Week 6 - An Unlucky Goal and a Trip to Hawaii
10/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Monday, September 27th
Today is usually our day off, but since we have a game tomorrow we need to practice. We are in between games. We played yesterday and play Drury tomorrow night. Practice wasn't too bad. We just tried to clean things up from our game Sunday to be ready for Drury. We discussed what we need to do to be successful and head home for the evening.
Tuesday, September 28th
We have a game today against Drury. We ate our pre-game meal at Panera Bread, which is on the top of everyone's list for places to eat. We felt ready for the game ahead. We started warm-ups pretty well this evening and this usually dictates how we play. This night is no exception. We came out with one of our best hard-fought games. Carrie Schnarre scored an awesome goal in the second half to put us ahead 1-0. We continued to play well and as the clock ticked down I think we all felt we could pull out a win. Then the most unfortunate event occurred. With 15-seconds left in the game, one of our defenders went to clear the ball, miss hit it and it deflected into the goal. Regulation was over as soon as we took the kick-off and I think all of us were so frustrated with ourselves for letting that happen. We could have easily had a win. Fifteen seconds is not long, but that amount of time impacted our game. In overtime we battled hard to get the win we thought we deserved, but we came up empty and had to settle for a 1-1 tie. I went home, still thinking about that last 15 seconds. I had to shake it off, because I know the most important games are to come, including our next game vs. Hawaii. This will be our first Western Athletic Conference game and will be crucial for our team confidence.
Wednesday, September 29th
Weights resume as normal today. They felt extra hard, and I base this on the fact that we haven't lifted for a week. I thought about how good my muscles will feel after the long flight tomorrow. We finished off the day with practice, and once again worked to fix our mistakes so that the situation that happened vs. Drury won't repeat itself. Practice is hard, because we have tomorrow off, but I felt that I got something out of it. I went home and felt confident about our chances at Hawaii.
Thursday, September 30th
This morning we met to leave for Hawaii at 5:45 a.m. That is really early! We got to see the football team leave on its chartered plane and awaited our departure. We first have a two-hour flight to Salt Lake City, where we changed planes and have a five-hour and 45-minute flight to Honolulu, Hawaii. The neat thing was that we gain five hours so by the time we get to Hawaii it is still only 1:00 p.m. their time. We checked into our hotel and then headed down for the beach for an hour before we met for dinner. Some of my teammates were a bit strange. Ashley Rickner and Kristina Corona acted like beached whales. Ask them about it, because they enjoyed doing it for a good hour or so. By the end of eating dinner I am started to feel fatigue set in. We finished eating at around 6:00 p.m., but that is 11:00 p.m. Tulsa time and I felt exhausted from travel. We have a team jog and stretch at 7:30 a.m. and then a team meeting at 9:00 a.m. Gina (Gaston), my roommate, and I decide to take a nap in between. For some reason, I happened to wake up in just enough time to get downstairs for our run. Neither Gina nor I heard our alarms go off. Everyone in the lobby looks as exhausted and tired as I feel. It is of course, 12:30 a.m. in the morning in Tulsa. We went for a jog around our hotel, catching in some neat sights. We made it back to our hotel and had our team meeting where we discuss the Hawaii game and our schedule of events leading up to it. We all then headed to bed still feeling Tulsa time, and I had no problems sleeping.
Friday, October 1st
We train in the morning, which is exciting, because we get the rest of the day to enjoy Hawaii. Practice went well. I think we are all still stretching our legs out from the flight. We worked hard and knew this is the reason we made the trip. We played some keep-away and worked on full-field situations.
When we got back and ate lunch, we all head to the beach for some fun. Some of us rented surfboards and others, the crippled ones, got kneeboards for an hour. The rest of us lay out and enjoyed the ocean water. Ashley Rickner and Susan Day also bought what they call a raft. It one of those floating things you can lay on in the pool. They really did not use it for its purpose. They swam out and watched those who were surfing. Ashley almost got her head taken off when she got to close and the inexperienced surfer, Abby Fahrig, about ran her over. I also paddled out with Ashley to watch the surfing and it was neat to watch everyone get up and ride the waves. I almost regretted it though, when we started paddling back and did not get anywhere very fast. We had to take several breaks before making it to shore. Personally I think Ashley was not pulling her weight, but that's just me.
The last thing we did at the beach was a group of us got together to ride on a catamaran. This was one of the highlights of the trip. We sat at the front of the boat, where there is netting. When we got out in the middle of the ocean the waves were huge, so that's when we got to the crest of the wave and then dropped, and we got soaked with water. I think we laughed the entire time and ended up swallowing a fair share of saltwater. I can't wait to see the pictures. We ate dinner and walked around looking at shops until we got tired. I think the top store had to be Niketown. Our entire team was outfitted by Nike by the end of the trip. I was actually able to pick up presents for all of my family members, so I was excited. After walking around for an hour it was time for bed.
Saturday, October 2nd
We again had training in the morning. We worked on shooting first. We got into pairs and worked on technique. I have to mention the special group at the end, Alexis (Arment) and Carrie, whom had trouble with the relatively simple drill. Next we worked on some keep away, and I will mention that my legs did get a little tangled, and while I was back pedaling I kicked myself in the shin, tripped, and bit it. I am not always so graceful. We also worked on one-v-one and two-v-twos, and ended with set pieces.
We ate lunch at Planet Hollywood, where I am not sure that people go for the food, based on the foreign meet in my sandwich. We went back to the hotel and walked around for a bit before heading to the football game to support the TU. They were supposedly coming to the first half of our game, so we wanted to make sure and support them. We left at 4:30 p.m. for their 6:00 p.m. game to make sure and get to our seats. The stadium was packed. The attendance was 42,000. The game was even up until halftime. After that, some fans started giving us a hard time, but it was with some reason. We were getting killed. The score was not very pretty and by 10:30 p.m. when the game ended we were ready to go. We had planned to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, but with the game running so late we decide to eat Subway. We headed to bed hoping to get the rest we needed for our big game tomorrow.
Sunday, October 3rd
We had breakfast this morning downstairs at our hotel. It is amazing. They have everything imaginable. The fruit, especially the pineapple, was awesome. Most of the team then went for a walk to keep our legs loose for the game that evening. At 11:00 a.m. we condense down into two rooms in the hotel. Some of us worked on homework until its time for our pre-game meal at Quizno's. I won't mention that Ashley Rickner got locked out on the balcony. She can tell that story. After we ate, we had more time to do homework before it was time to leave for our game.
We were all getting antsy and ready to do what we came here to accomplish. The only disappointing news of the day was that the football team would not be attending our game. I guess they were in trouble for losing their game and had to watch game film instead. They would have been a great help, but we got over it and start focusing on the game. We got to the field in enough time to relax and prepare for the game. Warm-up went great and Coach Richardson pointed out how lackadaisical Hawaii was during their warm-up. Our record is not the greatest and I am sure they did not think there was reason for respect. We came out hard in the first half. Unfortunately we made two mistakes, which cost us two goals. The second half we played even better and we battled until the end, but with no luck, and lost 2-0. Although we were disappointed, we felt good about the way we had played and knew we are just as good as any other team in the WAC. It will certainly give us some confidence going into our next games.
We headed to the showers, and then the airport to start the dreaded overnight trip home. With the loss of five hours and eight hours of flying, the night will be short. I think the trip to Hawaii was semi-successful. We gained the knowledge that we can compete with anyone, but that we have to finish our chances and get the result to make it to where we want to be. See you on the field!
