AMERICA!

There are quite a few American's playing over in Europe this year, and I have gotten a chance to see most of those that are in Holland. A few of the men's players are in Belgium (Jon Ginolfi, Kevin Barber, and Will Holt) and as you already know (by following the other blogs!!) Katie Evans is in England. This weekend we decided to all meet up in Amsterdam!

...but first I had a game on Sunday against Rotterdam! Our team had been building a lot for this game and with the Kiwis back, we had new motivation and firepower and wanted to leave it all on our home pitch. I was particularly excited to play Rotterdam because Chilean National Team player Paula Infante plays there and I couldn't wait to take her on again! (She played at the University of Maryland while I was at Wake Forest so I've played against her a lot in the past). It was nice also to see another familiar face!

We came out firing and played one of our best halves of hockey in the first half of the game. We took the lead late in the first half off a counter attack goal, but unfortunately gave up a goal with no time left on the clock on a corner. Although we were tied at the half, we knew we had the game within our grasp. We came out even harder in the second half, but Rotterdam quickly capitalized on a chance early forcing us to fight from behind. Shortly thereafter we found the back of the boards on a corner of our own. With the momentum in our favor, we continued to create chances and put pressure on their defense. With minutes left in the game, we scored, but the officials called it back saying it hit a foot (which of course we didn't agree with!!). A bit of an unlucky break! Although we fought hard and put some good passages of hockey together, we ran out of time before we could add another to the scoreline. Even though a draw is not what we had hoped for, we did get our first point moving us up a few spots in the standings, and it was a big step in the right direction. The season is long and we just need to keep moving forward!

Most of our team decided we should celebrate our first point because it was hard to come by! We went over to a neighboring club (KZ) for a bit because they had a DJ and were hosting a party for the evening. I didn't stay too long though because I had to meet up with the Americans!!! When I got to Amsterdam, Katie, Jon, Kevin, Will, Pat (Harris), Colin (Scally), Lauren (Powley) and Maureen (Daniel) were already there! It was so amazing to see all of us in one place! Pretty cool to all meet up together overseas and catch up on all of our experiences so far! I definitely enjoyed having all English speaking people around for one night as well!! I had to head back early Monday morning, but the others got to spend Monday in Amsterdam! What fun!! :)
... Katie will have a great video coming soon of the weekend!

AMERICA!!!!