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Buffalo Bits - Senior Blog

Buffalo Bits - Senior Blog
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This season, Colorado seniors Katie Griffin, Laura Munnelly and Allie True will take turns writing a blog to track what the Buffaloes are up to and give fans an insider view of the program.  Allie True took time out this week to share the NCAA First and Second Rounds recap.

 

Tuesday, November 14 ? Allie True

For my portion of the blog I will be giving a play by play of this weekend’s games...you’ll hear from Laura soon about other aspects of the weekend.  Friday we had our game against Colorado College. Colorado College had just played their league tournament and went all the way to the championship game just like we did, so we knew that this game was going to be tough.  This game was a challenge for us because their game plan was to play defensive against us. What I mean is that they packed the box so it was hard for us to get a goal.  Around halfway through the first half CC (Colorado College) got a corner kick and a CC player headed it so that it went up in to the upper right hand of the net, there was no way Kirstin Radlinski could have stopped it.  We were all pretty down when halftime rolled around.  Bill helped pick us up and put us back together. 

 

We came out recharged and with a better attitude the second half.  Around 15 minutes in Allison Kidd passed a ball across the top of the penalty box and Katie Griffin took a low and hard shot that went right past the keeper.  This goal was huge and pumped us up even more.  We continued to keep the ball in CC's half and eventually I knew we were going to score.  I am not exactly sure how Katie Griffin got the ball, I think it bounced out to her. But anyways around 30 yards out Katie took a shot that went right over the top of the keeper. We were so excited and held CC from scoring.  That meant we would play University of Denver on Sunday.

 

We knew that Sunday’s game was going to be even tougher than our game on Friday. The last time that DU lost was to us back in September.  They were on a 15 game winning streak.  But that didn’t intimidate us Buffs for one minute.

 

We were looking forward to putting an end to their streak and making University of Colorado soccer history. When the game started we were all over the Pioneers.  We kept taking shot after shot, and finally Katie Griffin broke through and juked the last defender.  The DU defender couldn’t stop Katie and ended up fouling her in the box. The ref called a penalty kick for us and Katie put it away. 

 

We made it to halftime with the score of 1-0 and the weather wasn’t what we thought it was going to be too, so of course as soon as the second half started, so did the snow.  Being from California, I do not get the opportunity to play in snow very much, it was quite an experience.

 

So in the second half, DU was working hard and kept getting free kicks, and with about 10 minutes left in the game they got one just outside our 18.  They crossed in the free kick and one of the DU players, in my opinion, pushed Kirstin and she couldn’t get to the ball. It went straight into where she was standing before she was pushed.

 

We didn’t let down though, less than four minutes later, I played Nikki Marshall a through ball and she timed it perfectly.  She hit it by the keeper, but it hit the post, but she followed it and put it away.  We hung on to the lead through the snow and won 2-1.  It was absolutely awesome. Thanks so much for all your support this weekend and especially through out the year!

 

Wednesday, November 8 ? Katie Griffin

 

BIG 12 TOURNAMENT WEEK

Game 1 - Kansas

Our week started off with an intense match against the Kansas Jayhawks. For the second week in a row our team was forced to mentally prepare to play a team we had just crushed 4-0 just days before our opening match. Assured this win was a fluke (by rival friends and players on the Jayhawks), we knew Kansas was not about to let us win without putting up a fight. Fired up and determined to prove they belonged in the tournament, the next 90 minutes of regulation was a hard fought 1-1 tied battle between us and the Jayhawks. We then entered 20 minutes of overtime, but were required to go into penalty kicks when neither one of our teams could put the ball in the back of the net. Fortunately we won the shootout when sophomore goalkeeper Kirstin Radlinski made a fantastic save, and all of the Colorado Buffs netted their penalty kicks. Ecstatic with the win over Kansas, we knew we had to try to get our bodies to recover as quickly as possible for Friday’s semifinal game.

 

On Thursday my teammates and I were beginning to feel the after-effects of playing such a long and exhausting 110 minutes. Concerned about our legs recuperating from the physical pounding we took the night before, our coaches and trainers bought all of us large bags of ice to make ourselves a nice chilled bath. With less than 24 hours before game two, the Buffs were now ready to take on the biggest and strongest semifinal competitors we have ever faced in conference...the Texas A&M Aggies!

