September 24, 2009

Hey Eagle Fans!
After a couple weekends of very successful home stands, we were back on the road again. This time to play in a tournament hosted by our conference foes University of North Florida. The other two teams ready to compete were Mississippi State University and the Citadel. We left last Thursday around 2:30pm for what seemed like the longest bus ride this season. That could be because it was up until this point, but that’s no conciliation. The trip was cut in half by dinner at Outback Steakhouse, which obviously made it a bit more bearable. Thanks Jim!

Friday: Game Day #1! We woke up early in the morning to go for a jog in office parking lots next to the Hampton Inn. Mario set up our warm up in the parking spots and partially across the road. Everyone was getting well stretched and relieving the lactic acid from the long ride when a FedEx truck came racing around the corner of the building. Headlines for the paper in the morning almost read: FGCU Women’s Soccer Team Injured—Aren’t as fast as FedEx. Since our game was at 2 in the afternoon, we ate an early pregame meal at Jason’s Deli, and as the team finished eating, we watched the coaching staff indulge in the complimentary ice cream. Lucky them! The Citadel was our first opponent on North Florida beach field. Yea, there was hardly any grass to be found, and many of us have sliding scrapes on our knees to prove it. Being a military school, we knew Citadel was going to be fit and ready for a hard fought battle. When the whistle blew it seemed as though we weren’t ready to play at all. Nothing we did worked and passes were rarely strung together. Because of our own incompetence, Citadel scored first, slapping us in the face as to say get going. Within the next 5-7 minutes we rallied back and netted a couple of our own thanks to Jess and Stacey. The final result was 2-1, bringing our win streak to 5.

And on the sixth day, they rest. Yea right! We got up early again Saturday morning already dressed to train, ate the hotel breakfast and left to practice at UNF. The good old circle drill was back, along with line passing, shooting for the forwards and heading for everyone else. We ate lunch at Moe’s and then headed over to the outside shopping mall right near the school. Everyone split up, walking in and out of many of the stores, once in a while bumping into each other. After being in the hot sun, most everybody was looking forward to going to the movie theatre to see Love Happens. It was a very cute chick flick, causing about half the team to cry. Right after, we walked across the strip mall to the ever popular pizza joint, Mellow Mushroom. We drove back to the hotel stuffed full of fantastic pizza. During the evening some people did homework, while others hung out or slept. The coaches called a meeting circa 8:30 to talk about our next opponents from the SEC, Mississippi State.

Sunday: Game Day #2! Our game against MSU was at 11:30 am, so we got up just as early as the mornings before and ate breakfast with the enemy in the hotel lobby. We arrived back at UNF pumped and ready to go. Finally, after a few games, we were playing a team that would legitimately get us ready for our first two conference games. From the start of the game we moved the ball around MSU and recorded shots on goal before they crossed half field. Throughout the first half we dominated in the shot count and frustrated their forwards to the point that they had to come off the field, which, according to Mario, almost never happens. We were playing so well and went into half time with such a high. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long when the second half started. Within the first couple minutes MSU had a free kick about 30-40 yards out. They sent the ball in deep and their forward, who was on the end line, scored the goal of her life. With virtually no angle, she sent the ball high and it bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and hit the inside of the far post. Like I said—goal of her life. Just as in the first half, we dominated possession and shot count. And in the last few minutes we seemed to have tied the game. Kat took a free kick, passing the ball to me. I crossed it into Lindsay, who first timed it far post. Unlike the MSU goal, the ball bounced back into the six yard box and Amber nailed it home. But as everyone was celebrating, they failed to realize the linesmen had raised his flag for off sides. Story of our lives. It was a tough loss to swallow. We worked so hard to win that game and lost it because of a little bit of misfortune.

Oh well. The first half of the season is over and now it’s on to our first pair of conference games this weekend in Georgia. These are the games that really start to matter if we want to do well in the future and continue playing strong teams like MSU. We’re going to play Mercer and Kennesaw State, both of whom are two of the best teams in our conference.

Until next time—Go Eagles!