Sept. 29, 2009

Flyers vs. George Washington
Our team had a great start to the Atlantic 10 conference this past weekend! We tallied a delightful 4-0 win over George Washington University at their home field.

It was a quick flight over to Washington DC. The usual plans to land at the airport, pick up the vans, and head to the hotel to get settled in all ran very smoothly.

After that we took a nice scenic route of Washington D.C. Apart from the rain and me sleeping half the time (I took a few sleeping pills earlier) it was a nice experience. Unfortunately though, our van was the only one who did not see the White House when we apparently passed it. We were also a little rusty on our history as we couldn't name half the monuments and buildings. I'm from Canada though, so I didn't really count.

After the sight seeing, we headed for a delicious meal that Jerica (DeWolfe)and her family coordinated for us at their beautiful home. This meal was so good. So good that our trainer Lisa (Schulte) made a comment about how we looked like we had never eaten before. Anyway, after that we drove back to the hotel for the night.

I won't mention any names of the people who got lost on the way home but let's just say it got interesting when Tania (Assistant Coach Armellino) had to go rescue the stranded in the middle of D.C. I think we all got a good laugh out of that. We always need some mishap to go down on a trip or else it just isn't a memorable one I guess.

On a more serious note, Coach Tucker went over the George Washington scouting report for us that night and we were all focused on what was needed to be done for the game.

Wake up call was at 8:30 a.m., where we ate a quick hotel breakfast and then had a couple hours of leisure time before we headed to our 1:00 p.m. match.

After arriving to the field we quickly put our gear on and started the warm-up. We played on a turf field so we knew the ball was going to move rather quickly. We established that we must keep as much possession of the ball as possible and attack them right off the get go. If we were to score an early goal it would take a lot of pressure off us and allow us to keep control of the game. We did exactly that! In the first 30 seconds Kelly (Blumenschein) dribbled a quick ball to the end line where she was able to get a nice cross off into the box. Lauren Mac (MacCormick) was in the perfect spot and finished on a beautiful header. That really got our game tempo up high as we continued pressing George Washington for the remainder of the half.

The second half was even better then the first where we continued to challenge GW and create more goal scoring opportunities. We moved the ball around well, switched the point of attack and defended in a smart manner. Mandi Bäck put the second goal away when she cracked a shot just outside the 18-yard box. I followed with the third goal of the match where Mandi and I put a nice combination play together. Colleen Williams then finished it off on a penalty shot just minutes left in the game. It was an exciting 4-0 shutout and we were all proud of how we opened our first A-10 conference weekend.

After our game, we had some hours to spare before our late flight home. The coaches took us to Georgetown where we ate dinner and had some leisure time to shop and get some souvenirs. We returned the vans soon after that and then headed for the airport. We came to find out our flight was delayed a few hours and we were all pretty bummed. We then reminded ourselves that we would have even more bonding time together, yes!

The flight was a smooth one and we all made it home safely from Washington D.C. Again, it was a successful weekend and we were all very proud of ourselves.

Way to go Flyers!!

Cara Cornacchia