 

Game 2-Texas A&M

The first half of the game felt like d?j? vu. Within the first 45 minutes of the match, we were getting worked, with a losing score of 2-0. For a minute, this game reminded us all of a terrible loss we experienced to the Aggies a few weeks prior in conference play. Nevertheless, things were about to change. Frustrated with our efforts (at halftime) Bill began to point out players whom he felt were not playing up to their potential. With a few motivating words here and there, we were determined to turn this game around. Our previous loss to Texas A&M was a solid 3-0 blowout and we were not about to let it happen again. Within five minutes of the second half we scored our first goal of the game, with a 2-1 trail behind the Aggies. For the next thirty minutes, both teams would battle until we scored our second goal, tying A&M 2-2. Thrilled with the amount of heart my teammates and I played with, we managed to get ourselves into another double overtime scenario. However, this game would not end in penalty kicks because of a late scoring goal. Continuing our fierce battle with the Aggies, with less than three minutes left in double overtime, freshman Nikki Marshall placed a hard earned ball into the lower right corner of the net ending the double overtime.

 

Tonight, we made history as the Colorado Buffaloes beat the Texas A&M Aggies for the first time ever! This was not an easy win for us, but was something we earned. When very little people believed in Colorado winning against a powerhouse like the Aggies, we fought with all of our hearts to make it happen.

 

Game 3 Finals: Texas Longhorns vs. Colorado Buffaloes

Similar to our previous two matches, today would be a hard fought battle between two teams who had never won a conference championship title. Our game ended in 1-1 tie at the end of regulation time, but would continue to remain changeless throughout overtime. After entering three games of overtime and facing our second look at penalty kicks, my teammates and I were hopeful in finishing this weekend with a trophy. Unfortunately, our objective fell slightly short when two of the Buffs goals were denied. It was a little disheartening for me and many of the girls when we found out we had just lost our chance of gaining the Big 12 Tournament title because of penalty kicks. However, despite losing the trophy, we all learned a lot about ourselves as individuals and as a team. Never have we been forced to work so hard to obtain our goals, and even though the tournament is over, our season is not!

 

Please come support our team this Friday as we host our first NCAA home game at 2 p.m. against Colorado College. The game will take place at Prentup Field on CU's East Campus, which is located at 33rd and Colorado in Boulder. Our fans have played a huge part in contributing to our team’s success and we look forward to seeing you all there this Friday! GO BUFFS!

 

Thursday, October 19 - Laura Munnelly

So last weekend we had a bit of a reality check.  We were out of town the whole weekend, where we played Missouri on Friday and Iowa State on Sunday.

 

We were coming off two tough losses to Texas A&M and Texas and were hoping to get back on track with a few road wins.  However, the struggles continued for us.  We lost a third straight to Missouri, 3-0.  It was a tough loss because our mistakes were finally catching up to us.  It wasn't that there was a lack of effort, but there was a lack of smarts and they cost us dearly.  We were now beginning to realize just how hard it is to win in the Big 12.  I think some of the freshmen were starting to realize that this was a long season and that it was no time to make excuses. 

 

After a very disappointing loss on Friday, we had a long bus ride to Ames, Iowa on Saturday.  We had a short, intense practice when we got there to re-evaluate the severity of the situation we had gotten ourselves into in the conference.  We were sitting at 1-4-1 and needed to win the next game in order to have a chance at getting to the Big 12 tournament. 

 

Us seniors felt that we needed to have a meeting to get across how important these next games were to not only our careers, but our teams life in the postseason.  After a pretty intense talk, we had come to terms with what had happened before, and began to focus on what needed to be done now, which was beating Iowa State. 

 

The game was a battle, with some bounces finally going our way.  Nikki Marshall scored a great goal with 15 minutes left and we were able to hang on for the victory.  I know Katie, True, and I were really happy because that means that we live to play another day.

 

We can't afford to lose another game from here on out if we want to get into the tournament.  We, as a team, now realize that we can dig ourselves out of the hole we were in and it is not too late to turn our season back on the right track. 

 

We have a tough game against Texas Tech on Friday and hopefully we can pick up another big win.  Hope to see you there!

 

Thursday, October 12 - Allie True

Last weekend was a challenging weekend for us soccer Buffs.  We lost 3-0 to Texas A&M.  The game should not have been 3-0 because we had our chances to score and they got the ball to bounce their way. 

