TicketsWomen's Soccer European Trip-Day Three
Bearcats win again, Balconi shares thoughts
Contact: Shawn Sell
8/17/2004
Senior defender Renee Balconi |
In this installment of the UC Women's Soccer European Trip diary, a recap of the squad's second match in Scotland opens the piece. Senior defender Renee Balconi also weighs in with some of her experiences from abroad.
The University of Cincinnati women?s soccer team continued its winning ways overseas, as they topped Hutchinsville 4-0 on Monday in its second match of the preseason.
Sophomore Becky Imhoff (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) tallied a pair of goals to lead the Bearcats to the win. Following an 11-0 trouncing of FC Kilmarnock, the Bearcats were able to play nearly their entire roster in the win over Hutchinsville.
In addition to Imhoff?s markers, senior Amy Mink (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) and freshman Amanda Ryan (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley) each added goals in the victory for UC. For Ryan, the goal was the second of the young preseason for the Bearcat newcomer, while Imhoff?s pair of scores give her three for the trip.
Following the match, sophomore Ana Farmer (Renfrewshire, Scotland/Paisley Grammar) was selected by Hutchinsville as the Player of the Game.
?I thought we dominated play again today,? said Bearcat head coach Meridy Glenn of the contest. ?The girls are really starting to play really well together. We are seeing success this preseason which is good, but we still have a lot to work on before our season officially kicks off.?
In goal, the Bearcats again utilized all three of their keepers, with senior Tracy Hale (Westerville, Ohio/South) again drawing the start. Freshman Jen Doerflein (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seton) started the second half, while junior keeper Sherry Slye (Cincinnati, Ohio/Roger Bacon) finished between the pipes as UC registered its second shutout of the preseason.
Written by Renee Balconi on Monday 6-17
On our third day we woke up pretty early for breakfast at 6:30am and practiced at 7:30am. Practice went well, it started out light and ended up with a competitive game of 8 v 8. After practice we all headed into Edinburgh and one of the first things I saw was the Edinburgh Castle. It was absolutely beautiful! The castle sits above the whole town, up top of the hills and layers of rocks. Luckily, we had scheduled a tour of the castle for the first thing to do. The walk through the castle was awesome! Thee first room I walked into was the Scottish National War Memorial, where laid thick red books of soldiers that had died in action. Bordering the walls were walking soldiers engraved in some sort of brass. The second room was the crown room, inside was the queens crown and jewels and swords decorated with unique jewels of all sorts. Some other rooms that I had a chance to see were the Kings dining room, the cathedral and the great hall, which was my favorite. The great hall was embarked with weapons and armor of war. On my way out I walked down the Royal Mile, where there were tons of shops, museums and entertainment literally everywhere! I'm talking bag pipes, theater presentations, singing, dancing, and costumes, such as crowns, romeo's, juliets, noble men, ect.
We eventually had a much needed walking break, the team had a pregame meal at 3pm. Afrer lunch some people relaxed on the bus till we had to be on the bus at 5:15pm to leave for our match, others walked around and shopped.
Game time was set for 7pm and needless to say our meal must have been perfect, we won our game 4-0. We all had a blast and we're ready for the next big day.
Take Care, Renee