We Gotta Want It!

Wow .... And just like that regular season is over. WE ARE OFF TO THE PLAYOFFS BABY!!!! With a solid win over Geneseo and a tough tie aganist Brockport this past weekend we earned fourth seed for playoffs .... MEANING we got blessed by getting a home game for the SUNYAC quarterfinals aka no long bus rides this week.  We will be hosting Brockport, yet again, at 3 pm tomorrow at the Field house. We are beyond pumped to get another chance vs. Brockport and it should be a great game to watch!!! I repeat tomorrow 3pm at the field house everyone has to be there :) Quick side note: Our team from 2014 has received the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award for the seventh straight season!!! To earn this award our team must have a cumulative average of a 3.0 during the season. Keep up the good grades and endless hours in the lib ladies!! :) 

Uterine Cancer Awareness Game

Our Lovely Seniors

As we were practicing hard this last week (I don't know about anyone else), some emotions were hitting a little harder than usual.  Yepp sorry but I'm feeling a little emotional ;) Wanting to continue our season, everyone gave their all and had a solid week of practice to prepare for this important weekend.  Being a junior, I've been given the opportunity to face adversity with such a great group of ladies.  From facing injuries and not making it into playoffs my freshman year, to making it to playoffs for the first time in a while for PSUWS my sophomore year and now as I reach my junior it's time for the up's and down's to finally be put to the test.

We have worked too hard this whole season not to get the results we want.  As we have our last practice today before quarterfinals, take a moment to think who you have played for this season. Just some special people you may have played for: 1. I played for my beautiful teammates.  You guys have been a main support system on and off the field, which is the best thing anyone could ask for. From pushing each other through the beep test in preseason to always convincing me Chipotle is a great idea, I wouldn't want to be apart of another team. 2. I played for my coaches.  They always believed in every one of us when things weren't going our way and pushed us to be the best we could be. They always are there to get us focused, increase our love for this beautiful sport we call socccer (yes the extra "c" is supposed to be the accent) and to dance with us, well really only Coach Tania busts the moves :) 3. I played for my parents. Because hey without them we wouldn't be here today.  So thank them for all the hugs, cheers and delicious food they make for our tailgates! Shoutout to my mom for making her great meatballs :) and lastly 4. I played for our seniors. Coming into preseason as a freshman, I looked up to you guys (figuratively and literally) thinking if you guys got through, so could I.  You guys took the present junior class under your wings and made adjusting to college life that much easier. The last four years that you've dedicated will not be forgotten and we can't wait to keep kicking booty in SUNYAC's with you! You the real MVP's <3 So as we approach this important game tomorrow just think of all these people who have been there for you and make them proud!  We can do this ladies, we gotta want it (in the Mercedes voice) and don't worry we will get it! As Herb Brooks, one of the greatest coaches in sports history, once said, "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours."

If you didn't hear the first time, be at our quarterfinal game tomorrow at 3pm at the fieldhouse!!!! BE LOUD AND PROUD :)

Just to get everyone a little pumped!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujyr7--Fzw4 

Big Weekend, Big Games & Bigger Results

As you can see, my loads of school work are killing my blogging vibes but don't worry I'll make this one extra special :) I'd rather be blogging than studying any day don't you worry!

Just a little recap of our games two weekends ago .... Our home games were nothing less than exciting (as usual) with each team battling to the very end and being a 1-1 weekend! Playing two teams we lost to the previous season, we knew what we had to do to come out on top.  Our first double header conference games only means one thing ... SECRET PSYCH!! This has been a tradition of the Plattsburgh Women's soccer team for a while now.  Everyone randomly picks a teammates name and we decorate each others locker with balloons, streamers and everything available at the local dollar store to get each other pumped up for the weekend!! It's always fun seeing who had who and it definitely gets us game ready! We beat New Paltz 2-1 in overtime fashion aka Plattsburgh Women's soccer fashion with goals from Dev and Cass! On Saturday, we played Oneonta but came up just short in the end.  We all battled for every ball that came our way and even though we did not get the result we wanted, we hope to see this team again in SUNYAC playoffs! This past weekend we also played for a great cause, Cystic Fibrosis awareness.  We wore T-shirts, raised money and sold raffle tickets for our cause and ended up raising about $500 for donations! Thank you to everyone who donated and supported Cystic Fibrosis :)

Dev #23

Cass #18

Team Locker Room Decorated

With school work adding up, it gives us more of a reason to let it all out in practice and just have fun! Many of us went home for Columbus Day break and it was a nice break from our busy school work and see family.  After break, it was right back to the work grind to prepare for Buffalo State and Fredonia.  Since we didn't have classes Monday and Tuesday for the holiday, we only had to go to classes Wednesday and Thursday, which I don't know about anyone else, but I was pretty pumped about it :) That was the start to a great weekend with a great group of people.  We hopped on the bus and made a nice little 9 hour bus ride over to Fredonia (it was not nice nor little) filled with lots of movies and singing (good and bad singing may I add)!  Towards the end, I felt my delirious phase beginning and it had felt like I was on the bus for daysssss .....

Cait Loves Movies

Lisa Being a Buffalo

                                                        
With a nice stretch session the morning of the Fredonia game in the lovely city of Hamburg (filled with views of highways and that's about it) we were ready to go!!!!

