Player blog

 

October 25, 2011
South Alabama week by Whitney Jorgenson
Hey Ya’ll Whitney Jorgenson here. Yes I say ya’ll now. I have been in Tennessee too long, my Kansas-ness is slowly becoming nonexistent. This week was one of the shortest weeks all year. We had Monday and Tuesday off from school and played on Thursday instead of Friday, which got us all really confused of what day it was. We started off the week coming back from Louisiana with practice on Monday. Monday is usually our off day but because we played a day earlier than usual we could not afford to take a day off so close to our next match. Practice was light. We worked on set plays. I got to be in the wall most of the time, which I thought would be the best place to be until Allison Stallard shot a bullet that did not rise early enough and she nailed Ashley Reviez in the head/neck/ shoulder/face. Ashley took it like a champ though. I was so thankful it wasn’t me. I know I would have been on the ground for a while. That was the most exciting thing that happened Monday besides getting new pullover black fleeces because we won six straight games in a row!

The next day we practiced early because there was no school so we could have more time to catch up on homework and such. Tuesday is always the hardest day of practice. This Tuesday was no exception. We couldn’t seem to do anything right and had to run for it a couple of times. Frustrated, while running one of the sprints I secretly decided to start calling Tuesdays TT for Testy Tuesdays. It was actually a lot more humorous then; now it just sounds stupid. But anyway, a couple hours after practice we got an email from one of the coaches just updating us on stuff and at the end it was signed “enjoy your day off”. I laughed for a while at that one. I was thinking really? You called that a day off? Now that was funny.

The next day was our last practice day before senior night and game against South Alabama. It also became winter overnight it was 45 degrees and raining, but besides that it was a pretty normal practice session unless you happened to be from Fort Wayne Indiana. Becky Pedro had a jaw injury earlier on during the week and was just recovering until mean ole Stallard accidently sent an early shot off that hit Pedro in the face in that exact same injured spot! I was giving Stallard a really hard time and since she’s my roommate and one of my best friends I am allowed to. Just minutes later practice was over and we were all walking back to the locker room. I was joking around with one of my other roommates and probably ex best friend now Paige Goeglein, also an Indiana native. Well I got a little carried away in my jokes and shoved her off the side walk and her foot hit the only hole in the dirt and rolled the same ankle she just got cleared for in the training room the day before. I made her cry because she was in so much pain and I felt absolutely awful. Luckily she’s a tough one and there was no real damage actually done, and I think we can still be friends.

Thursday was game day! We came out hard and I personally thought we played pretty well. We had our chances just couldn’t put anything away. Sadly we walked away from senior night with a tie in double overtime.

Senior Night by Laura Lamberth
I can't believe four years has come and gone. I remember my freshman year of college like it was yesterday. You always hear the senior class talk about enjoying the moment, because it will be over before you know it. And you never really believe them until you’re a senior and realize it. Thursday night was Senior Night. All week, several team members came up to me and asked me how I feel about it being my last home game. And I responded the same every time: that it’s not technically my last home game because we host the conference tournament this year. But I took Thursday night’s game just like any other game.

Luckily being close to home, my family and grandparents are able to make it to every home game. Even my aunts and uncles come to almost every game. So having a big crowd there for me was normal. What was special was seeing my foreign classmates’ family there.

Coming from overseas we had Hope's stepfather, along with Shan's mom and step dad. You could tell all week they were excited to see their family. Luisa was escorted by former players Elise Hutter, Fran Howells, and Aston Rhoden. Aston has been a dad away from home for all of us. Becca's family came to the game also. I know she was really looking forward to seeing her brother and sister, along with her mom and dad. Bit's (Elisabeth Sikes) parents always come to the games and were able to make it to her special night.

Before the game, the juniors told us we could not enter the locker room until they were done doing whatever they planned for us. So we waited outside and decided I would be the first one to walk in because I don't get emotional about events like this compared to everyone else. All 6 of us seniors walked into the locker room together and the song that was playing was Carrie Underwood's "Whenever You Remember." This initiated some tears from some of the seniors and other members of the team. After we heard the music and walked in, the locker room was decorated with streamers and the team signed an action photo that each senior had lying in their seat. Then one by one, some of our teammates came and hugged us and said how much they would miss us. Me, Ms. non-emotional, tried to keep the mood light and crack a few jokes as I got hugged. After everyone took in the moment, we started playing our pre-game music. The mood changed from sad to energetic. We had Luisa teaching Whitney how to dance and move her hips. Maddie did her classic "good-luck" dance. Even Becca and I threw out some moves to keep the energy high. It was a great night and I glad all 6 seniors have had an impact in everyone's lives.

