The start of the Horizon League is like the start of a new season. While games early in the season certainly do matter, if we lose one it doesn’t have much of a consequence in the next game. In conference play, however, our record decides who hosts the Horizon League Conference Tournament and whoever wins the tournament gets to go on to the NCAA tournament. And starting the first game of the conference was one our biggest foes, Loyola.
We always expect Loyola to come out their hardest when they play us, and it usually takes close to our best play to beat them because they have a desire to win. So we knew it would not be an easy game at all, even though they were missing their star forward (Cynthia M.A.).
Late in the first half, Keara Thompson served a great ball into Sarah Hagen’s head, which she calmly placed in the left corner of the goal. I think that first goal really helped our mentality going into the second half. We knew we had the advantage and we just wanted to get more goals. Which we did! Sarah Talbert had a stellar finish off a cross from Apple as well as a rocket into the lower left corner from 25 or so yards our to tally two goals, and Apple had one more goal as she broke away from the defender that was grabbing her arm to put another one away. I love when Apple gets on those breakaways because short of fouling, there isn’t a whole lot the defense can do to stop her. Lastly was Nicole Sperl’s goal which was a ball she served in, and Kelly McGrath did a great job of getting in the keepers way to let the ball slip through.
The whole game was played in the rain which made the surface slippery and caused a lot of falls, but none of it mattered after the game was done and we had won 5-1. The night continued to be fantastic because the coaches informed us that we had two practices off, which was much needed after a month of combined soccer and school stresses were taking their toll.
On Sunday morning the team did the run for breast cancer, and it was amazing to see so many people out supporting the cause. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was a very enjoyable event. Countless people came up to me as I was walking home and told me how much they appreciated the athletic teams doing that--even away from the race site! It was a very humbling, enjoyable experience.
All in all, it was a great way to start off our season and a fantastic weekend!
See you all soon at Butler and Valpo!
