TicketsSept. 9, 2006
Throughout the 2006-07 school year, select UC student-athletes will share their experiences on and off the field with Bearcat fans through CATSblogs. These student-athletes will take you in to the life of a Bearcat and share their struggles and triumphs. Fans can email their favorite CATSblogger here! Be sure to include your name and hometown.
Kim Sykes is a sophomore defender for the UC women's soccer team. She is majoring in psychology and pre-med and is a captain for the 2006 Bearcats.
September 25, 2006
The news here in the seems to be coming in two doses: both good and bad. On Friday, our game versus Notre Dame was delayed for about three hours and then unfortunately cancelled due to crazy storms across the . The good news, though, was that we still got a win this weekend when we beat DePaul 3-1 on the road. Next, also on Sunday, the Bengals beat the Steelers, which we all know was the good news, and the bad news being Odell Thurman being suspended.
Anyways, the ride back from yesterday was entertaining as always. We had all just eaten our choice of Chipotle or Potbelly's, and we had just started our trip home when our bus driver told us he was familiar with the Chicago area so he sort of gave us a tour of the downtown Chicago area. It was pretty interesting because I have never had a tour of downtown and all I really remembered about was how crowded it seemed. The Canadians were amusing on the tour; Melissa Bigg was taking pictures of everything and I really felt like I was a tourist just being near her. When the bus driver stopped at NBC Studios and told us that was where Oprah was filmed, Mel's eyes got all huge and she looked really excited. She was making me laugh because she was taking pictures of all the road signs - how random!! Kristin May called one of the numbers on the apartment buildings to see how much they cost per month, and the housing there was so expensive! Then we passed all the shops that downtown is known for and we all really wanted to stop and spend some money but of course we couldn't.
After the tour, things settled down for awhile and we had some study time. But that didn't last long because we are the loudest team ever and of course everyone had already studied before our trip. During one of the movies we had on that no one was really watching, part of the team in the back of the bus started playing the game Catch Phrase. If you don't know, it's a game where there are two teams that are in a circle. A player on team one is sitting next to a player from team two, and so on and so forth. Then, a player from team one gets a random word or phrase and they have to try to describe the word to their teammates, who are trying to guess it obviously. All of this is happening while a buzzer is getting faster and faster, and then finally it goes off. Whichever team doesn't have it when the buzzer goes off, receives a point.
Since our team is competitive, all of this gets pretty intense...so intense in this bus ride, that the driver had to tell us to tone it down. What is so great about the game is how hilarious people are when they are trying to describe the phrase they have. I'll share some examples. When had the word "guilty" she yelled out: "okay, like....okay, like, the opposite of good!" Naturally, everyone on her team guessed the word was "bad." Then Chels yelled, "No, like, you can see it on your face!" It was so funny! Later, she had "chocolate chip cookies" and she said to her team: "My favorite food!" Someone eventually guessed it, but her descriptions were making everyone die laughing. Then, someone was describing a word and they said "truck" and immediately guessed "OH! A TONKA TOY!?" She was definitely wrong but it was really funny if you were there. Another funny person to see playing Catch Phrase is Gigi Ernst, because she knows all the phrases that no one else would ever get, because we don't even know that the word existed! Anytime we don't know a word's meaning, or any sort of trivia, we know who to ask: Gigi.
In case you didn't know, we have four home games in a row these next two weeks, and I'm sure the news from those games will solely be good! Hopefully you can come out and support our team and watch us win! Check back in soon...
#5
September 18, 2006
This last week has gone by extremely quick. Yesterday we beat 3-0, the perfect way to have our non-conference games come to a close...now all we have is conference games left and I think we are peaking at just the right time!! Erin MacDonald had her first two career goals in the win yesterday which was awesome. After her first goal, I tried to congratulate her but she didn't run straight back to the other end of the field after her goal; instead she ran to the sideline and towards our bench! Maybe they do this in , but I had no idea where she was running. I had to chase her basically around the entire field before I could say anything to her... I still think she has no idea that I was chasing her around yelling her name.
