What's Up With Women's Soccer - Journal No. 7
10/10/2000 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 10, 2000
An emotional roller coaster- that's what everyone at the field that night felt. Friday night we played Virginia: a regional as well as ACC rival, this game meant a lot. We knew this. They knew this. All that was left was the deciding factor: the game.
Maryland Terrapins score two goals against number 15 ranked Virginia in the first half. What would appear to be a pretty comfortable win was a dangerous position that evening. Our emotions were soaring, our adrenaline pumping, and our hearts racing. This is what we had been working for all week. We knew we could do it. Just 45 minutes until we tasted the sweetest victory. Everything had been falling into place or so it seemed. About 25 minutes left and they put a goal in the back of our net. It was ok though. We still had it. We kept battling. It was a hard fought game.
Wait, what did you say? A free kick where? My heart came down from its high place above to the realistic positioning of a tie: 2-2. It was ok though. We had been fighting hard the whole game. We had come this far, we were not going to let them take this from us.
Just for a moment, I wish that I was situationally dyslexic so that instead of our roller coaster plummeting downward, it climbed upward. Unfortunately this was not the case.
I, along with the rest of the people there on that chilly fall evening, witnessed a heart-wrenching occurrence. Virginia scored their 3rd and final goal with about 12 minutes left. We kept fighting. We never gave up. But apparently gravity was against us and our win over the first half went down in the books as a loss finishing the second.
Silence. Silence of sound, silence of the heart, and silence of the mind overcame us all. Numbness. The changing of emotion so quickly is almost impossible for the body to take.
I guess, in a way, this is one of the reasons that keeps us playing the game: Not knowing who's going to win until the final whistle is blown, the changing of emotion from happy to sad and sad to happy. It's all relevant. That day I wished we all walked on our hands, read from right to left, and Maryland wound up on top.
This may not have been the case this time, but we file it, learn from it, and grow from it and next time, we won't have to see the world backwards to be satisfied, the score will read Maryland on top and Virginia on their heads.
