A Season of Firsts

Sept. 17

After losing an All-American and top goal scorer to graduation I was worried for this season; but when I stepped on the turf the first day of preseason and saw 29 other girls, I knew this would be a special year. With a record of 3-1-1, a national ranking, and 26 teammates, I'm in a whole new playing field. Only four weeks into the season and I have come across a lot of "firsts" in my career. The first time my team has had to make cuts, the first time we have had a winning record to start the season, and the first time I have seen a number next to my team's name in the NCAA rankings. I am a junior, halfway done with my collegiate career, but this season is proving to be pretty spectacular. With each practice and game my hopes and expectations for the season climb higher and higher.

For the first time in my athletic career I experienced the stresses and pressures that come with the possibility of being "cut." I have always been one to complain about a sense of complacency that occurs within a team when no one is battling for a position; but when the possibility of losing my starting spot arose I was eating my words. I wanted competition within the team…just not for my spot. But the constant fight for positions has proven to be very rewarding for our team. The practices are more intense, people are putting in extra work outside of practice, and we finally have subs!

The change in our practice environment has provided some positive results thus far this season. The success began in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Wesleyan Tournament. Our first game was a 2-1 victory over Salisbury, a very tough team physically. On day two we took on 17th ranked Virginia Wesleyan. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, both goals scored on penalty kicks, but our performance was not disappointing. The following weekend we came away 2-0 in our home tournament, beating 18th ranked Elizabethtown.

But the season hasn't been perfect. Our most recent game was a hard-to-swallow 3-0 loss to Capital, a team ranked below us in our region. I'm not worried though, two days into practice this week and the team is only looking more focused and driven. The theme of this week's practices has been putting the ball in the back of the net. We play "pretty" possession soccer, but we're not scoring enough goals. If we can start finishing our opportunities we will have no problem grabbing a lot more wins this season.

Carnegie Mellon women's soccer has never been to the NCAA tournament. This has been a season of firsts thus far and I expect that trend to continue.

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