I think my favorite play in the entire game happened with about two seconds left on the clock. My favorite foreigner, Ana Farmer, had the ball around the fifty yard line. She took a touch, shot the ball, and the keeper for the other team backed up, and then barely made the save just as the buzzer signaling the end of the game went off! It was an amazing shot by Farmer and we all thought it would have been awesome if it would have gone in right before the buzzer went off. On top of Farmer's skills, I was glad to play some defense with Stephanie Brindle because she always plays her hardest which I love about her...Anyways, after the game was over, we all signed autographs and then watched the men's team play versus Notre Dame, which they won 2-1.
Afterwards, I headed back to my new apartment, fittingly located right behind Gettler Stadium, which I moved into at the end of last week. Today I am resting up, since we have the day off, and I will probably get my books for school since we start on Wednesday. Already the campus is looking livelier because there are more and more people moving back for the school year. You should come watch our next game on Friday versus Notre Dame, and of course you should also check back in soon to read more about UC Women's Soccer...
Go `Cats,
#5
September 11, 2006 11 am
We won our third game against yesterday, meaning we have won two out of three home games this season! It was exciting because Nicole Sanda got her first collegiate goal....I was pretty pumped, too, because it was a corner kick so I had pushed up to help attack. When we normally score, since I play defense, I'm really far away from everybody celebrating and congratulating the goal-scorer, so by the time I sprint up from defense, no one is celebrating any longer. But this time I was right there and got to congratulate Nicole as she jumped like 10 feet in the air!! The crowd was pretty excited that we scored with only about a minute left in the first half, but I'm not sure if they were excited because we had finally scored after so many opportunities, or because they were going to get free ice cream since anytime you score in the last five minutes of the half, anyone at the game gets free ice cream from Ben and Jerry's.
Second half we had eleven shots and somehow none of them went in. Becky Imhoff had the perfect cross from the right side of the field and it rolled in front of the goal and we just missed it. Then JoJo had a breakaway that I thought was for sure a goal, but then their keeper came away with an amazing save, as she did again with Becky Imhoff's breakaway a little later. After our game, some of us went to go get dinner and of course our free ice cream thanks to Nicole!
Today we have practice and then tomorrow afternoon we leave for for game #7. The game is not only a rivalry, but it also marks our first Big East Conference game of the season. We play them at 8 pm on Wednesday, and if you can't come to the game to watch us win, you can watch it on Fox Soccer Channel!
Check back in soon,
Kim Sykes #5
September 9, 2006 5 pm
As I said earlier, last weekend consisted of games against local adversaries and Xavier, games that are always battles because of the rivalries that exist between the schools. We came away with a win at , which we were pleased with because the home crowd at was something we knew we would have to endure in order to win. I think our team has improved on focusing and taking advantage of what we can control in game situations, versus allowing what we can't control affect us negatively. However, on Sunday things did not seem to go our way with our first loss of the season to Xavier. We went into overtime and ended up getting scored on by a penalty kick, an ill-fated way to end the weekend. Coach Meridy gave us Monday (Memorial Day) off to not only recuperate physically but to start to prepare ourselves mentally for on Thursday. Since we beat them last year, we knew this year they would be pumped to play us at their home field. However, I'm truly disappointed to say that -- despite our chances in the game -- we ended up with a loss against MSU.
Although we were all unhappy with the result, the trip to resulted with the team being closer than ever before. After we arrived in on Wednesday and had a quality practice, we had a great team dinner at Olive Garden which left everyone more than satisfied. Then, the bus ride on the way home lead to some more team bonding. We had some karaoke and some dance-offs that were hilarious. I especially liked Lindsey Noteboom's dancing and I think I liked Heather Neiser's karaoke the best, but I'm not sure! One of the funniest moments was when Teresa Smolilo sang the Ukrainian National Anthem! Heather Neiser and I definitely bonded over the trip since we were roommates at the hotel which was nice since we play so close on the field together! We had a lot of fun watching some crazy murder mystery on TV together, as well as just talking!
Anyway, the good news is that we get to face another opponent on Sunday; this time is coming to Gettler Stadium. Check back in soon to read about how we dominated and won our game against ...but remember to come to the game to see some Bearcat Domination for yourself!!!
Go `Cats,
Kim Sykes #5