Jenny's Journal: First road trip of the year

This weekend, we had our first road trip of the season, where we went to play Louisiana Tech and Texas Christian University. After only our second day of classes, we got on the bus on Thursday and started the long 6 hour trip to Ruston, La. We got in and had a really good dinner at Chili’s, where most of us paired up and got the 2 for $20 deal they advertise. For anyone that cares, their guacamole appetizer is REALLY spicy!! Not okay Chili’s, not okay. After Chili’s we had a “Jersey Shore watching party” in our room. I admit, that’s the first time I have EVER watched an entire episode of that show. And I kinda liked it.

So we began the weekend at Louisiana Tech, a team we played to a 0-0 tie last year at Pritchett Field. This year we played them on their home turf for their home season opener. From the beginning, we couldn’t quite keep possession of the ball, and we kept having to chase a less talented LA Tech team all over the field. The second half was a better though. With about 20 minutes left in the game, we got a free kick around the midfield line. Kayla Anderson took the kick, and placed it perfectly in front of the Tech keeper, where Emily Edenstrom got her head on it and flicked it to Tricia Mallory for our first goal of the season. It was a good goal off of a set piece, which we work on a lot in practice. That goal seemed to wake LA Tech up though, and within the last 5 minutes of the game, they scored two goals to beat us. And that’s about all I have to say about that.

Saturday, we left for TCU, which was about a 5 hour bus ride from Ruston. When we got in, we went to practice on their field. They have a GORGEOUS facility! A HUGE field with what looked like a practice field next to it, and soccer specific locker rooms and training rooms. The grass was super short, which made it a very fast field as well. We did some finishing drills and some position work, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We went to SouperSalad, which was really good! We cleaned out all of their mac and cheese, and all of their soft serve toppings! After dinner we had a little team meeting where people got to know each other. Did you know that Kelsi Brown is part Norwegian? And Carli Rheman can ride a unicycle? Or that Cat has a cat named Cat? Yeah, me neither.

Sunday, we played TCU at 1 pm. We got off to a little bit of a slow start and got scored on about 4 minutes into the game. After we had settled down, we were creating some good chances against them! TCU is a good team, and we were sticking with them in the first half. We also got some great looks in the second half, with Kirby Zak hitting the crossbar from about 40 yards out (so close!) and Adriana Vasquez getting in behind their defense and almost scoring. I think we were a little tired though, and we gave up 5 goals in the second half. I know 6-0 is an awful score line, but as crazy as this sounds, we played much better than we had Friday night. We were moving the ball a lot quicker, and moving around for each other more.

We have a lot to work on in practice next week, but good things to build on too. We can’t wait for our home opener, and we hope that everyone can make it out! Friday night we play UNT at 7 pm at Pritchett! Come out and support us!

-- Jenny Pence
Senior Keeper