 

On Saturday morning, instead of practicing we watched our game vs. Texas A&M.  We just went over what we could improve.  Everyone was looking forward to learning from our loss and moving onto Texas. 

 

We seemed to have the same bad luck carry over to our game vs. the University of Texas. We were winning, but in a span of five minutes they scored two goals and we just could not get another goal to equalize. 

 

It was two tough losses, but something that was so great about this weekend was that we had soccer alumni come to our games.  It was alumni weekend and over 30 former Buff soccer players came back for the weekend.  It was awesome to have them cheering for us.

 

We are looking forward to this weekend.  We have learned a lot and are moving on to Missouri and Iowa State.  Hopefully we will see you at our last home games when we take on Texas Tech and Baylor.  Thanks for all of your support this past weekend. We really appreciate it!

 

 

Wednesday, October 4 - Katie Griffin

 

Hey Buff fans!  Last Friday my teammates and I traveled to good ol’ Lincoln, Neb., to play our third Big 12 game against the feisty Cornhuskers. Before the game began, Bill mentioned to my teammates and I that this was a very prideful team that would challenge us to the absolute end...and boy was he right! From the second the referee blew his whistle, it was GAME ON!

 

The match began fairly even, as both teams worked to gain possession of the ball. For the first 45 minutes of the game, there would be no score for either team. Within five minutes of our second half, our tie was briefly interrupted when Nebraska forward Brittany Timko scored a low rebounding goal to give the Huskers a 1-0 lead over the Buffs. However, eighteen minutes later, we found ourselves fighting our way back into the game when Alex Cousins found the feet of Nikki Marshall. As Nikki worked to win the “through” ball, she took a shot that initially hit the post, but nicely finished her rebounded attempt. Happy to be back on the board, we found the next twenty minutes of the game to be a very physical battle.

 

As the second half of regulation time came to an end, we realized that we still had to play overtime. For the next two ten minute periods, we would battle the huskers to end in a 1-1 tie. Although we were both physically and mentally exhausted by the end of the game, we were proud with one another’s effort and knew it was time to rest and prepare for Sunday’s game against Wyoming. From here, my teammates and I packed up our bags, and headed back to sunny Colorado!

 

After an exhausting game on Friday, we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us against the Wyoming Cowgirls. Although this was an “out of conference” game, we felt the need to win against them more than ever. Similar to our match against Nebraska, our scoreboard remained 0-0 for the first half of the game. However, we wanted this game to be OURS and we were not about to let it slip into the hands of Wyoming.

 

In the 74th minute, Laura Munnelly served a great ball into the box for freshman Jess Quador to head into the back of the net (giving us our 1-0 lead). Nearly ten minutes later, we gained our second goal when I made a quick give and go pass with Nikki Keller, who finished her shot into the upper left side of the goal. We finished the game with a well fought 2-0 lead over Wyoming and were happy to gain another “W!”

 

So what’s next? Well, currently, we are preparing to play one of our biggest rivals of the year. Please help support the Buffs this Friday, as we face longtime foes, Texas A&M. Our fan base has been absolutely incredible this past year and we thank you all for joining us! Hope to see you all this Friday at 4:00 p.m. at Prentup!

 

Go Buffs!

-Katie Griffin

 

 Thursday, September 28 - Laura Munnelly

We opened up Big 12 play this past weekend against Oklahoma.  After a great preseason schedule, we were all really excited to test ourselves against an always difficult Oklahoma team.  We lost to OU last year in Norman, so I know all of the vets were looking to avenge the loss.  After a good week of practice, we were all ready to play on Friday.  It was a pretty chilly day out and it was perfect to play in.  It was good to hear all of our fans still came out to support us in the less than stellar weather.  I think it helped us because living in Colorado, you learn to adapt to a change in weather at the drop of a hat.  After getting ourselves warmed up, we were all anxious to kick off the Big 12.  It was a hard fought game, as all Big 12 games are, and we were able to win 2-1.  We got two good goals from Allie True and Allison Kidd, their firsts of the season.  It was good way to start off our conference play and we were all feeling pretty good going into Stillwater to play Oklahoma State.