Troy by Luisa Moscoso
We started our trip on Saturday morning at 8am, early for some of us including me. The whole week was different. The game on Thursday made our week feel longer. It was a very quiet trip; a tie after double overtime on Thursday left us physically and more so mentally tired. After a few hours on the bus we stopped and ate, then everyone looked more awake so we decided to play “WHAT”, with a lot of questions and just a couple of fun facts. We gave up and ended it because we weren’t as funny as we usually are.

When we got to the hotel we had to wait on the lobby and everyone was falling asleep. Finally we got our room keys and took a nap before practice. Later at practice, we played possession games and did some finishing. Towards the end of practice we played a finishing game. It was really fun and Hilarie Buck, our athletic trainer, played too. Although I was not on her team, I was cheering for her, and she got to the final but at the end Whitney won the contest. We all were cheering for Hilarie and she made us really proud.

After showering we went to eat dinner. We were in a much better mood than in the morning. Dinner was really entertaining, for some random reason Rebecca and I started talking about how we learned songs when we were younger to memorize things. And she started to sing a song with the capitals of South America. It impressed me because most people in America don’t even know where South America is. Then we started singing. Rebecca and I were leading while Whitney, Paige, Maddie and Becky were following us. We put all the capitals together and made a song with choreography so people on our team will know the capitals of South America! It made me so happy and it was fun.

After we got to the hotel, Regina, Shan and I went to see Aston; he gave us video clips with our plays on the game in Thursday. I watched each video clip a couple times; it helped me to analyze my game and how I was too anxious sometimes. On Sunday we woke up in a good mood because we knew we could win the game to respond well from Thursday’s tie. We also knew we had to score early so they couldn’t counter and sit in like they did against us the last time we played them in Troy.

We were mentally prepared and came strong the first minutes. After a ball we pressured we got a corner kick and I end up getting a rebound in the box that I finished it on goal! Late in the first half Regina got another goal after taking a player from a short corner kick. Early in the second half Shan put away the third goal after a breakaway with the goalkeeper.

Overall it was a good game, the early goal helped us to relax a little and we possessed the ball all game although this team was kicking our players and trying to cut our lead of the game. We scored two goals from corners kicks which was a weakness of ours on Thursday. We got a good win and learned from our mistakes on Thursday, now we have a week to prepare for our last regular season game which will determine our position on the conference tournament.

Getting to Know Your Blue Raiders

What is your dream job?
Whitney: Paramedic by week and Trip leader/outdoor specialist by weekend
Laura: To be a Division 1 College Soccer Coach
Luisa: Having my own company of green energy

What is your favorite song of the moment?
Whitney: “Free Falling” by Tom Petty
Luisa: “Fly” by Nicki Minaj and Rihanna

October 18, 2011
ULL by Shan Jones
Waking up at 4am on Thursday to travel to the airport is always a struggle to get prepared for the weekend, but that didn’t stop us from taking home a win on Friday against ULL. We practiced Thursday in preparation for Lafayette and also had a little fun. Aston proposed a challenge that the first pair to get four long balls without them touching the ground got a dessert. Laura Lamberth and Charity Blair ended up winning that. Then we played the crossbar game and whoever hit the crossbar also won a dessert. Luisa Moscoso and Charity Blair hit the crossbar but since Charity had already won once, she gave her second win to Jessica Gilchrist. Although, Aston did trick us into thinking they were special but then he bought Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches for half the bus after dinner at Carrabbas. After the fun and games finished we still had a game to focus on.

We came out ready to play but the first half was a bit of a struggle for us. They proposed a few challenges but we held on, just couldn’t find the back of the net in the first half. After a 0-0 first half, we found ourselves with two goals ahead of ULL with Allison Stallard and Paige Goeglein’s goals. Like Aston always says, “get ahead, stay ahead.” We did just that. Coming away with this Friday away win was a big accomplishment for us, as we hadn’t won on the road until now. Now were ready for a second road win on Sunday against ULM.

