Athlete's Journal -- Life of a college athlete

Athlete Journal Entry #13: Thursday, September 12, 2002

Messiah College has a great stadium for their soccer team. They have lights so they can play night games. Most importantly though, they deserve that because they are ranked No. 2 nationally for a reason.

They are a favorite to win the national championship this year, which would be their second such title in the past three years. They move the ball very well, they are very quick, and above all else, they know how to play together.

While we are definitely a team that deserves to be on the field with them, we did not show ourselves that well tonight. We are better than five goals different from them even though tonight the score was in fact 5-0. With Elizabethtown on Saturday night, the upset faces quickly changed to faces of hope and optimism.

Elizabethtown is a team that we need to beat. It is a team that we can beat, and it is a team we should be able to beat.

Although they have won a national championship in the last six years, they are a team that we need to beat for team morale.

We opened the season with the toughest schedule in Division 3 Men's Soccer (nationally) and it could easily be a shot in the face since we are now holding a .200 winning percentage. However, we are looking at it with a learning experience, and also we know that when the Centennial Conference schedule begins, there is no team in our conference that has played close to near the competition we have faced so far.

Following Elizabethtown, we open our conference schedule with Ursinus on September 21st. While, this Saturday is a gigantic game for us, the season truly begins on that date, and we need to be able to go into the conference schedule with a massive amount of good thoughts about the schedule we played rather than looking at our record to date. Go Diplomats!