 

We left Saturday morning for Oklahoma.  We got stuck in the airport for a few hours, but were all having a good time.  When we finally got there we had a late dinner and were all pretty excited to go to bed.  We all woke up the next morning and went and had a pretty suspect breakfast at a buffet place across the street from our hotel.  After breakfast, we had a pre-game meeting to prepare for how OK State was going to play.  It was a pretty nice day considering we were in Oklahoma and its windy there, but it was what it was and we knew we had to play with all we had in order to, as Bill would say, "steal a win on the road."

 

We played really well in the first half, made some mistakes and had a few turnovers, but were unable to get a goal.  We came back out in the second half in the same way, but OK State came at us with a lot of pressure.  They turned it up, and caught us off guard. We gave up a PK pretty early in the half, and despite her best efforts, the shot was placed perfectly in the corner, just out of reach of Kirstin.  Shortly after that, we got a goal of our own, with Alex hitting a sweet free kick into the upper 90.  Despite tying the game, we made so many mistakes and turned the ball over so many times, it was only a matter of time before OSU was going to get another one.  A free kick was served into the box, and Kirstin made a sweet save, but it was cleared right to an OSU player and she hit a shot before we could all recover.  Despite our best effort, the amount of turnovers we had ended up hurting us.  We came back to CO happy to be out of Oklahoma, but disappointed with the loss.

 

We are heading to Nebraska to play on Friday, and then we are back on Sunday to play Wyoming.  We are all pretty amped to play NU in the classic Nebraska/Colorado rivalry.  Hopefully we will see you all when we get back on Sunday.

 

Friday, September 22- Allie True

Hi again everyone! Thanks for coming back to our blog.  Last weekend was another W to the win column for the Buffs.  We took on the University of Denver at home.  We have always had a tough time beating DU because they are our biggest rival outside of the Big 12 and there are so many Colorado girls on that team that usually everyone knows one another.  It was so much fun to play on the Friday. We had so many fans and our field looked amazing.  We started out the game going back and forth at both ends. Both keepers were being tested a lot.  Our goal came at about 25 minutes in when Nikki Marshall made a great early cross to Katie Griffin who shot and made the keeper make a brilliant save. The ball bounced out in the box and Nikki Marshall passed it back out, then Allison Kidd dummied it through her legs to Jess Quador who shot a beautiful goal in to the upper 90 of the net.  Luckily our game was televised so we got to watch it over and over.  At about 40 minutes in the weather started to get really bad so we had to postpone the game for what seemed forever, but it was really only 40 minutes.  We got back out there and so did our fans which was so great.  We finished up the first half and had a very quick halftime.  The rest of the game we held them to a shut out and won the game.  It felt so good to beat them at home and to end our weekend on a good note. We only had one game that weekend so we did not have a game on Sunday.

 

Saturday morning we met at Coach Bill's house and walked over to his son Lucas’ soccer game. We cheered on Lucas and then after his game we did a jog and stretch to get the legs loosened up.  After the jog and stretch we went to back to Bill's house and watched our game from the day before and ate hamburgers and chicken sandwiches.  We got the rest of the day off to relax.

 

Sunday morning we met at Prentup and went for a hour long bike ride which was pretty interesting.  We had 26 girls riding up and down the Boulder bike path and let’s just say most of us should stick to kicking the soccer ball around.

 

Anyways that was our weekend. I hope to see you this afternoon at Prentup at 4 for our home opener of the Big 12 against Oklahoma. Go Buffs!

 

Tuesday, September 12 - Allie True

We just got back from our trip from Utah.  I believe it was a good trip. Even though we lost on Friday, our team truly learned some valuable lessons.

 

We left Thursday evening for Utah.  The plane trip was only an hour so it was a quick trip. We got in pretty late so Thursday night we went to our rooms and went straight to bed.

 

Friday morning we had breakfast together and soon after, we had a light practice to go over some things about BYU.  After practice we snacked, some girls did homework and some of us laid around, took a nap or just watched tv.  We had our pregame meal at the hotel and then our pregame meeting to go over the starting line up and what our game plan was.  We left for BYU in the late afternoon because we were staying in Salt Lake City and Provo (which is where BYU is) is about an hour drive.  We arrived in Provo and started to warm up.

