Week 2: Kats experience premier soccer venue
9/1/2015 12:04:00 PM | Soccer
Hello! Last week was hectic but fun. We were busy preparing for two big games last weekend against Florida Atlantic University and Rice University, but it was fun because everyone was so excited and couldn't wait for the weekend to get here. Each practice consisted of high intensity drills along with a few short-sided games. While the drills are played at game-pace and repeated until perfected, it is so much fun to watch the team get better as the week progresses.
Now usually, before home game on Fridays, we do team bonding on Thursday nights. Sometimes we go play sand volleyball or we do a team dinner/game night at someone's house! Last Thursday, we went to play sand volleyball with everyone. It gets a little competitive but in a hilarious way. It's always fun getting to hang out with everyone outside of soccer.
On Friday, we left for College Station to play Florida Atlantic University. It really is amazing to watch our team compete with some top-ranked teams in the nation. Unfortunately we lost 2-0, but the scoreboard doesn't do our team justice with how we played. We forced them to play with us and play our style of soccer. It's always remarkable to me to watch a team adjust to how we play rather than us adjust to how they play. I was really proud of our team for how we played for the majority of the game.
We had a recovery practice on Saturday just to get our muscles loose from Friday's game. We also did a walk-through to give us an idea of what Sunday's game was going to be like. Our game against Rice was one I know our team will never forget. Our coach, Tom Brown, went through a lot of trouble to allow us an opportunity of a lifetime. We got to play at the Houston Dash/Dynamo stadium. It was nerve racking for sure because we had never played in a stadium like that, but everyone was so excited to have that opportunity.
Rice was a very good team but we expected them to be so we were prepared to play hard until the 90 minutes was up. It was a very intense game and at no time was there any room to let up. We ended up losing 2-0 but our team played hard until the very last minute. I was very proud of each and every one of the girls for putting the effort they did out there. After they got the two goals in the first half, we limited their opportunities in the second half to assure that they wouldn't score any more goals. We had a few missed opportunities but I know that come Friday's game against Baylor, we will capitalize on those opportunities if we get them again.