We came out very strong aganist Fredonia and won 5-2 with goals from Cass, Anissa x2, Dev and Mad Sac!! Whoop whoop :) That night we did a little team bonding session and shared baby photos of ourselves! It was so funny seeing all of our fat baby photos and reallyawkward middle school photos :) If you didn't have an awkward middle school phase, you can't sit with us!! :) With a little time to kill the next day, Coach decided to take us to Fun Zone, the local arcade, to have a little fun competition.  We played lots of games including trampoline basketball, bumper cars and our teams personal favorite, Battle Zone which was similar to laser tag but the guns shot out these little rubber balls.  You would think they wouldn't hurt right? WRONG!  Coach got shot in her throat and Mad Sac and I got shot on our behinds (don't worry I don't have pictures of our bruises) and it was VERY painful. I may or may not have almost seen the light ;)

Battle Zone Ready!

With our competitive juices flowing, we were off to Buffalo.  One thing I can say about our team every game is we fight to the very end of every game.  Sarah scored our lone goal of the game and we just came up short at the very end of the match.  With a good weekend in check, we ended on another good note (before our never ending bus ride back to the Burgh) , which many were happy about ... MOE'S!! On our way back home a couple of weird things happened on the bus, but the weirdest was when our bus driver told us the bus was slanted ................ Yes he thought we were going to tip over so we all had to move to one side of the bus.  That was really fun to do at 3:30 am :)

Nichole Was Really Happy About Moes

Had To Add A Food Pic

After that long bus ride, I don't plan on being on a bus for a least a little while leading to my point of we officially got a playoff spot in our conference!!! WOOOOHHHOOOOO! With good vibes all around, we had our last non conference game vs. Johnston State on Tuesday and we killed it winning 7-1!  Anissa x3 getting that hat trick, Cait, Dev, Madison and Mad Sac all got on the scoreboard! Anissa is now the record holder for Plattsburgh with most goals in one season! Anissa you the bomb.com and keep scoring!!!!

This upcoming weekend consists of our last guaranteed home games so come out and support! Today we are playing Geneseo at 3pm and playing for a great cause.  One of our fellow teammates mother's has been battling uterine cancer and to honor her bravery we will be playing to support her battle. Our teammate has been very strong for her mom while still being far away from home and we can't wait to get a W for her family today :) Tomorrow we will be playing Brockport at 1pm and it is also SENIOR DAY!! We can't wait to get a W for our wonderful seniors as well who have put so much time and effort to make our team a family! It's going to be a great weekend and we can't wait to see everyone in the stands! This weekend determines where and who we will play in the SUNYAC quarterfinals so it will be very exciting!!! HERE WE GO CARDS!! :)

Here is a little video of our fun weekend!! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2dKSF7K4wI

And Than He Said Let Conference Play Begin

As the temperatures in Plattsburgh begin to drop and people start taking Instagrams of pretending to pick apples, it only means one thing. SUNYAC's have begun!!! Before we started conference play, we ended our last non conference game in a very exciting fashion. With a tough loss from Middlebury last year still on our minds, we knew what we had to do this season.  The game was a thriller as usual as we trailed behind 1-0 until the wonderful Anissa scored on a penalty kick.  Tying up the game and giving everyone in the stands a heart attack, Anissa scored another one in overtime with the assist from Mad Sac giving us yet another well earned victory!! So basically Anissa is a lifesaver and we all love her for her goal scoring skills, which is why she also received SUNYAC offensive player of the week also :) Woooohhhoooo!!

Anissa #20

Last weekend, we played Potsdam for our SUNYAC opener! Both teams fought to the end (literally) forcing us into yet again another double overtime.  Pretty sure I have some gray hair now from all this overtime stress! And in wonderful Cardinal fashion, Cait finished the game off for us with a awesome goal to win it 1-0!! :)

With a win under our belts, we all wanted more!  With a full week of practice and fitness music Monday's beginning, we all had a solid week of practice preparing for our next rivals! First stop was Cortland. I think everyone can agree the food this year on road trips = on point! Obviously we all look forward to food or as coach said this weekend, "We kick butt and than eat!" I mean we all our soccer players so our life consumes of three things during the fall semester: eating, sleeping and soccer.  Since I was a freshman, the rivalry between Plattsburgh and Cortland has grown and on Friday it showed until the very end.  Until we scored at the very end of the match (thank you again Anissa), it was a battle.  Ashlie slotted a ball by Cortland's defense to Anissa who scored giving us the 1-0 win!! A few of us had friends who played on the Cortland team, which was fun playing against old teammates too :)

Eggplant parm at Logan's <3

The bathroom mirrors were a little too high for me at Logan's

With our adrenaline still high from the day before, we were off to Oswego for our third conference game! The teams in our conference are all tough competitors and want to win! Cait scored a early goal in the game giving us a 1-0 lead. Battling to the end we fell just a tad short losing 2-1.  The past two games gave us a sense of what the next few weeks will look like and what we have to work on. We will continue to work hard and push each other to get the outcomes we want! We still have a lot of soccer left and always room to improve!! Our record in our conference is now 2-1.

I also wanted to take a quick moment to thank all the parents who travel on the weekends to see us play, especially as the cold weather in quickly approaching. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are today! So thank you for being there through the wins and losses, the rain and snow and being our supportive cheerleaders!

We have our first home conference play double header this weekend!!!! On Friday we play New Paltz at 3pm and Oneonta at 1pm! Hope everyone can make it :) GO CARDS!

Here's a quick video of what our road trips look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJeD85BCkZw
 Watch until the end because you'll get a good laugh :)