Travel Day by Hope Suominen
So after the win on Friday night against Louisiana-Lafayette, we woke up later than normal for breakfast. We did a little pool workout at the hotel before departing just before lunch time for Louisiana-Monroe. The bus ride itself felt like it went on forever, but eventually we arrived in Monroe, and stopped at McAllisters for a late lunch. At the same time as we were getting our lunch, Charity's brother was about to get married. We managed to setup a Skype session on an iPad so that she was able to watch some of the proceedings. Congratulations to Charity's brother and his wife, and all the family. We later ate at Olive Garden and lights out at 11.

ULM
Preparations for the game began at around 9:15am, breakfast and pre game meetings commenced, pre-game meeting in locker room and warm up.

Game kicks off. Laura Lamberth immediately played Allison Stallard and she sent a long ball forward for Whitney Jorgenson to latch onto, but little did she or anyone else know what was coming next. The player marking Whitney tried to pull her shorts down so she couldn't get to the ball. Obviously extremely funny, but this sort of set the tone for the game and showed how the Monroe players were going to approach trying to beat the 2010 Sun Belt Champions. As the game continued we created a few chances here and there, and put pressure on the ULM defense although we struggled to find the back of the net. As all this was going on Monroe created a chance out of nothing. The girl got free on the wide area of the field and just crossed in a hopeful ball into the six yard box. It was looping around and it nearly found the back of the net. After withstanding a few minutes of ULM pressure, Shan Jones picked up the ball just inside our own half, found herself surrounded by a few Monroe players and managed to get herself out of trouble and then played a fine ball through the Monroe flat defense for Regina Thomas who was sprinting forward. Thomas latched onto it took it passed the rushing goalkeeper and slotted it into the back of the next just inside the 18 yard box. 1-0 MT.

The game continued with the same intensity as it started with and we knew as a team that we needed to calm this intensity down a little bit to savor some energy. We continued to pressure and eventually we created another chance, which was very nicely put away by freshman Melisa Ertuk. The ball fell to her outside the 18 yard box, she took a shot and it landed nicely into the back of the net. 2-0 MT.

The first 25-30 minutes of the 2nd half kind of continued from the last 15 minutes of the first half. We eventually managed to find ourselves up 3-nil after a ball was hit into the box, cleared by Monroe, and landed at Laura Lamberth's feet. She calmly played the ball through and it took a deflection off a Monroe's players hand and landed at the feet of Regina Thomas. Everyone thought she was offside, but she just got a touch onto it and popped into the back of the net with a toe poke. 3-0 MT.

A Monroe chance was eventually created. The initial shot was saved extremely well by Rebecca Cushing only for it to be parried out to an onrushing Monroe player who put it into the back of the net. As this was all happening the ULM player who scored decided to push one of our own players Kelsey Branstetter who reacted very calmly as the ref rushed in to break up anything that may have come of the drama. 3-1 MT.

The last few minutes of the game were extremely scrappy. We tried to keep the ball in the corner to waste time and we did it pretty successfully.

After the game we "accidentally" left our assistant coach Allison Whitworth at the game field. Of course this was obviously funny to the girls and everyone else apart from Allison, but it also seemed to have a direct correlation with leaving our media guy Travis Woods at the Lafayette field on Friday night. Maybe next time we won't forget anyone... Ah well!!

Final result: 3-1 MT. Two road wins for the weekend. Congratulations!

Getting to Know Your Blue Raiders

What show do you secretly want to be on?
Shan: One Tree Hill
Hope: CSI Las Vegas

What is the funniest prank played on you or played by you?
Shan: Freshmen year, Heather McDonnell and Jenna Bowers duct -taped my entire apartment door closed.
Hope: One of my friends pranked me by taking my roommate’s and my bathroom door off and hid it under my bed. So, when we went to the bathroom we had no door. Rather embarrassing the first time when we didn’t realize it.

