Sunday, Nov. 15
You win some and you lose some. Coming to Michigan for our first ever NCAA tournament was both exciting and nerve-racking. No one really knew what to expect and it would have been easy to drive six hours to Michigan and let teams walk all over us since we weren’t expected to be there in the first place. This, however, was not the way we wanted to end our season. All year, we’ve put our heart, sweat and tears into every single game. No matter who our opponents were, this team has never backed down from anyone. Beating Indianapolis on Friday was a great feeling and an even bigger confidence booster heading into our game today. Stepping onto the field, everyone was in high spirits and ready to play the game of our lives. It’s never easy to lose a big game like this one, but the way we fought until the end was unbelievable. Never once did we shy away from this number 3 team in the nation and never once did we doubt ourselves. We pushed and pushed until the last five minutes when we were unfortunate to get an unlucky foul called by the ref. I know on the score board it says that Grand Valley won the game but this team has won so much more than them. While overcoming so many people doubting our ability and team, we fought our way through this season to make history. No one can ever say that they were the first soccer team at Bellarmine University to make it to the NCAA tournament. It was a long, hard road and we knew we could persevere no matter what because we believed in ourselves. Walking off the field today was not an easy thing to do, but looking around at all the people that were there to support us and walking off together really made this whole season one for the record books.
Saturday, Nov. 14
As usual, we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to the field for our Saturday morning practice. Again, we had exactly sixty minutes to be on the game field, so we warmed up and got straight to work. We took it pretty easy since yesterday was a tough game and we have an even bigger game tomorrow. We played several warm up games and had a walk through so that we could go over a couple of last minute details. After practice we ate lunch and had plenty of time to shower and hang out in the hotel. We then went to a nearby theatre and saw “Law Abiding Citizen” with Gerard Butler, he was the main reason we chose the movie. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant and then we headed back to the hotel. To finish the evening, we had a group meeting to watch the film from Friday’s game and go over our game plan for the morning. You could feel the excitement as we all walked out of the room. Tomorrow will definitely be a day we will always remember. Win or lose, we’re walking onto the field together, as a team, and walking off together, as the ‘water buffalo!’ Go Knights!
Friday, Nov. 13
Waking up bright and early for a morning run wasn’t hard to do. As easy as it was to be excited and nervous, the team seemed calm and collected after we went for a light jog and ate some breakfast. After breakfast we had a couple hours to hang out and mentally prepare for the big game. Around eleven we gathered together in a conference room at the hotel to have our pre-game talk to discuss our goals for the game. We then hopped on the bus to head to the field to start warming up around noon. When the game started, we could tell right away that we had come ready to play. Jonathan told us that the goal for the start of the game was to attack and attack fast. We scored in the twenty eighth minute when Danielle crossed the ball into the box and Alex headed it past the goalie. Scoring the first goal was major for us and it gave us a huge advantage going into the second half. We definitely pushed our way through the second half and held the score to our typical 1-0 victory. We could not be happier with the results from today but know that we have to refocus our attention to Grand Valley this Sunday. Go Knights!
Thursday, Nov. 12
First day of the NCAA trip to Michigan! The bus left around seven in the morning on Thursday, November 12. Having made the NCAA tournament for the first time in the school’s history is a great accomplishment and we could start to feel the excitement on the bus. Well, maybe not when we first got on the bus, but once everyone woke up and started talking about the day/days to come, the enthusiasm was contagious. After a seven hour long bus ride, we arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan and checked into our hotel. We drove to Grand Valley’s game field so that we could have a short one hour practice. The magnitude of this weekend started to set in when the coaches told us that we were not allowed on the field because they would start the timer. Everyone was laughing and joking about how silly it seemed that we were only allowed to have an exact sixty minute time frame to practice on the game field. This was one of the small, but precise details that comes along with being in such a high level tournament. After practice, we came back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner at Olive Garden. Then, after dinner, we had a short meeting to watch film from the last time we play Indianapolis and to discuss the plans for the big day tomorrow.
