Going into the North Carolina Wesleyan tournament our soccer team was 3-0-1 with 4 shutouts and a 3-game winning streak. This gave our team the confidence to go into every game to play hard and to “make history,” which is part of our witness the rising theme. We have a list of goals to accomplish in order to win an ODAC championship and in the weeks preceding this tournament the pieces were coming together much faster than what coach was expecting. We knew going into the tournament that winning it would mean making history again by winning our second straight tournament. We also knew we would be closer to accomplishing another goal.
On Friday we stepped off the bus ready to go against North Carolina Wesleyan. Going into the game our goals were to let no goals get past and have another win by dominating the game. We did just that. We won with class and confidence against N.C. Wesleyan, 6-0. Coach congratulated us on another win and shutout, and then turned our attention to Saturday’s game against Meredith. It was already time to start thinking about and focusing on what this game would bring because we knew it would be a battle until the end!
As a new tradition on our overnight trips we do a team building activity. It brings our team closer together and we get to see a goofy side of each other that doesn’t show on the field. Last year at this tournament we had a song to sing and dance which brought many laughs and memories to our new team. This year coach got the bright idea to have the Bridgewater Women’s Soccer Wacky Tacky fashion show. We were split into three groups and had to come up with a song, a speaker, and outfits. Each group had picked a theme for their fashion show - one chose holidays, another was celebrities, and the third group was wacky tacky. Some holidays and celebrities featured in the fashion show were St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Paris Hilton, Richard Simmons, and Hannah Montana. The wacky tacky group had just the most random outfits from workout clothes, to a cat suit for the announcer. Every single outfit was outrageous in all three groups and I haven’t seen people laugh so hard in my life. Coach was falling off of his chair because he was laughing hysterically and girls had tears coming out of their eyes.
After a long and interesting night we woke up Saturday morning, went to brunch, walked around the mall, and then headed to the field to get ready for our game. While watching the first half of the other game it was time to think about what we needed to accomplish once we stepped on the field.
Once the whistle blew it was game on. There must have been some pre-game jitters because it took us a while to settle down as Meredith scored the first goal of the game. This is also the first goal we had scored against us! I’m not going to lie, it hurt pretty deep. All of us wanted to keep our shutouts going. We gathered in a huddle to refocus and got past the score. We then answered with two goals to take the lead before halftime.
Coach reminded us of what we needed to do going into the second half- play hard because they were coming after us. It was a battle for the first 20 minutes and Saytay (Sarah Taylor) scored a header and had the best goal celebration I have seen in a while, although Coach thought otherwise. HaHa. It was an ecstatic run and an Indian call! Go Saytay. I can’t wait to see the next one!
With less than 10 minutes to go in the game they scored from a penalty kick from a controversial call, but there is nothing we could do about it, but to let it go. Then they turned around and scored twice more to end up winning 4-3. It was a very disappointing loss to our team, but we have to learn from our experience to come together as a team and pull through for each other like I know we can!
- Jess Palmer