October 11, 2011
Florida Atlantic by Maddie Harper
During the whole week of practice, the whole team was really focused for the games last weekend against Florida Atlantic and FIU. We knew as a team that it was important to win these two games. When we arrived Friday for our game, we were surprised with a huge fridge in our locker room that had water, Gatorade and chocolate milk. The expressions and reactions of everyone were priceless and we were all very happy and fortunate with our surprise. Everyone got mentally prepared in the locker room doing our ritual dances. We also had some of the 2012 recruits come out and support us which was really nice. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so we all received our breast cancer shirts and wore them for warm up. I loved that before the national anthem, we received pink balloons and gave a moment of silence for our loved ones who were affected by breast cancer and then released the balloons into the sky. We then were ready and mentally focused for the match. I thought that we played well and kept the ball, however, we were a little frantic the last 10 minutes of the game because the game was close. Our first goal was scored off a corner kick by Whitney (Jorgenson) and was served into the six-yard box. We had two attempts on goal but finally got the goal in on the third attempt by Paige! Our second goal was scored 15 minutes into the second half by Shan (Jones) beating the defenders and it was a nice goal. We still had 30 more minutes to go and we all knew that we could not let anything go through in the back. Even though we were up 2-0, we still kept pushing offensively for another goal because if Florida Atlantic scored one goal, they were back into the game. However, there was about five minutes left in the game and Florida Atlantic scored and made the score 2-1. It got a little bit nerve-racking those last five minutes trying to run down the clock by just keeping possession but we succeeded and won the game 2-1, which made me very happy. It was a good game overall and the team knew that we now all had to focus on the next game against FIU.

FIU by Charity Blair
Sunday afternoon we set out to play FIU. It was a fairly hot day and sunny. Earlier that morning the team met at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, which I call ‘the breakfast of champions,’ because every time we eat there we win! (Seriously!). So I knew we were going to win. During the game it wasn’t that easy. We struggled to get a goal the whole first half but we had most of the possession and had several great shots on goal. FIU came in with a 4-0-1 record in conference wanting to beat us. Aston said something in the locker room earlier that I hadn’t realized: FIU hasn’t beaten us in seven years. Every time we play FIU, we tend to do well offensively and finish a couple scoring chances. Last season the FIU game sticks in my mind quite well. I remember Jessika Oseguera’s goal the most and remember it turning the game around. This year our first goal was great pass in the 18-yard box from Mel (Erturk) to Paige (Goeglein) but Paige’s shot hit off the keeper and bounced off one of FIU’s defender’s foot and went in the goal. Our second goal came from Regina (Thomas), she took a shot across the goal to beat the keeper who tried to dive and save it. Defensively we played a solid game all together. We did struggle with communication early in the game but soon figured some things out and came out with no goals against us. During the last couple minutes of the game there was a free kick for FIU right outside our 18-yard box. It was such a tense time that some players were yelling to each other and getting upset. The kick hit the wall and then a second shot was taken only to sky the goal. Being able to keep a shutout during the game was a great success. After the game in the locker room Regina asked the coaches “so how many shot on goal did we have?” Allison replied with “15 shots and seven on goal.” Regina then said, “So it doesn’t take 52 shots to score two goals.” In the previous game we had 26 shots and scored one goal. Aston was worried we couldn’t score two goals without 52 shots. We proved him wrong. This was a great win for us. Every win is a great win. Our overall record is even now at 7-7. Our conference record is 4-2, which is really what matters from now on. I look forward to playing in Louisiana and grabbing a couple more wins to add to our record and to find ourselves higher in the rankings. LETS GO BLUE!

Getting to Know Your Blue Raiders

What is your dream job?
Madison: Veterinarian
Charity: Open my own bakery store and design cakes.

Name one person, famous or not, that you would like to spend the day with?
Madison: Dirk Nowitzki because he is my favorite Mavs basketball player
Charity: Justin Bieber

October 6, 2011
Arkansas State by Greta Jochmann
Last Friday we played Arkansas State and it was an all-around outstanding game. I, personally, love Friday night games. I love the atmosphere associated with them. Usually we have great weather and we get to play under the lights. This game we got to wear our new, sleek long sleeve jerseys for the first time and we looked really good which made it an even more exciting environment for me. I knew even before the game started that everyone was pumped up and ready to go. Before the game, we all seemed eager to play and Maddie Harper’s pre-game “spazz dance” was particularly spazzy, which is usually a sign that the pending game will be a success. And it was! As a team, I thought we played together and all put forth maximum effort. Allison Stallard, a defender, had our first goal off of a penalty kick to get our scoring started. I enjoy watching defenders score because they always work hard to create scoring opportunities and ensure that the other team does not get them, and they rarely get to score themselves. After halftime, we came out hard and Melisa Erturk had her first college goal! Not only was it her first college goal but it was during what Aston calls the “Big Five” (five minutes after halftime) and therefore the goal gets double points in my book. We ended up winning 3-0 and tallied our first conference win. All the factors that played into this game made it memorable for me and made me extremely excited to continue our winning streak throughout conference play and into the conference tournament!

