100-Percent Cotton
10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 7, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - "100-Percent Cotton" is the weekly blog of senior defender Jessica Cotton. The blog gives fans a look at the inner workings of the SFA soccer program and is updated weekly on Tuesdays.
After a whirlwind of goals against Prairie View A&M, we were hoping to have that flair in our opening weekend of conference. We started off the week a little different than usual. There was no `Terrible Tuesday' nor was there a `Winded Wednesday,' but we spent those two days working on defensive and offensive formation on a more in-depth level.
Tuesday, before practice even started, we had a team meeting to discuss how exactly we were going to achieve our goals of winning another conference championship, winning a berth to the NCAA tournament and winning our first-round game. We did not get on the field until around 4:30 that afternoon, and once there we split up into two groups, one consisting of forwards, and the other having midfielders and defenders. Defensively, we worked on our communication and movement as one single unit. Although it seems pretty minute, it makes a complete difference on the field, when everyone is on the same page.
Wednesday was our hard day of the week, even though we did not run fitness. We played quite a few small-sided games. In the first game, we worked on controlling the ball in the middle of the field. It was very successful, and it led us into the next phase of practice. The next game was working on attacking and defending within very confined spaces. That game in itself was fitness for those who were on the smaller teams. However, after that we went straight into a full-field scrimmage against ourselves. When that ended we thought practice was over, but just to our surprise we had a tough core workout with Kelli after practice. It was all about our abs and back, and we all felt it afterward!
Thursday was our travel day, and we left Nacogdoches at 8 that morning. We stopped in Lafayette, La., for lunch at, in my opinion, a very good Cajun food restaurant. Then it was straight back on the road. After a few hours, we arrived in Baton Rouge and had a short practice at a local field. We went back to our hotel to shower and then we were off to dinner at the Italian food restaurant, Bravo. Then it was time for bed.
Friday we woke up for team breakfast at the hotel, had a few hours of down time, then it was back on the bus to head to pre-game meal at Jason's Deli, and then off to the game. Friday's game against Southeastern Louisiana was slated for 4:30, and it was a hard-fought game for the full 90 minutes. However, the first half went our way when Amanda Lackey scored a goal in the last ten minutes of the half. We held them off the rest of the game, and got our first road win of the year and started off conference with a win!
Saturday we had much of the day to ourselves. We were able to go shopping, study, or as some prefer, sleep. We were all back together for team dinner at the Hollywood Casino Buffet. They had everything, including sushi and frog legs (which I did try, but did not like).
Sunday's game was scheduled for a 1 p.m. start and that would mean an early morning for us. We had pre-game meal around 8:30, and a team meeting at 10. However, just as the meeting was about to start, actor Billy Zane was in the lobby, so we obviously had to all walk about like star-struck children! A few of us actually got to talk to him! He wished us luck and I hope he liked our knowledge of his film roles. After a short meeting we were back on the road to Thibodaux. The game against Nicholls fell our way in a score of 6-1, however we were not satisfied with our performance.
Although not everything was quite perfect this weekend, we did come out with two big wins, and are undefeated in conference. Now, we are looking forward to our away game against Sam Houston on Friday.
-- SFA --
