Sept. 7, 2009

September 3rd
Today we got up early to catch the bus to the airport at 8:00. I didn't feel like packing the night before, so I had to get up extra early to get everything together. With bags in tow we got on the bus and left for the airport. It wasn't a terribly exciting plane ride like our last trip, but there were a few bits of turbulence during the flight.

We had a connection in Atlanta, where we found our next gate and proceeded to find food. Some of the girls were talking about getting lunch at Moe's, and I thought it would be a good idea to try a new restaurant for once. Burrito in hand we sat around in the airport for awhile, waiting to board the next flight to Miami. That flight too was pretty uneventful; however our stewardess announced that we were going to go to Atlanta as we were backing out of the gate.

We arrived in Miami tired, hungry, and wanting to stretch our legs after sitting for two hours. We were shuttled to our hotel and after getting room assignments, got together to go to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays. Everyone was really hungry but we had a practice after dinner which meant we couldn't eat a lot. As we placed our orders and were waiting around, we noticed a team in blue entering the restaurant...which turned out to be the Navy team. Out of all the places to eat in Miami they had to choose the one we were at. There were some happy reunions with some players, and they proceeded toward the back to eat their meal.

We arrived at the soccer field and piling out of the van walked all the way around the complex to find the open gate. We had a light practice just to get used to the field and get our feet moving again. We ran through a couple of crosses and free kicks, trying to perfect them for tomorrow's game verse Navy. After practice, we proceeded back to the hotel and retired for the night.

September 4th
Today was the game against Navy. We got up and had an early breakfast. We then had some time to relax in our rooms before going for another light practice. We wore our practice gear we had worn the night before, which was still wet from yesterday's practice. So soaking wet and in running shoes, we went to get one more practice in at the Miami field. A few times around the track and handball to work on shape were all we needed to get pumped up for our game at 5. We returned to the hotel to catch a little R&R until lunch, which was Subway. A lot of players took naps, while others like me watched the TV. After lunch we had about an hour before we had to get a light snack before the game. We snacked on bagels, peanut butter, granola bars, apples, and oranges.

Ready for the game we started our journey to the fields. We left about 15 minutes early to leave time for traffic. We arrived at the field, got all our gear on and headed out to the field. As we walked out to the field, we noticed Navy warming up really early and wondered how they would have any energy after doing a 45 minute warm up. Focusing on our warm-up, we began to get stretched out and loosened. Just when we were about to start, a really loud siren sounded from the building behind us. It was a thunderstorm monitor and we had to immediately vacate the field for safety. Confused, we jogged back to the locker room and waited to be released back out to play. As we sat around for 45 minutes, we played games and tried to stay energized for the game.

After a while we were told it was safe to go out and start warming up again. Excited, we cheered all the way back to the field and with a new intensity began warming up again. Field players re-warmed up their legs while keepers went into handling, and just when we were getting a rhythm, the siren sounded off again and we had to leave the field. Frustrated with having to get ten minutes here and there to warm up, we tried to stay upbeat by playing games while we waited.

We repeated this process about two more times after that, until finally we were cleared to play. At this point we were all excited and got in a quick 20 minute warm up. Once we got that out of the way, we skipped introductions and proceeded straight into the game. To be honest, I didn't have to do much throughout the entire game. I didn't rack up any saves, and only touched the ball a few times. The defense did an outstanding job keeping Navy out and preventing scoring opportunities. The one chance Navy did get was sent wide left and out of danger. Our midfield worked really hard, switching the point of attack and getting good opportunities to be dangerous on goal. Our forwards also worked tremendously hard and put a lot of shots on frame. After an exhausting 90 plus the two 10 minute overtime periods, we had a stalemate of 0-0.

We stayed to watch the first half of the Western Carolina game to see their style of play, while feasting on the dinner of Panera. Miami and Western Carolina started their game at 10 pm due to the weather delays and our overtime period. We were all exhausted from playing but got a lot out of watching game. Hopefully our scouting will pay off when we play them Sunday.

September 5th
We woke up later today because we had a day off until tomorrow's game against Western Carolina University. At breakfast, we were all finishing up when all of a sudden, completely out of the blue, a bird pooped on Kelly's leg while she was eating. Since we were eating inside, this made the incident even stranger.