UALR by Elisabeth Sikes
It was a dark and stormy night…ok, no, not really. It was actually a beautiful day Sunday for our second game of the weekend. The weather is being somewhat reasonable, but we all know that could change tomorrow since the weather here is so unpredictable. This was the first weekend I’ve gotten to see the new uniforms in action, and I must say we looked pretty darn good (especially in all white). Our key for this game was to get ahead and stay ahead. We succeeded in doing so, but we could have gotten WAY ahead, had we finished all the opportunities we had. I think we finished the game with something like 26 shots, with only one hitting the back of the net. Not the greatest percentage, but, as long as we have one more goal than the other team at the end of day, I can deal with that. Granted, the keeper for UALR did a pretty good job as well. One instance that comes to mind was a rocket of a shot from Regina that the keeper leapt and made a pretty incredible save. But Baby G (Regina Thomas) got her revenge and scored the game winner later anyway. We also had two great scoring opportunities from a couple of Hope Suominen free kicks (that sounds so official). They were both bent beautifully into the box and we just couldn’t quite get on the end of them. On the other end of the field, our defense was really solid. We were warned many, many, many times about three UALR girls that would give us problems in the back due to their speed. We did really well anticipating where the ball was going to go and won the majority of passes before they even got to those dangerous players. One extremely scary moment found one of these players with the ball behind our back line and she put the ball in the back of the net on a nice shot. Luckily, she was called offside (way to go back line!). I think we’re finally finding our stride as a team and hopefully we keep pushing through this coming weekend when we play FAU and FIU at home.

Getting to Know Your Blue Raiders:

If you could switch places for one day with anyone on the team who would it be? Why?
Greta: Jessica Gilchrist or Rebecca Cushing because I am curious to know what playing keeper is like.
Elisabeth: It would be anyone. Since I’m injured, I just want to be able to play.

What are three words that describe you?
Greta: Sociable, Caring and Awesome
Elisabeth: Positive, Fighter and Musician

September 29, 2011
Last week in practice by Allison Stallard
So the week started out with a practice on Sunday, because we didn’t have a game. The practice ended up being as strenuous as a game. We did the same transition drill for 80 minutes (almost a whole game) without a break at all. The game would not be stopped until one team reached seven goals. That practice may have been one of the most frustrating things we have done this year. Me and my roommate Whitney (Jorgenson) got in a bit of a tussle in the drill. We were both fighting and cheating a little bit so when practice was over, she really thought I was mad at her, but soccer stays on the field. We were laughing soon after. Monday’s practice was inside, which is always fun. I really like going inside, cause there isn’t much else to do besides just playing. Paige (Goeglein), another one of my roommates, and I got a little heated in practice. During a drill, I drove the ball to her and in return, she nailed the ball back to me and said “You wanna play like that?” But as she was running to defend me, she fell down and I was able to dribble around her uncontested. During that same round, I went up to challenge for a head ball and accidentally pushed Paige over, she was mad at me for the rest of practice. But we all know whatever happens on the field stays on the field and we are fine afterwards. Tuesday’s practice was so long. At the end of a long practice of scrimmaging, we concluded with finishing practice. The outside players crossed the ball in and the defenders had to clear it, but after a while the defenders were winning all the balls so Aston let us leave and get water. I love being a defender for that reason.

Traveling by Allison Stallard
We left for Denver on Thursday morning; we met at the stadium at 4:15 a.m. I am not a morning person so getting up that early is not my thing. On the skylink at the Denver Airport, we were on our way to baggage claim and a bunch of us were trying to “surf” on the train. That means riding the skylink without holding onto anything. Maddie (Harper) wasn’t very good at it and fell into an old man standing beside us. It was hilarious! Once we landed in Denver, we ate the Village Inn by the airport and by the time we got to our hotel we all passed out. It had been a long day of traveling. That night, the Colorado parents set up a dinner for us, which was really nice. We all just hung out in a relaxed environment and ate some home-cooked food. Emily Snowden, MT Soccer alumnae, came to see us, it was so nice to see her again and catch up with her. We miss her!

We left Saturday morning for Dallas; I was so excited to get back to my home state. After a short layover in Amarillo, we landed at Dallas Love Field Airport. We were right by my church and my brother’s house. I loved being able to recognize exactly where we were. Then we went to eat at Chipotle!!!! What could be better, being in Texas and eating Chipotle? After chilling out at the hotel in Denton, we made our way over to my house for a barbeque. My mom made brisket, pork, chicken, ribs, and some good ole Texas barbeque. I absolutely loved being home and letting my team see my house and where I grew up. I feel like I gave everybody on my team a tour of my house, it was a blast. I loved being able to see all of my family and especially my dogs.

