Sept. 11, 2000

By Debbie Lieberman

We're there, we're there, we're almost there, but not quite. It was a disappointing road trip this past weekend. We traveled down to Richmond for a game that was to be a battle. It's not as easy to write about a loss as it is for a win, so this is going to be brief.

We departed from College Park Saturday afternoon. Everyone was psyched to play and ready to win. We had a great practice the day before. We had that connected feeling again. We did. I know we did. We traveled down to Richmond, watching a movie on the bus that we were all into.

Once we arrived in Richmond, we went to the famous Ukrops grocery store for our pregame meal. Now, this isn't just a regular grocery store: it is one that has a variety of pre-cooked and fresh food that one could order, sit down and eat there. It was delicious to say the least. We walked out of there with our stomachs full and fuel in our tanks, ready to play.

An interesting run-in while we were there though. Who else to show up to our pre-game meal is of course, our opponent, Richmond. An odd interaction. Some people on both teams knew each other and there were a few hellos. But it was a strange thing to happen before we were to go out and play.

Entering the university grounds, we were excited. We had a little extra time before we needed to get dressed and ready, so our freshmen volunteered to sing our team song. The performance was fun and we entered the locker room with an energy level that could carry us through an intense game.

Good thing that our energy level was up, because that is what we needed to get us fighting through this game. Richmond scored off a throw-in within the first couple minutes. It was a sour moment, partly because those of us who saw the ball go out of bounds, knew that the call by the referee may have been wrong. The ball actually went off the other team's foot. It also hurt because they scored off a throw in, which is what, we traditionally score goals on.

A sour moment, however, not one to cry over. We had the rest of the game to fight back and show people who the better team on that field was. We fought alright. We fought long and hard. Unfortunately, despite the effort, heart and soul laid out on the field, we were unable to put one in the back of the net.

This loss was taken hard because not only was it a regional game, it was our hearts out there, fighting every moment.

But I guess we can take something from this game. Something that we all know, but we relearned: there are 90 minutes to a soccer game. Unfortunately, we only played for 75...that hurt us.

So we take this game, and like the food we ate at Ukrops, use it as fuel for the rest of the season. With each game we play, we learn what we have to do, to get where we want to be.