NOTE: Ice Cream Sundae > Freeze Pops...

One week ago today we took on UW-Madison under the lights of Englemann Stadium. We unfortunately lost 2-1 in overtime, but we felt it was a step in the right direction as far as our shape and team mentality. Our goal came from super senior Sammy Vovos, who quite literally ran off the bench, on to the field and headed the ball in the goal with out stopping. We had a great student section and overall crowd at the game to make for an electric atmosphere. We really appreciate the fans for coming out and supporting your Panthers!

Our next match was against Iowa State, so we left early Saturday morning for the beautiful trip to Ames, Iowa! The highlight of our Saturday was getting ice cream after dinner! We would like to take this opportunity to call out Mel Coderre for ordering two freeze pops when she could have ordered ice cream, like the rest of us normal folk. The lovely ladies who we overwhelmed with our vast number of orders accidently made an extra chocolate dirty worm (basically a sundae with gummy worms) that Demi and myself got to share on top our mint chocolate chip ice cream cones (perks of being a senior and not Mel Coderre), needless to say it was delicious!

The game didn’t go as planned, Iowa State got a very fortunate goal on a hail mary shot early in the first half. We settled down and created some scoring opportunities, but couldn’t get a goal before half. We talked about keeping the ball more and looking to play feet instead of so direct at halftime. We came out with a lot of pressure, but credit to Iowa State for not giving up. They eventually got another goal late in the second half after we had pushed up to try to get a goal back. We were not happy with our over all play in this game but did learn a lot.

As stated in the last blog we will be rating our roommates from the trips so here they are:
- Helen stayed with Steph Condon and she gives her an A++ because she was hanging out with her family the whole time so she got the room all to herself!
- Demi stayed with Kelsey K and she giver her an A+ because she found the best movies on TV to watch such as A League of Their Own and she also likes to sleep in a cold room!

Solid roomies for the weekend! Big Shout out to the Scotts for the treat bags on the way home, they were amazing!!!

Come out this Saturday at 3p.m. to cheer on your Panthers in their first Horizon League game of the season vs Wright Sate!!!

Go Panthers!

Helen & Demi

No soccer, plenty of games at Purdue...

Greeting Panther Fans!

Lots happened this past weekend even though there was actually no game played. We left for Purdue on Thursday morning and compared to last trip it was very uneventful. The day was beautiful and sunny and our team was in particularly high spirits, mostly Emily Scott because Rihanna won the VMA for best video…..she cried in her towel.

Since we are roommates back in Milwaukee we don’t room together on trips and so we have decided we are going to start rating who we room with on our trips. Helen roomed with Kelly Lewers and is giving her a 'B' because she never had her key and wasn’t in the room that much but she gets positive remarks for watching funny videos with her. Demi roomed with Amy Kauffung and she is giving her a 'A' because she didn’t shower all weekend, so she had the shower all to herself, and spent memorable moments laughing at Emily Scott’s reaction Rihanna winning.

The next morning we woke up to a wonderful continental breakfast provided by the hotel that included a waffle and omelet station. An incident occurred in which there was a poorly-constructed joke by none other than media god Kevin Conway that occurred in the waffle station line. The story starts out that it was Kevin, then Demi and then Helen in line. We were commenting on the delishesness of the Danishes and how good the waffles looked when all of a sudden Kevin turns to us and says “It’s neither a pea nor a nut” and waited for our response. Needless to say we were stunned and to this very moment still do not understand said “joke”. [editor's note: It was "Y'know a danish is neither a pea nor a nut," a play on the fascinating fact about peanuts and a non sequitur. Understandably, probably not the setting for absurdist humor. An error in judgement on my part. - kc]

The rest of the day was nice and sunny and we rested for our game. We got to the field at 5 to be ready to warm up at 6 and promptly at 5:50 the first of many lightning stirkes occurred. For all of our non-soccer readers for every lightning strike the game gets delayed 30 minutes. So, we started a team game of hang man in the locker room waiting for the okay to go out on the field. After 26 games of hangman we moved on to Pictionary. We now had organized into teams and the competition was palpable. More lightning strikes occurred and we soon moved on to Charades. Shout out to Morgan LaPlant for coming up with all the words and phrases we had to either draw or act out…..MVP of the game for sure. Soon there was tornado sirens going off and the field had accumulated at least 3 inches of rain on it. So by 8:00, the game was called, but more importantly our Charades/Pictionary game was tied 31-31. We solved this problem on the bus ride home with a classic breath-holding contest. The rules were that the last person holding their breath wins it all for their team and if you passed out it was an automatic victory. Demi’s team won but she was the first one out. Helen took an acceptable third place finish. Credit to Sammy Vovos for securing the victory for her team.

Thanks to all the parents and fans who came out even though we didn’t have a game! Big shout out to the Scott’s and Kauffung’s who made treat bags for our ride home!

We are hoping to reschedule this game sometime in the near future but in the mean time come out and support us this Wednesday vs UW-Madison!!! The game is 7 p.m. at Engelmann!

Go Panthers!

Helen & Demi

[editor's note: A peanut is actually a "legume." - kc]

A Loose Interpretation Of The Road Trip To Illinois...

Greetings Panther Fans!

We took our first road trip of the year to luxurious Champaign, Illinois. We started the trip with a 5-star cooler lunch spread, featuring an incredible view of I-94 from the always-favorite Oasis. We arrived at our hotel, if you could call a 50-story international resort a hotel. Then we left, in our 200-yard limousine, to go to practice. We were greeted outside the football fieldhouse, if you could call a 50,000-seat stadium a fieldhouse, by a bevy of albino doves (we each got to take one home more on that later). Then as a welcome gift Illinois had personally flown in world-renowned hockey superstar Patrick Kane to help us with our training session and offer support.

Many of you readers may not know but Helen and, as she affectionately calls him "Patty Watty," went to high school together (true story) and actually lived about five miles from each other. So it was a sort of homecoming of sorts for her. Pat greeted her with a huge embrace and they were so happy to rekindle their friendship.

Demi, a hockey-loving-maple syrup drinking-Calgarian, started weeping uncontrollably. Our trainer Chad was forced to immediately sedate her (totally legitimate sedation) as she lost control of all body functions and became clearly disoriented. Demi was unable to practice due to her condition, but was able to play in the game the next day due to a hearty bowl of cinnamon toasters (knock off brand).

After our training session Pat flew everyone in his jet the the miles to Olive Garden, if you could call a 7-star lounge bistro an Olive Garden, where everyone was treated to unlimited pasta, bread sticks and salad. After dinner Pat got in his plane and flew back to Chicago and we in our limo back to our “hotel,” where everyone was treated to their own private suite and complementary bubble bath, and that is how the best day of our lives came to an end.

We arrived to the field the next day knowing that Illinois was going to be a good test for us. Both teams came out battling, but unfortunately Illinois got on the board first. We went into half time down 0-1 on this very hot and humid day. The second half didn’t go as we hoped, giving up two more goals, but we did score a very nice goal as well. Kelsey Holbert drove end line and hit a nice cross to which Kelly Lewers put in the back of the net. While unhappy with the loss we were overall happy with the improvement in our team shape and possession.

A big shout our to Carol Forbes for making the team treat bags for the ride home, they were awesome!!!

P.S. All doves and alive and healthy except for Hannah Kaul’s, which due to unfortunate bath room incident is no longer with us.

Go Panthers!
Helen & Demi

Disclaimer: Our account of this trip is loosely based on real details.