Christian Lewis Journal Entry No. 10- The Terps Face Must-Win Situation Against ACC Rival
10/30/2000 7:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Oct. 30, 2000
Christian Lewis Journal #10
It seems as though after losing to Clemson this weekend we have no options but to win our final game of the season on Friday against Virginia. Unfortunately we had our five game winning streak come to an end Saturday night. It was an emotional night as all the seniors were honored in our last home game. We started out well holding Clemson to few opportunities and creating a few of our own. Their first goal hurt us going into halftime, but everyone felt confident that we could come back. We have had a problem all year of not responding well to giving up a goal. Well, our problems continued as Clemson scored twice more in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Even though we were three goals down, we continued to fight and managed to get two goals back. The problem was that while we did come back, we had already put ourselves in such a big hole that it is hard to get out of.
The game was especially disappointing considering how hard we fought earlier in the week to beat a difficult Loyola team. The game was very physical and came down to a penalty kick in the last 15 minutes. There were signs of the hard work and grit we showed against Loyola in the Clemson game but it was not there for the entire 90 minutes. It should not take three goals to finally get us going.
What a way to finish up the regular season this Friday night. We are playing our biggest rival in our biggest game of the year. We must go to UVA and do whatever it takes to win. With this in mind, winning at Klockner is one of the more difficult things to do in college soccer. UVA always plays well at home and they get great crowd support. Add to the fact that it is their last home game and things seem even more difficult. Two years ago we went down there and were absolutely embarrassed 4-1. In order for us to win this weekend everyone will have to play their best game of the year. From myself and the defenders all the way up to the strikers we have to play our most connected game of the year. One positive that we have is that we have already played two games there this year and played pretty well. As my year comes to an end there are many things I wish I would have accomplished but didn't. Winning at UVA is one of them and this weekend we have a chance to do just that.