 

I guess in Provo the "thing to do" is go to the women's soccer game on Friday nights.  We ended up playing in front of a nearly 5,000 BYU soccer fans.  The first half of the game we struggled.  They seemed to get every bounce and scored 3 goals against us.  When half time came we all had no idea what had just happened to us.  We calmed down in the locker room and adjusted a few things and came back fired up to come back.  The second half we looked like a different team.  We had BYU in their defensive end for most of the second half.  Laura Munnelly scored her first collegiate goal from a free kick right about 40 yards out. With about 1 minute left Katie Griffin played a ball through to Nikki Marshall who placed it past the keeper.  We ran out of time and lost our first game of the year.  I was very disappointed with the loss, but at the same time I was very proud of the girls for not giving up.  We showed great character for coming back the way we did.  The drive back to Salt Lake was long and everyone was exhausted.

 

Saturday morning we got to sleep in a little bit and then had breakfast around 10.  After breakfast we went for a walk to stretch the legs out. When we got back from the walk we had a few hours to hang out and then around 3 we went to Iggy's Sports Bar to watch and cheer for the CU football team.  They were playing CSU which is a big rival for them.  We ordered appetizers and then dinner through out the game.  Everyone just tried to relax and move on to our next challenge, Utah.  We ended up losing the football game, but I think it was good to get out of the hotel and have a chance to hang out and have fun.  After dinner we had a team meeting and then headed for bed.  We had an early night because a lot of the girls were getting sick so we were keeping our trainer Yolanda pretty busy.

 

Sunday morning we had our pregame breakfast and then our team meeting to talk about how we were going to play against Utah.  We stayed about 5 minutes away from the field so it was a nice short drive to game.  When we got to the field we started putting on our gear and we had an awesome surprise show up before we started warm up. Kris Kauftheil (who is on our team, but didn’t get to travel because she has been out with an ankle injury for the first part of our season) and Lindsey Barker (the #1 CU women's soccer fan and my roommate) showed up for our game. They were decked out in CU soccer gear and were yelling and cheering for us. It brought a great spirit to our warm up and made everyone even more excited to play. We came out much better this game, but got down by one.  When halftime came I knew we were going to win the game. There was no doubt in my mind. We had just played a game where we were down 3-0 and we almost came back and we are much better than them as well.  In the second half we scored twice. The first was another combination of Griffin and Marshall.  Katie Griffin played a through ball to Nikki Marshall who yet again placed the ball past their keeper. The second goal, Nikki Marshall was fouled in the box and Katie Griffin just placed a penalty kick.  It was great. It felt so awesome to come from behind and beat a ranked team.  It was a nice a short trip home and everyone was happy with the way our weekend ended. 

 

We are all so excited to play DU and hope you all make it out to Prentup on Friday at 4. Thank you for reading the blog, I hope you enjoyed it.

 

Friday, August 31 - Laura Munnelly

So the last three weeks have been pretty intense.  We got through two weeks of preseason, our exhibition game against Northern Colorado, and our opening games out in Tennessee against Vanderbilt and Alabama.  There is a lot that has gone on in these past weeks.  First off, preseason.  We reported for camp on the 9th of August.  It was crazy to see all of the new faces that we had; 14 newbies along with about 12 returners.  We had our standard meetings: compliance, NCAA rules, physicals, etc.  We were slowly getting to know all of the freshmen, but them being so large in number, they were all still a little timid about opening up to a group of girls who are so close to one another.  Anyway, we had dinner in Dal Ward and went home to get ourselves ready for what we were all about to go through. 

 

Preseason is two of the most intense weeks of both fitness and playing that a soccer player will go through.  Having been through three of them already, us seniors knew a little bit of what to expect, but not fully, as Bill has a tendency to throw us curve balls every once in a while.  The freshmen were all so nervous, asking a million questions: "What do you think we will run today?" "What time do we have to be where?" "What did we do to run like this?" All of the returners were all happy to oblige with our best answer, but in truth, we all know the same amount of information: you're here to play and to prepare yourself for the next level, and that is something that we all learned was what we were trying to achieve with this preseason.  It was very intense and very draining, but we all made it through to our exhibition game against an old foe in Northern Colorado. 

