Alas, It Has Come to a Sorrowful End

If you've read the last few posts, you're probably wondering the position of the Varsity soccer team (or when I am going to write about something other than soccer: other topics will arise, soccer is slowing down).  I am extremely sad to say that Varsity lost to Dixie in the semi-finals of the State Championship.  The final score was 1-1, but we were defeated in penalty kicks (PKs), which is arguably the worst way to lose.  After 100 minutes of game time, Dixie outscored us in 4-1 the PK round.  The only thing I can give them credit for is that their shots were on-target and hard.  No one could blame our keeper for missing them.

However, we outplayed them during the actual game.  To prove it, we scored the first goal in the first half.  Midfielder Reese made a beautiful shot into the far right side of the goal from 6-8 yards out.  Then Dixie got a lucky goal in the second half, tying up the game 1-1, when a girl made a chip that was just hard enough to tip through the hands of our goal keeper.

In overtime, a Park City player crossed the ball in the air in front of the other team's goal.  One of our forwards jumped to head it as the goalie went for it too.  They collided, and the ball bounced off them, away from the goal.  Luckily, another one of our players followed up and passed the ball into the back of the net.  Park City was ecstatic!  Then ref blew the whistle, signaling there was no goal.  What?  The referee was calling a foul.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  He alleged that our 5'4 player just so happened to foul the 5'11 goalie.

Overtime ended in a tie; we went into PKs.

As the last Dixie shot landed in the goal and the team rushed the field, jumping in a euphoric circle, our valiant goalie dropped to the ground.  Tears flowed from Park City faces.  Some of us stood in shock and others ran to comfort the keeper.

How could this happen?  We played with so much heart, we wanted this so badly.

The worst part for me was witnessing the seniors.  I saw faces contorted in anguish, tears being silently shed, and heard tragic sobs ringing out.  My heart went out to them, knowing how much this championship meant.  That senior class had seen two finals and a semi-final over the last three years.  This year they were almost expected to succeed after being so close in the past, but we didn't win, we didn't move on to finals.  It just didn't seem fair to see such a talented, inspirational, and enjoyable group of girls would never get the State Cup they so deserved.


In case you were wondering, Dixie went on to win against Juan Diego in the finals.

One Down, Three to Go

One of Varsity's seniors
against a Morgan defender.
Image courtesy of:
 Christopher Reeves/The Park Record

High school soccer season has come to an end, and Junior Varsity (JV) went undefeated!  Our last two games were not exactly our best (one was a tie), but we didn’t lose.  Also, a shout out to my bud, Emily, who scored a goal on her first time playing with JV!


Though Region is done, playoffs for State Championship have begun (click here for the bracket we're in).  Five JV players, including me, were asked to play up with Varsity during playoffs!  Before I go back to club soccer, I get two more weeks of the high school experience!  I am super excited!  During our first playoffs game, I got to play for ten minutes!  I know that doesn’t sound very impressive, but when you’re at the bottom of the pack, you take what you can get.  I played okay, though I wasn’t extremely happy with myself.  Anyway, we won that game 8-0, so now we move on to quarter finals.  Our next game is a two hour bus ride one away, but Coach has planned it so we can stop for restroom breaks and still have an hour to warm up before the game.

Varsity celebrating.
Image courtesy of:
The Salt Lake Tribune

Practicing with Varsity is also a nerve-racking experience.  Even though it’s not a game and there aren’t other people watching me, I still get timid, fearful and feel like everything I do isn’t quite good enough.  I am always looking for a way to prove myself, but alas, those moments are rare.  Whenever we scrimmage, my first touch is either bad or too slow and I can’t seem to position myself in the right places (the formation is different from JV).  One thing I work on with Varsity is quicker, firmer passes.

Fortunately, I’m decent at penalty kicks (PK) and my fitness is average.  At the end of every practice, the top ten PK shooters practice their shots.  One practice, the rest of us or non-PK takers had the opportunity to shoot as well.  I am proud to say that I have not yet missed a practice PK.  Although, there was the time I missed a PK in an actual game...I haven’t taken a game one since.  But that’s what practice is for, right?  Building up one’s skill and confidence.  On the topic of conditioning, we had a fitness practice the other day (no soccer balls, all running) where we did some exhausting relay sprints in groups of three.  My group, consisting of the youngest players on Varsity, came in the top three every time. :)

Junior Varsity Annihilation (After a Rocky Start)

In my high school soccer, there are two soccer seasons: region and pre-region (season and pre-season).  Tryouts were held at the beginning of August; pre-season started on the 13.  But that’s beside the point.  (By the way, I made Junior Varsity.  Woohoo!)  In my opinion, we had a rockin’ team.  I knew some of the older girls and was extremely excited and honored to be playing with them.  Unfortunately, our “great skill” didn’t get across to anyone looking at our game results.

We lost our first three games.

One of them was against Judge Memorial.  It was an away game.  We played on artificial grass.  In the middle of August.  At 5:00 in the afternoon.  Now I know that Utah is not as hot as, for instance, Texas or Florida, but that turf had been baking in the unobstructed sunlight all day.  The temperature was above 90ºF and the field was close to 110 degrees.

In short, it was scorching like the heat from a thousand suns (well, maybe not that hot).

It was awful.

And we lost.

Not our best day.  The next five games weren’t great either.  Sure, we won some, we tied some, though in the end, we didn’t get the results we wanted.In all, we did not look very impressive.  We were in a grim mood; our pre-season results were 2-1-5.  We kept on practicing, preparing for region games.

On the bright side, Varsity did pretty well in pre-season.  They finished pre-region with a 2-5-1 record and are currently 6-6-2 (both seasons).  In region, they have only lost and tied one game (both against Juan Diego) out of six.  No big deal.  If they win the rest of their games, they’ll be headed to playoffs and hopefully on to the State Championship.

Me
Image courtesy of Mel Oltra & MaxPreps

Then finally something clicked.  We started winning game after game.  Our passing was good, our shots went in just enough times to get us ahead, and we were all in high spirits.  We even gained a few memorable moments along the way (but those are stories for another day).  However, the best part is WE (JV) ARE UNDEFEATED in region!  No losses, no ties.  Not to mention, the past three games have been shut-outs!  Now, we won’t get anything if we go undefeated throughout the rest of the season, but there are other rewards.
1) it would sure feel nice compared to our horrific start
2) it would tremendously boost our self confidence
3) we would get bragging rights ;)

There are only two games remaining; JV plans to go out with a bang.  So wish us luck!

Me against a Juan Diego defender
Image courtesy of Mel Oltra & MaxPreps