Trophies make the travel worthwhile

“Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her.” Our fourth conference match saw us take on UMass; they were considered to be hot favourites, but we pulled off a 1-0 victory so it was a particularly happy camp as we rushed off the pitch to get showered and go back to the airport to travel home. It was their senior day, which basically is a day where the team celebrates the work and effort that their senior players have put in throughout their collegiate playing career, and it takes place on the day of the last home game that a team has. We celebrated our senior day the same weekend in our fifth and final conference match versus La Salle, which we won 4-1, confirming us as the number one seed for the A10s. On senior day, each class on the squad is assigned tasks that they must carry out in an attempt to make a big deal out of each senior. The freshmen were set the task of decorating the locker room as much as they could, the sophomores had to decorate the pitch and the juniors had to gather up money and order presents for the seniors.

We all pulled together really well to put together what I believe was a great day for the seniors. Having now seen the work that goes into the hockey programme from players and management alike, I fully understand why we should have a day that celebrates our seniors. We had four this year, and I’ve gotten to know each of them really well. They are a great group of girls and have really taken over the role of leaders very well. The same weekend my brother, Ger, flew in from Boston after working there for two weeks with KPMG. He had rented a jeep so he could transport himself while he was over here because everything is so far away! We had arranged to meet at 6pm for dinner with a few of girls in Richmond, but I got a phone call from him at about 3pm asking me to come out to the car park. I went out and met with him, sat into the car and he started driving. As we pulled out of the car park I heard a voice coming from the back. I turn around and am stunned to see my Dad sitting up in the boot. It took a few moments for my brain to actually register what was going on. I like to think that I’m pretty clued into most things that go on in my family, but I hadn’t a notion that Dad was coming over, it was a great surprise! They got to see us play versus La Salle on the Sunday, and I showed them around the campus a bit too. On Monday we travelled to Washington, DC for the day. We went to see Arlington Cemetery which commemorates hundreds of thousands of bodies of those who have fought for America, along with the John F. Kennedy memorial and other historical artefacts. Then, we drove through the city itself. We went up to Capitol Hill and down the other side of the city to the White House. Washington is a fantastic city. Walking down a few blocks of it felt like every building was historical. The architecture is out of this world. On Tuesday, we stayed around Richmond and did a bit of shopping in the local mall. I had to make the best out of the time I had with Dad and Ger, and the money they had to offer! They drove back to Washington on Wednesday morning and flew home from there. We did quite a bit packed into a short space of time but hopefully there will be another opportunity for them to come over in the future. On Wednesday evening we left for the A-10 tournament in St.Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. The top 4 teams from the A10 conference play at this. The number one seed (UR) played the number four seed (La Salle) and beat them 4-1 and the number two seed (UMASS) played the number three seed (Temple) and lost 4-0. What was at stake was the title of the winners of the A10 conference, a place in a play-in game in California versus the University of California and a huge desert after dinner on the Saturday night!

We travelled to Philly on a luxury bus with leather reclining seats, power outlets and tonnes of leg space! We arrived on Wednesday night and were up the next morning for a walk-thru which is what we call a light training before a match. We weren’t playing the semi-final until Friday, so it was nice to be there in plenty of time. We played La Salle at 11am on Friday morning and beat them convincingly in the end. We stayed for the first half of the other semi-final and headed back to the hotel to begin our recovery for the following day. We played the final v Temple University at 1pm on Saturday 5th and beat them 1-0. There was great hype around the place with a lot of parents, friends, relatives and alumni out to support us for both matches. A few of my friends got to watch both matches live online because the A-10 website streamed them free of charge. The technology that is used in sport here is incredible. We have a media guy, “Media Mark”, as he is known, who travels around with us a bit and streams all of our home matches live on the Richmond Spiders website. He also makes brilliant highlight videos after most of our games. Winning the A10 conference was a great feeling. I was particularly happy to win it for our seniors because they truly deserved it. We had the awards ceremony and spent time chatting to the supporters who were out in full voice, as always! From there, we went for dinner in a local restaurant. The atmosphere was electric; everyone was so thrilled with the win. We got the huge desserts we were promised too… not too shabby! The team headed for the airport hotel and into bed knowing the phone would ring at 4:30a.m. to get up to go the airport and head for San Francisco, California to play our play-in game in an attempt to get into the Sweet 16 which is the top 16 teams in America. On our first day in San Francisco, we headed into the city centre and had a few hours off to go look around. I was blown away by how built up the city was. Walking down the main street, one side was very commercial and the the side nearest the docks was filled with entertainment acts and restaurants. We drove on the Bay Bridge and saw Alcatraz in the distance while also visiting the Alcatraz pier, where the inmates sailed out to Alcatraz from years ago. After our match, we then went to the Golden Gate Bridge and got out to look at it. It adds hugely to the city along with plenty of other tourist attractions. While our visit was very brief, we achieved what we set out to do and got to see San Fran while doing so!

The NCAA, which is the sport’s governing body in America for college sports, kindly funded our trip to California to play the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday 8th. They were ranked the 11th best team in the country and we were ranked the 21st best so we were definite underdogs going in. We played them on their pitch that stood directly beside their Coliseum-looking football stadium that holds 100,000 fans; such are the facilities that are over here for popular college sports. We beat them 2-0, turning a few heads in the hockey world over here at the same time. We had great support from the parents of some of the girls who travelled across with us. It was particularly special because our captain is from California so a lot of her family came to it to see her score our two goals. Winning that match meant that we were into the Sweet 16 and were awaiting the selection show that evening. We stopped in Starbucks in San Francisco to watch it online. It felt like something out of Friday Night Lights, what with seeing your college team mixing it with the best in the top 16 and waiting to see who we get drawn against. We play Syracuse in Maryland next. They’re ranked the third best team in America at the moment, so it will be a tough one.