Today is her third entry of the campaign as she chronicles the adventures of the team during her senior season.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hello Hello!
After a couple of cold, windy & wet practices and games, the summer warmth seems long gone, so happy fall everyone! Our season has picked up as well, with a long stretch of a game pretty much every 3/4 days since September 11. We’ve won our last three, which is always much more fun to write about than any losses, so here we go!
Wright State
Since I last wrote, we went to Wright State for a Saturday afternoon game. As mentioned, we stopped in my hometown on Friday on the way to the game and had a nice lunch and some time to play with my dog, Tillie. We were also fortunate to hear a musical performance by our very own, Lauren Rice and Lolo Onwuemeka. (I’ve also learned that very few of the girls on the team even read this blog, (not sure why??!), but I think that allows me to comment freely!) Lauren is very talented on the piano, and Lolo was, well, passionate, with the vocals. After another long bus trip, we made it there, and were able to come away with a 1-0 win on Saturday. Anna Smalley scored on a Maria Stephans set piece early in the game and we held on from there. Jen Eberhardy scored a goal (?) which would have given us a nice 2-0 lead in the first half. But, it wasn’t counted, so Yenni Cuatro remains on the hunt for her first goal on the season. I’m sure she’ll be first to let you all know when she finds one! :)
The night before the Green Bay game, some of the girls and all of the coaches hosted a youth clinic, which was a blast. Even better was the girls who showed up the next day at our game wearing their “Sydney buns” just like Sydney Senn sported the night before. They were like magnets to her. Hats off to Syd for being so good with the kids! It was great to have their support— maybe some future Panthers in that bunch!
Green Bay
It was another beautiful night at Engelmann, and we broke out the long sleeves for the first night of the season, after nearly a month of Anna Smalley’s begging. We had another quick start and Sydney Senn scored a great goal on a goal kick that was miscleared from Green Bay’s backline. (The Sydney bun girls cheered loudly!!) Just a few minutes later, Anna Smalley cleaned up one of my shots that the keeper had hit off the cross bar for our second goal. We let in a goal before finishing the game 3-1 with another goal by Smalley. After tying Madison and Marquette 1-1, (and Madison and Marquette tying each other 1-1 in an exhibition game earlier this season,) we were happy to get out of all those ties with a win against another Wisconsin team.
Youngstown
Finally, this weekend we had a 'Pink Out' for the game against Youngstown State. Not only do we love the Pink Out for the pictures, pink jerseys, and cute headbands we get to wear, but also because it is a special day for many people on the team: to honor loved ones they have lost, celebrate the survivors in their lives, and support those who continue to fight. This year, it was a special day capped off with a great team effort and win. Four Panthers scored, Anna Smalley again with the first goal, Callie O’Donnell to give us a 2-0 lead, Mariah Downs with a great first career goal and Maria with a cheeky set-piece goal for the icing on the cake. That puts us off to a 4-0 start in conference. While we are happy with where we sit in conference right now, we know we have a lot of work to do to finish the rest of the season the way we’d like to. Our games are much more spread out now, so we’ll have time for training and preparation, which we know will need to be well spent.
Until next time, go Panthers!!
Kelsey
