Oct 22, 2014

Some off-the-field fun

Hello fans!

BILB is back—we hope you didn’t miss us too much. Since we last wrote, we have had three games, one at the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay (L 2-0), and two at home against Wright State University (L 1-0) and Oakland University (T 0-0).

We wish we could be reporting better results, but unfortunately this is the way things have gone the past two weeks. We did not come out strong enough in the first half of our Green Bay match, and that cost us. We gave up a goal in the first twenty minutes, and could not get much going after that. Credit to Green Bay for a hard fought match. We then returned home for a game against Wright State. Despite having a stronger start and creating some early chances, we got scored on again in the first twenty minutes of the match with a redirected finish off a couple of players in the box. We responded well and attempted seventeen shots in the game, compared to Wright State’s two, but we could not find the back of the net. We worked extremely hard in training in our break and really tried to get regrouped for Saturday’s matchup with Oakland.

We again outshot our opponents, this time 11-8 and generated 7 corner kicks. We had a couple of great chances and near goals by Krissy Dorre, Maria Stephans, Morgan LaPlant, Kelly Lewers, and Sydney Senn. (Highlights). We are just struggling to find the back of the net. We are in the midst of a dry spell worse than the drought of ’77. Goal time is coming soon!

Looking ahead, we play the top two ranked teams in the conference, Valparaiso and Detroit, both on the road. We travel to the undefeated (in conference) Valpo for a mid-week match up Wednesday at 7:30.

Though we are really not satisfied with our results, particularly in the Horizon League so far, we’ve had a couple of great reminders of how awesome it is to be a Panther lately that we wanted to shed light on. Though we certainly would be happy with a few more wins under our belt and increasing the level of our play, we can not help but reflect on how great our Panther family is.

Last week we spent our Friday night carving pumpkins together. It is always a fun time when we get the team together off the field, and this proved to be no different. We each have our own talents, as you can see, but it has been a tradition these last few years that we’re hoping will continue for a long time to come.

The Oakland match was also our Pink Out Day in which we support Breast Cancer awareness and fundraising organizations. With many players’ families affected by breast cancer, this was another reminder of how lucky we are and just how much we all care about each other. Shout out to Dave for picking out some cool pink jerseys!

After the Oakland match, the Manski Family, with the help of the Wests and many other parents, set up a pretty awesome tailgate, with huge grills, a refrigerator, tables, chairs, and about 10 tables of food aka heaven on earth for us hungry Panthers. Even though we were all disappointed with our tie, we had a great time and it was so nice to get everyone together. Thank you Awesome Amusements!

As if we hadn’t eaten enough already…. we then went to Caity Bestwina’s house where her family (and perfect dog) set up a Caramel Apple Bar. M&Ms, nuts, oreos, chocolate drizzle, marshmallows, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, cool whip, gluten free oreos, the whole nine yards. We were able to get together, smile, and enjoy each others’ company once again. When things have not been going as planned, this is a pretty neat thing, and we know it’s something we are really going to miss next year. Can you tell we are seniors? How sentimental are we???!!

We also know that our season is not done yet. We are looking forward to these last few road trips and games and truly want nothing more than two good wins. We hope to be blogging about just that next week.

This week: #RISEANDROARontheroad


Kels and Morgs