Party in the UAA
During the weekend of October 12, I traveled to Pittsburgh and Atlanta with my soccer team to play two conference games.
The first was on Friday in Pittsburgh against Carnegie Mellon University. Although the final score was 1-0 in CMU's favor, we turned our focus to our next game in Atlanta against top ranked Emory University. Our team is lucky to have such supportive family and friends who travel all over the country for our games. After our game on Friday night, the parents organized our usual tailgate with home-cooked food and desserts. It's always great to have that time with our teammates and families after the game.
Bright and early Saturday morning, we left for the airport to fly down to Atlanta. For division III athletics, our conference, the University Athletics Association (UAA) is one of the most traveled. We have countless stories of the University of Rochester alumni we meet when we travel. Just this weekend we had a man shout to us, "GO YELLOWJACKETS! CLASS OF '96!" as we were walking to our gate in the airport. It reminds us of how proud we are to represent our University and of the legacy that our alumni have left us.
The picture here is from after our training session at Emory Saturday afternoon. We embraced the sunny weather after a couple chilly practices back in Rochester. After that, we were able to enjoy the shops and restaurants surrounding our hotel in Buckhead, GA. Some girls and their families went out for seafood while others went off in small groups for Italian or Japanese. It was really nice to have that time with our teammates and families to get a sufficient pre-game meal. Our game kicked-off at 11am on Sunday morning. I was proud of my team as we battled against Emory that morning. We held them off for 60 minutes, but they put 2 away toward the end of the second half. The commitment our team has to each other and our program is something I don't think can be matched. Although we had a challenging weekend, the time with my teammates and the competitive matches we face make it all worth it.