Sunday, September 12, 2010

JCU Tournament - by Frannie Hogan '11

This past weekend, the Case Women’s Soccer team piled into three vans and headed across town to play Oberlin and Grove City in the John Carroll Classic Tournament. While I’m sure Coach Tiff and Buddy’s van rides were fun, undoubtedly the best van was Coach Taylor’s. On Friday, we jammed to some groovy tunes from our front seat radio DJ Amanda Woj. The next morning, we were treated to a mix by Vaci with Top-40 hits along with old winners such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! Our dancing shook the van and got the attention of some other drivers, including an older man who put his hands in the air and gave us a shout out.

Once we arrived at John Carroll on Friday, we warmed up and got going against Oberlin. We knew we could win the game if we put it away early, and Leah started us out only 8 minutes into the match by slotting her first goal of the year…and her career! We became a little disorganized after her goal, but refocused on our possession in the second half. Ashley put us ahead when she beat an Oberlin defender and hit the back of the net early after halftime. We picked up momentum from Ashley’s goal, and soon after, Becca knocked in a goal from a beautiful corner kick from Devo.

A few minutes later, I received the ball in the box and scored for the first time in a long time. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, I had a flashback to a goal I’d scored my sophomore year. That time, I was so excited that I immediately began jumping for joy and hugging my teammates, only to notice afterward the sideline referee was still holding up the offside flag. Remembering that embarrassing situation, I stopped this time to check and make sure the goal counted. When I got the OK, I celebrated! Scoring felt great, but the hugs and congratulations from my teammates made it even better. We ended up blanking Oberlin 4-0, and headed back to campus for a good night’s sleep.

Saturday morning started with a fruit and bagel team breakfast courtesy of Amy Baumann. We packed up and headed back to John Carroll for Day 2 of the Tournament. Grove City was going to be a tough game, and we knew we had to come focused and ready. We got on the board early again, when Becca scored her second goal of the tournament as she slipped the ball past the keeper. Looks like Coach Tiff’s “Toe Poke” drills from a few years ago have paid off! With Becca’s goal, we pushed against Grove City even harder, and I was able to chip the ball in over the keeper about 20 minutes later. How excited was I? More excited than when The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition DVD was released (in other words, a lot).

Grove City never stopped working, and they managed to notch one goal against us in the second half. Case kept the lead to the end, however, making us the John Carroll Classic Co-Champions! As a team, we definitely learned a lot about our strengths this weekend, as well as our weaknesses and how to overcome them. Our first official home game is this Wednesday at 7:30pm versus John Carroll. Hope to see you there!

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