212-7200
(210) 999-8237 fax: (210) 999-8292
© 2004 Trinity University. All rights reserved.