 

We were looking to avenge our loss to them in the spring and it was a good chance to get everyone playing time and see where we were at early in the season.  While we played well enough to win 2-0, it was not the result that we were looking for and we then realized that we had a long way to go in a short period of time.  It was time to get back to the grind and prepare ourselves to play two very tough teams in Vanderbilt and Alabama.  We got Sunday off and were back at it again on Monday.  You could tell emotions were high and there was a lot of tension, but training was starting to come together and you could see our progress in learning to play with one another.  The newbies were starting to get more and more comfortable, and started breaking out of their shells.  I think we all knew that we needed to play better if we were going to get the results that we wanted and that we knew we were capable of.  We finished practice for the week and took off for Tennessee on Thursday afternoon.  We arrived in Tennessee, welcomed by both the heat and the humidity.

 

We had dinner and checked into the hotel and got ourselves settled.  We had a pretty intense meeting that night.  I say intense because it was more that just "this is how Vanderbilt plays" meeting.  We discussed more of where we wanted to go as a team, what our goals were going to be for the season, and what kind of a team we wanted to be.  By doing this, people got to express what their goals were for the team, both in practice and in games.  We were able to "hash out"

both how we were going to win games, and how we were going to win practice.  We tried to come up with a slogan that would represent our goals of the season.

 

After many minutes of trying to come up with something, Bill came to Allie True, Katie, and I with the thought of an acronym that would encompass all of our goals and as a reminder of what we were playing for.  The acronym is BUFFS, and while I would love to tell you what that means, it is something for the team.  After our meeting, we all went back to our rooms to get a good night of sleep.  We woke up the next morning and had breakfast and then went to train lightly, just to get us moving and out of the hotel.  Practice was light, but we were all sweating bullets.  The temperature outside was about 95 degrees with over 50% humidity.  I think training at altitude helped, but it was still miserable because it was so hot.  That was something that we all got over, but it was in the back of all of our minds.  How could it not be with weather like that?  So we finished practice and went back to the hotel to either take naps, watch tv, shower, do whatever we had to do in order to get ready for the game.

 

We ate dinner and discussed further how we were going to play in relation to how Vanderbilt was going to play.  Everyone seemed really excited to play and play well.  Our game went well, we played well enough to win, but unfortunately didn't get that result. We tied a very good Vanderbilt team 0-0.  While it was a shut out for us, again, we all felt that we could have won that game.  It was a good test for us straight out the gate.  We played 110 minutes, as the game went into overtime, and we were all pretty spent after the game, and rightfully so.  After the game, we headed back to the hotel, ate, showered, and crashed.

 

Saturday was a day of rest, literally.  We went for a walk around the Vanderbilt campus, and then went to a movie in the afternoon.  It was another hot sweaty day, and it felt good sitting in a cool movie theater.  We saw "Invincible" and everyone enjoyed it.  It was good movie to see as a inspiration for Sunday's game.  We got to go out to dinner, or spend time with families that were there.  After dinner, we all hung out with each other, watched tv, mostly just laid in bed and relaxed.  Sunday, we woke up and had breakfast and another meeting, this time about Alabama.  We knew it was really important for us to win this game, not only for our team morale, but in order to put ourselves in a position to win the tournament.  It was important for us to get on the board early, and we did just that.  We scored within the first five minutes and then again shortly after.  It was another hot day, so the affects of that started to show as the half wore on.  We went into the locker room with a 2-0 lead, but a little puzzled about how we could make the game easier on ourselves.  We came out in the second half with a better idea of how we could wear Alabama down and how to make the game easier on ourselves.  We took control of the half and the game by scoring 2 more goals, and limiting them from getting any good chances to score.  We won the game handedly 4-0 and left Tennessee on a very good note and a very positive start to our season. 

 

We felt really good coming out of our first weekend of games, especially being on the road, with two shutouts and a better understanding of players and the upcoming season.   We gladly boarded our plane and were all very excited to get back home and out of the heat and humidity.  There was quite the cheer when we got off the plane and it was soooo nice and cool.  We had Monday off, and also started school.  It was great to hear Tuesday morning all of the freshmen talking about their classes and how different it was.  We trained hard on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to get ready for our tournament that we are hosting this weekend.  We are all REALLY excited to be back and playing at home.  Our field looks great and we open with Clemson on Friday, and then play Ole Miss on Sunday.  They are two very good teams and we are all excited to go out and play. Come out and watch us play at 4:00 PM on Friday at Prentup.