I loved being able to see all my friends and family that came out to support me after the UNT game. It was great to see all of them, especially since I haven’t seen most of them since I was home in May. We then went to eat Texas Roadhouse, which was so nice. I loved getting a bit more of Texas in before I came back to Tennessee. The food was so good, especially the cinnamon butter on the rolls. We finally got to the airport, but when we were checking in, there were some guys who were having some translation problems, so Luisa (Moscoso) went over to help them translate. It was really funny to watch it happen. Once we got to our gate, we all went out and got either Starbucks or ice cream. It was nice to be able to relax and enjoy each other’s company. When we were boarding the plane, Mike (Baker) told me that Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser was in the second row. Jess Gilchrist and Charity (Blair) went up there to ask him and get a picture. But they ended up asking the wrong person and came back embarrassed. It was so funny, but then Aston came and told us to respect the other people on the plane. We also flew through a thunderstorm. Being able to watch the lighting in the clouds was pretty amazing. Ashley (Reveiz) does not like flying and the turbulence really scared her, so the first moment when the plane shook a little bit she had her head in her pillow for the rest of the flight until we landed. I did get a little bit scared when the plane dropped a couple of times, but I was never too worried. At baggage claim, we met up with the real Bob Harper and got a picture with him. It was so exciting! He even tweeted about us afterward! Then we got on the bus and headed back to Murfreesboro. We were all ready to be home because it had been a long weekend.

Denver by Rebecca Cushing
The Denver game meant a lot of different things for me: A chance to see my family/friends, a chance to start our in-conference record, and a chance to repeat our exciting win from last year's conference tournament. We all knew that DU would be a great team, and that the altitude in the mile-high city would be a tough adjustment for our team's endurance.

Unfortunately the score was not in our favor but the second half of the Denver game showed us the level of play that we are capable of when our team is in sync. I am sure that kind of exciting play will become more frequent and consistent, as we get closer to the conference tournament. I see improvement on the practice field every day, and I am really looking forward to the day in the near future when everything clicks and we reach our full potential.

North Texas by Allison Stallard
On Sunday, we played North Texas, a rivalry game. I looked up and saw so many of my friends and family and it made me so happy and so ready to go play. It was hot and coming from the altitude of Denver, it was pretty nice to be able to breathe again. I don’t think any weather could have gotten me sad; I would have played in anything just to be able to play at home. The first half was a pretty solid match up; there was no score. Both teams had their opportunities to put in a goal but the score remained 0-0. I was pretty tired and my legs were still really heavy and tired from the Denver game. I should have taken an ice bath between games. We came out the second half ready to put in a goal and win. About 15 minutes into the second half, the ball got kicked out from under our goalkeeper and UNT scored. It was kind of hard to come back from the goal; we had worked so hard all game. They then scored two more goals on us. It was frustrating to watch our team work so hard and everyone on the field and everyone supporting us. I was proud that our team continued to work though; you could tell that we were all so tired from the exhausting weekend of traveling and from two hard fought games.

Getting To Know Your Blue Raiders:

What is something you wish you knew when you were a freshman?
Rebecca: That the long and grueling four hour practices are worth it at the end of the season when you’re holding up the conference championship trophy and get a ring to show for it!
Allison: I wish I had known where the closest Wal-Mart was. All of the freshmen drove to the Wal-Mart on Old Fort for at least a month. Whitney and I got lost maybe 3 or 4 times coming home.

What is one song that would be on the soundtrack to your life?
Rebecca: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” by Shania Twain
Allison: “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews

September 19, 2011
Last week in practice by Paige Goeglein
Monday we practiced at night and I had to call offsides for one of the games. My roommate, Whitney, could not seem to stay onsides and did not agree with many of my calls. It was kind of funny to see her getting so frustrated but I am positive all my calls were spot on. But on Tuesday, things didn’t go as smoothly. Tuesdays are always a more fitness oriented day during the week but this Tuesday had A LOT of fitness. We struggled some and ended up having to run for our many mental lapses. It was not a fun practice but one that we will try and never let happen again. Wednesday was an off day!!!! I always use our off days to get laundry and things like that done. It was nice to catch up on everything I had been putting off.

