Aug. 23, 2000

By Debbie Lieberman

Monday night was great! What a great start to the season. The day wasn't too shabby either on Monday. I feel as if our team is standing on a springboard, ready to explode to our full potential as a team!

During the day, we met with our sports psychologist, Rob Kehoe. I really feel as if his focus is on the right aspects of the game. In this session, we set our season goals and what we need to do to get there.

We spoke about how a person can be the best "team player" she can be. I think that's so important to a team in order to keep team unity.

It's easy to slide off the edge onto one's own a little. But as long as we're focused on the "team's benefit" and how we can all contribute to reach our ultimate goals, it's easier to stay on track.

I believe that this little mental session got us all in the right frame of mind to approach the scrimmage against American that night.

As one unit we stepped onto the field. Warm up was just right, intensity right. We were there to win and play beautiful soccer. In pregame, we were told, "always play as if it's 0-0, the intensity must persist throughout the entire 90 minutes!"

That was our goal. Full-out intense soccer.

Well, Mr. Kehoe, I feel as if today, we took one step closer to accomplishing our goal. We came out fired up and ready to play. In the first 30 minutes, we put four goals in the back of the net. Four goals! Everyone did their part. We had cheering from the bench, positive comments and it was like magic.

We scored seven goals against American and one being my first collegiate goal. (I don't like to toot my own horn, but all those first timers out there can understand my excitement.) After that ball went into the net, it was like everything else melted away - no pain - no tiredness - it was pure adrenaline and the want to do anything for your team.

Being a defender most of my life, I haven't had a chance to feel this side of the game often, but to let you all know, it's a great feeling to finally score after preventing goals so many times.

So, we completed our second scrimmage of the preseason and make way for our first regular-season game, Friday night at Rutgers.

I think it's going to be a great year. We've got the minds (thanks to Kehoe), we've got the bodies and we've got the spirit to connect this year and make magic happen. We've done the prep, now all we can do is let it come and do our thing.

I think we can do it!