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Week #7
10/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Monday, October 4
Monday seemed non-existent for our team this past week. We were on an airplane all of Sunday night and remained on that plane through the majority of Monday as well. We arrived back in Tulsa from Hawaii around 1:45 in the afternoon. We had the day off, so we all went to our own dorm/apartment and tried to make up some schoolwork, or catch up on some sleep. The majority of my schoolwork was completed prior to leaving for Hawaii, so I chose to get some sleep. This was unsuccessful, so I just laid around the apartment the rest of the afternoon. This was a boring, unproductive day.
Tuesday, October 5
Some of the players on our team had to lift weights at 5:45 a.m. I am glad my class schedule does not conflict with our normal lifting time at 3:00 p.m. I could not imagine waking up that early after the long day of traveling yesterday. Classes did not go as well as I had hoped. I was completely lost in my tax and accounting classes, and found out that in one week from today, we will be having either a quiz or exam in each of my Tuesday/Thursday classes. We'll just have to see how much information I can make up in one week, which I am definitely looking forward to. Weights went by slowly today, and we were all running to practice late. It was a great way to start off practice. After a few position changes, we were scrimmaging and trying to get a feel for the new lineup. We should have this new system down by our Friday night game vs. Rice.
Wednesday, October 6
Today, weights were a breeze. They went by a lot faster, so we were actually early to practice. At practice, we were planning on working more on offense. I have been moved back to a forward position from center mid, so I have a lot of adjustments to make. Katie Ward and I were working on our spacing and working with one another as forwards, which I feel got a lot better by the end of practice. We ended practice playing pretty well as a team, and I felt confident with our team going into the game against Rice on Friday.
Thursday, October 7
Thursday was also a typical day. I went to class, weights, and then watched film instead of having practice because it was pouring down rain outside. The VCR in our locker room was eating the tape, so we headed over to Susan Day's apartment to watch our game vs. Hawaii. If you haven't been over there yet, you need to. She has every beanie baby invented to man. They are everywhere, consuming up every inch of wall space in her apartment. They are three rows deep on several shelves, and then on the walls, they are all hanging by a string that wraps around the animal's head, so they freaked some of the freshmen out (especially the huge fuzzy spider one). I had been over there before, so this was nothing new to me. We watched the majority of the first half, stopping the game where the coaches felt necessary. Before we knew it, it was two hours later and our film watching session was over. The freshmen headed to study hall, while the upperclassmen sprinted through the rain to our cars or apartments.
Friday, October 8
Friday night was our game against Rice. We all headed to Jason's Deli for our pre-game meal. After that, we went to the field to support our men's team who was played before us. We only watched the first half, because it was time for us to begin our own preparation and warm-up. We began at 6:00 p.m. and our game didn't start until 7:35 p.m. This was one of the longest warm-ups of my life. It was an interesting warm-up too. We began by laying flat on our backs in the 18-yard box while Coach Richardson told us a story. I liked the motivational speech, but I was itchy with wet grass covering my legs for the next hour. The game went well, although we lost 1-0. We did not play well for about 15 minutes, and in that time period they scored the only goal of the game. We were unable to come back, although we had plenty of chances. Hopefully things will turn around soon, and we will get some W's on our record. We were planning on traveling bright and early to Shreveport, La., in the morning, but due to weather, our non-conference game was cancelled on Sunday. We had Saturday off, and would not meet as a team again until Sunday at 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 9
Since we didn't travel anywhere this weekend, we actually had a full day to ourselves. I must admit it was nice to have a weekend day off. I got to sleep in and do whatever I wanted all day!! I went to my roommate, Sam Rutherford's, volleyball game vs. La Tech. They won in three games, clenching their first conference victory. There were quite a few soccer girls supporting them on Saturday. When the freshmen clan was walking down the steps of the Reynolds Center, I noticed that Nicole Macia was holding a volleyball in her hand. Turns out they were on their way to play sand volleyball, and decided to come support TU's volleyball team and see how the sport is supposed to be played before they gave it a shot. I doubt that helped their sand volleyball situation at all. The day ended too soon, and we were back on schedule Sunday.
Sunday, October 10
Going into practice today, I thought we were going to work on the "small things" as coach put it. As it turns out, small things included running the Cooper test. For those of you who are unaware of the Cooper test, let me explain.
It is a fitness test that involves running two miles in 12 minutes. Instead of the full eight laps in 12 minutes, we had to run seven and a half laps in 12 minutes. This run was in the rain, with our legs felt like they weighed twice as much as they did. On one side of our field, you couldn't avoid running straight through puddles for the entire straightaway. I wouldn't say the run was that terribly bad, but I had a stomach cramp for the last lap and a half, which did not feel the greatest. Molly Fitzsimmons, who was leading the pack, kept yelling for me to stay with her, so I managed to finish a few seconds behind her. Thanks Molly!! I learned my lesson of eating a piece of pizza from the Hut before coming to practice. Hopefully timed running tests will be announced next time. Now, the "small things" began. We were working on corner kicks for a big part of practice, trying to finish more balls in the air. Winning head balls isn't as much skill as it is courage. As long as you're not afraid to drive through the ball, you'll be fine. Lets just say we will be working on corner kicks at the end of every practice from here on out.
After practice, we all went our separate ways. The weekend was over, and we all had class the next morning. We had Monday off, and would not meet again until weights on Tuesday afternoon. We will host UTEP at home this Friday night, and travel to Dallas to face SMU on Sunday. See you at the game!
