Trip to San Fran

     Northeastern Field hockey’s trip to California started at the glorious time of 545am at chicken lous.  After a long flight, the pilot announced that we were in California, he wished us good luck and we were on our way. The time adjustment was hard for some of us east coasters, however we took advice from our 6 canadians and 1 californian who are experts at making this cross country trek.  We went to Stanford for practice where there were no balls; which proved to be an interesting challenge. After finally getting a bucket of balls we got in a good hour and a half work out to prepare for the Cardinals.  Italian food filled with protein and carbs was our dinner of choice that night for two days before game day. Our breakfast the next morning seemed to be californias finest.  There was fresh fruit/juices, oatmeal, cereal, muffins, and bagels.  We fueled up and headed out to another day of practice. After our second day of practice we got to walk around San Francisco for a couple of hours.  Some people made fashionable decisions, purchasing I <3 SF shirts and sweatshirts while others made riskier purchases, heading to the fast food chain in and out to sample their fine cuisine.

     The next night we played Stanford in their first ever night game.  Stanford fans were a rambunctious group, using our roster to call onto the field to some of the Northeastern girls.  In the end the Cardinals came away with the win but it was a tough fought game.  After the game we had a tailgate thrown by the Canadian parents.  Many of the girls on the team were excited because the Canadian parents don’t get to see us play that often.  It was the silver lining of the night.

     On Saturday we headed out to Cal Berkley.  Our pregame walk thru was in their football stadium.  We were all amazed how big it was and tried to imagine playing for all those people.  We had seen the Cal football game the night before on television.  The Cal game proved a better run for us.  At the end of regulation it was 2-2.  The game was in 7v7 overtime.  We had many chances to score but couldn’t get the ball in the net and faced a second overtime.  Keeping the pressure on, Kaela Barker fed a ball to Carolyn Malloy who found the back of the net.  It was an exciting first win and we all rushed the field piling on top of Carolyn.  It was a great way to end our first away trip.