Tennessee Tech
Last year we really struggled against them and so this year we wanted to make sure we came out hard and had a good performance before starting conference games this week. The game went well and was a solid performance overall. Greta got her first college goal putting in a ball that was bouncing around after a corner and was so excited! Laura also got an awesome goal off of a corner by Jessika. Scoring off of two corner kicks is not something our team is used to. One of the most memorable moments from the game came from Luisa. She was going after a ball towards the sidelines, fell over, and somehow landed on her head. When she was trying to get back up she got stuck on her head and her feet were flailing in the air. Everyone could not help but roll over laughing.

Duck Dinner
Saturday was another off day! Two off days in one week is pretty much unheard of. A couple of girls and I decided to go to the Tennessee State Fair, which was interesting to say the least. It was a very cliché fair experience with eating homemade ice cream, riding a Ferris wheel, and seeing the world’s smallest horse. Later that night we had the 2nd Annual Duck Dinner. We all went to Mike’s house where he cooked duck, macaroni and cheese (my personal favorite), mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and chicken for those who are not brave enough to try the delicious duck (Laura, cough cough), and ice cream cake for dessert! It is safe to say that no one left his house hungry. Also, at the duck dinner, we had the freshman skit. Every year the freshmen have to make a skit and poke fun at all of the upper classman. The skit was funny this year and they seemed to get everyone right on. I, for the second year in a row, got made fun of for falling.

Getting to know your Blue Raiders
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up. I loved going to the hospital with my mom, I thought it was so cool.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I would go back to spring break my senior year of high school. I went on a cruise with my best friend and it was tons of fun!

September 13, 2011
Vanderbilt by Jessica Gilchrist
The Vanderbilt game didn’t end up in our favor. Overall it was the best game we have played as a whole all season. The first 45 was not our best play but we stepped it up in the second half. We were connecting our passes and playing our game putting tons of pressure on the Vandy defense. Regina scored the first goal in the second half running across the box on a cross from Luisa and flipping the ball over the keeper, but it got called back due to an offside call. We had a corner kick with 5 minutes left in the game and the Vanderbilt keeper fell into the goal with the ball. The referee was misleading with his call, so our whole team, including our keeper, sprinted to the middle of the field to celebrate the goal. Little to our knowledge, the referee called a foul on one of our forwards and they got a free kick. Our team was still celebrating when they started the play and Vanderbilt got a counter attack and scored. The game was pretty heart-breaking because we out-played them in the second half, got two goals called back, but we still lost.

Alabama A&M by Regina Thomas

This game always poses a challenge to us. It’s not the same type of challenge that an SEC opponent has shown us this preseason; this is a challenge of our minds. This game was even more of a challenge psychologically because we had 2 lightning delays before the first half was over which forced us to try and stay focused on the task as hand even though it was tough to get a rhythm going in the first half. The game ended up being called for inclement weather in the second half once 70+ minutes had already been played. This game will go down as 5 to 0 win which was much needed. The lightning delays were frustrating and to make better of the situation the team decided to start blaring music and having fun dancing goofy in the locker room. It started with the Cupid Shuffle, which is a classic from last year in the locker room, then it went to Jess Gilchrist showing off some of her dance moves, and finally we tried to get Jess O. to Dougie but she refused and by that time the delay was over.

Last Week in Practice by Jessica Gilchrist

We had practice called 9am on Monday morning. It was cold, windy, and very rainy. Our assistant coach told us at the beginning of the season that we were NOT allowed to wear our very nice rain jackets to practice. So, none of us wore them. Our head coach questioned why none of us had them on. Basically, we all looked pretty silly standing out in the pouring rain without rain jackets on. Of one of the many funny things that happen during practice, we were playing full field and Paige and Emily went in for a tackle. Emily flipped Paige completely in mid air. Everyone around them just stopped and laughed. Allison was talking to me and stopped mid sentence because she was laughing too hard. We like to get after it at practice.

Getting to know your Blue Raiders:

What is your dream vacation spot?
Jessica: Venice, Italy
Regina: Hawai'i

What’s your favorite song of the moment?
Jessica: Days Like These-Jason Aldean

What reality show do you secretly what to be on?
Jessica: The Real World Challenge
Regina: The Real World Challenge

If you had school cancelled for an entire day, what would you do?
Jessica: Get away and go to the lake for the day 
Regina: Probably sleep in then go do something like sky diving!

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