Coming off our first win of the season, we were all excited for our double header weekend in Boston. Although Seattle U was technically an away game, our trip to Boston was considered our first road trip, which could explain why no one remembered to load the balls and equipment onto the bus. Fortunately our handy dandy trainer, Chris, caught the error just before we were about to pull out onto Montlake. However, it wouldn't be long until we faced another problem on our journey across the country. This time that problem presented itself in the form of a 3 ft, 30 lb, screaming toddler. Now, a five hour flight at 8 o'clock in the morning is not my idea of a fun time, but when you throw in a shrieking monster I can safely say it made the experience a million times worse. Even the best headphones could not block out the blood curtailing cry produced by this little boy, but at least I was a safe five rows back while Louise, Jim and Rose got the full surround sound experience. By the time we finally landed in Boston we were all relieved, exhausted and rethinking any future plans of having children. 

Since we had been sitting down most of the day traveling, once we arrived at the hotel we went on a team run to get our legs moving. It might have been the time difference, the air travel, or the fact that our "light jog" turned into a marathon race, but for whatever the reason we were all physically and mentally ready to call it day.

By the next day we were all rested up and ready to train. We headed the short distance to Harvard for practice and afterwards toured the campus for a while. It was a gorgeous day outside and everyone enjoyed exploring Harvard yard and seeing what the campus had to offer. Later, we ended the night with dinner downtown that left us with full bellies and our coaches' with empty pockets. In hindsight our expensive meal was worth it because when Friday night rolled around we were ready to play.

When we arrived at U Mass we were taken back by a few things. First, the field seemed more like a cow pasture than an actual soccer field. Second, the warm up CD had the most bizarre compilation of songs possible. It was so strange that I think that it must have been made as a strategy to confuse and bewilder opponents, how else can you explain the lion-king rap remix? And finally, while we were all trying to guess what the Massachusetts mascot was we discovered that they were none other than Minutemen (enough said). The combination of these oddities momentarily threw us, but the coaches quickly set our minds back on track and refocused us back to the game.

From the start we took control of the game and quickly strung together passes and created dangerous opportunities. It wasn't soon before Mckenna received a threw pass from the midfield and put the ball away for her first goal of the season and our first goal of the game. The next goal didn't come to long after as (Lindsay) Elston beat her opponent down the flank (a few times) and served a cross to Kellye (JoswickK) who headed it into the back of the net.

Going into the second half we were up by two, but were still looking to press forward for another goal. Kelsea Brajkovich quickly put another away for us in a scramble play in the box that she was able to get on the end of. We continued to play well throughout the second and steadily tired out the Minutewomen who were losing stamina. We played skillful in the attack and kept the Minutewomen's shot count low with hard defensive pressure. By the end of 90 minutes the final score stood at 3-0, giving us our second win of the season!

- Kendyl Pele - women's soccer

Check back with the Dawg Blawg tomorrow for Kendyl's second blog from last weekend's trip.