Blogging the Buckeyes: Courtney Jenkins – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
After two huge wins against USD and USC we traveled to Las Vegas to continue our west coast journey.
On Monday morning we packed up the bus and headed out for a nice breakfast. After the team meal, we began the long trip to Vegas. What was supposed to be a 4-5 hour bus trip, turned into an interesting 7-8 hours. Our bus continually overheated so we had to keep stopping and slowing down which added some time to the trip. Also, we stopped in Barstow at a “famous” bus stop for lunch and snacks. Our last stop was at an outlet mall, which of course included the team’s much loved Nike store. Although the trip turned into a day-long event, it was neat to see the mountains and desert scenery that we aren’t used to back here in Ohio! Once we finally arrived at our hotel, we had the option to eat dinner with the team or hang out with our parents. Genna Brand, Lauren Steuer, and I ended up on the Las Vegas strip with our parents. We walked around the beautiful Mirage hotel and ate a delicious dinner at certain pizza place that bears California’s name.
Tuesday was a fun sightseeing day! In the morning we traveled a half hour or so to Hoover Dam. We went on a little tour and learned all about how it was made, how it works, etc. All those crazy engineering details pretty much went right over my head, but oh well! The dam was really cool! Some of us were a tad bit scared and could barely look over the ledge, but it was still a great experience! The team took many pictures and had a great time. After a much needed lunch at Subway, we were dropped off at Caesar’s Palace on the strip for a couple hours of free time. Caesar’s Palace contains a HUGE mall, which the majority of us spent all our time in. NikeTown, of course, was the hot spot! Some girls also were able to see the Bellagio water show, which they said was really neat. After an exciting morning and afternoon of sightseeing, shopping, and spending time together, it was then time to go back to the hotel and prepare for a light practice. We practiced at 6:30 on Tuesday night to try to avoid some of the heat. The practice included some small sided possession in the 18 yard box, a review of attacking patterns, and short sided 11v11. By the time we got to 11v11 it was pretty dark out so we had to cut our practice a little short. After practice, we headed to Olive Garden for our team meal!
Wednesday was GAME DAY!!!! We started off the morning with a light set pieces session like we do on every game day. We take these practices very seriously and try to make our corners and set pieces as game-like as possible. A tremendous amount of focus is demanded from everyone. We believe that set pieces can make the difference between winning and losing. After the session in the blistering heat, we went back to the hotel to relax and pack. Our 1:30 pregame meal was at Applebees. The girls at my table were in crazy hyper moods and played a paper football game while we waited for the food. Our team had a lot of energy, which was a good thing! This gave me a sense of confidence for the game ahead.
Our game versus UNLV kicked off at 5:00 pm in the extreme heat. The first half was very shaky and you could tell we didn’t come ready to play. We couldn’t get a hold of the ball, weren’t possessing, and were getting beat to many 50/50 balls. UNLV scored in the 30th minute to go up 1-0 at halftime. Overall, it was not a good half of soccer, but we had to move on from that. At halftime we made some changes which helped us to be more successful in the 2nd half. In the 67th minute, Taylor Moront was able to stuff the ball in the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. We would later go down 2-1 on a controversial goal; however, we did not quit. We fought hard to tie the game once again in the 83rd minute with a great goal from Lauren Granberg. In the remaining 7 minutes of the game we had several more chances, but couldn’t find another goal. To overtime we go! We were a very confident team going into overtime. Taz made several brilliant saves, Cassie saved us from being scored on with a remarkable slide tackle in the box: The defense wasn’t letting anything past them. We just needed a goal, which came in the 99th minute from an endline run by Tiffany Cameron. She was able to get close to the goal and slip the ball in the near post for the game winning goal! We all celebrated together after an “ugly but beautiful” (as Coach would say) victory. Although our team had some rough moments in the game, there was never any doubt that we wouldn’t get a result.
After the game we went out for dinner and got ice cream (an added bonus if we win!!!) before we headed to the airport for our trip back to Columbus. It was a rough night – flight at 12:30 a.m., 3 hour layover in Minnesota, and then another flight – finally arriving in Cbus at 12:00pm on Thursday!
The trip out west was a great success! We returned home with 3 fantastic wins and I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a ton of fun! It feels good to be home, and will feel even better when we return to our home field, The Jesse, tomorrow night against Youngstown St. at 7:30.
GO BUCKS!!!!
Courtney