After breakfast, we piled into the vans to go to Miami Beach for a recovery day. This got all the girls really excited, and we all threw on swimsuits and prepared to rush into the ocean the minute we saw it. We were worried at first because the weather at our hotel was really bad, with lots of rain and wind and a little bit of thunder. But as we got closer to Miami Beach, the weather cleared and soon enough we could see the clear blue ocean! We jumped out of the vans while the coaches tried to find parking, and when we saw the ocean, Willy threw all her stuff and just took off for the ocean, as well as a few other girls. The ocean was really warm and we all enjoyed floating around in the surf. We went through a bit of our pool recovery workout, but went back to our antics after a while, having fun just being in the ocean. We took a lot of pictures and joked about sharks in the water. When we finally had to get out, we had enjoyed the water, but were ready for lunch and a little bit of exploring. We were told to meet up at 12:30 to go back to the hotel. This gave us an hour and a half to explore and find stores like Miami Ink and Dash, popular TV show reality show stores. Jackie and I decided to find some food first before going exploring. We ate at this small Italian Cafe called Pinocchio's, and after lunch we went walking around, trying to find stores with souvenirs. We found a small store with a bunch of t-shirts and other trinkets.

After shopping, we all met at 12:30, where it proceeded to rain and we could hear thunder getting close to our location. Luckily the coaches showed up just in time, and we raced through the rain to the safety of the vans. The entire ride back from the beach was a show of thunder and lightning. It was pretty spectacular to see, even when the thunder was really loud and the rain a constant cover on the hood of the vans. When we returned to the hotel, we found that the power was out, and the hotel was running on emergency backup power which meant no hot water or AC. We dealt the best we could, taking showers in the dark and at one point, the fire alarms when off and when we went outside our room, there was smoke throughout the entire hotel and it smelled like something was burning. We just ignored it and when we went back out for dinner, the smell and smoke were gone.

Dinner was at the Cheesecake Factory. We couldn't find it at first, and went to some strange stairway that led to nothing. Finally, though, we were able to locate it in time for our reservation. Dinner was a lot of fun, where we played games while we waited for our food. One game, called "picnic" was most enjoyable, and the goal of the game was to frustrate Josie. We went around and around saying what we would bring to the picnic, and she just had no idea what the hidden rule was. We finally told her when she was really frustrated, and after joking and laughing about it, our dinner arrived.

When dinner was done, we looked around at a few of the shops and then went back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. Hopefully our good day today will translate over into a great game tomorrow.

September 6th
Today was our last game against Western Carolina University. We were really excited after watching them play the night before, as we knew we could take them. We got a nice early breakfast and after packing up our bags, we piled into the vans and headed to the fields. We got ourselves ready for the game, listening to music and lacing up our cleats. We had a great warm up and everything felt like it was going to be a great game.

Well, we had a great game, but unfortunately were unable to finish our shot. The Carolina keeper made some solid plays to preserve the tie and we were just unlucky with some of our shots. It was a well fought game and the defense, midfield, and forwards all made sure the ball stayed in the Western Carolina half of the field. We had a fitness advantage but the other team just was at the right place at the right time to deny us a goal. We ended the game exhausted and frustrated. We know that the goals will come eventually, and we feel sorry for the team that we unleash our finishing power on.

We all got a quick shower and loaded up into the vans to return the vehicles. We arrived at the airport two hours early and found some lunch. We then walked what seemed like forever to get to our gate and had a little bit of time to sit down and do homework/listen to iPod. Our flight left at 7:15 and the majority of the ride consisted of making fun of Skymall and listening to music. Thankfully our ride into Charlotte NC was smooth and when we landed Kelly and I had a contest to see who got more emails/texts while in flight. Kelly won, with five texts, and a voicemail while I just had an email. As we made the half mile journey to our next gate, some of the girls saw a Jamba Juice, and after dropping our bags off at the gate, we jogged back to pick up a smoothie for the last leg of the journey.

We boarded our final flight, which was a tiny plane, and some of us had the problem of stowing our carryon item. I ended up forcing the red duffel under the seat in front of me and putting my backpack in the overhead compartment, as there was no way the red duffle would fit. Our hour flight went by quickly and soon we were on the bus going back to UD and the comfort of our own beds. At midnight, we arrived back at school, really tired, but happy to be back. Can't wait to get back to training and face Ball State Friday!