Story Links
Hello and thanks for clicking on my blog! My name is Ginger Miles and as Virginia’s women’s lacrosse volunteer assistant coach – and former goalkeeper – I’ve decided to give anyone who’s interested a behind the scenes look at life on the road with our women’s lacrosse team. We’re certainly a fun bunch and I’ll be posting weekly with the inside scoop. Thanks for reading!
April 20, 2009
After a convincing win on Tuesday night against in-state foe George Mason, the squad turned all its attention to Northwestern. We went over just about everything in four intense days of preparation. We even sat as a team in the locker room and watched Northwestern play Hopkins on Friday. With four full days, we learned every in and out about Northwestern so when Sunday rolled around there wasn’t a single player unprepared to take on the No. 1, four-time reigning National Champions.
Being Senior Day, and our final regular season home game, there was a lot of fanfare surrounding the game. Sunday was beautiful at Klckner Stadium and the perfect day for lacrosse. The stands were speckled with orange and blue and families laid out blankets as little kids chased each other on the opposite hill. It seemed as if the perfect stage was set for an upset.
Just before the opening draw, I felt those little butterflies in my stomach as if something great were about to happen. The game started fast and furious as both teams were clearly ready to battle it out. The momentum of the game swung back and forth leaving us on the sidelines uneasy and nervous.
As the final minutes waned with the score tied at 10, anxiety peaked for those wearing orange and blue. Northwestern held the ball and waited for the perfect time to attack. The Wildcats were able to notch another tally with under two minutes to play, leaving us little time to answer back. Losing the ensuing draw hurt our efforts even more, but we were somehow able to cause a turnover with about 30 seconds left on the clock. Unfortunately we never did get a shot off. A false start penalty on a restart with eight seconds left gave the ball back to Northwestern and we watched in disappointment as the other team rushed the field as time ran out.
For good or for bad, we have unfortunately become experts at finding solace in our losses this season. The good news is we proved that we are capable of playing with the best teams in the country. We looked great. We played as well, if not better than we have all season. The defense was strong, the attack was fluid, the transition was seamless. We played well and were it not for uncaused turnovers, mental errors and a couple of bad breaks we very likely would have won that game. Unfortunately for us, too many mistakes means more chalk in the “L” column.
It’s always a lot easier to take a loss when the other team just outplays you and that’s what’s so tough about this loss. We let a huge opportunity slip through our hands on Sunday by beating ourselves.
I could have written an awesome blog about the resiliency of this team, the solidarity and strength of our senior class, or how this team is unwilling to be defined by some of our previous losses. But alas, here I am writing another blog about “letting one slip away” and “where we go from here.”
Don’t get me wrong, all of those things remain true and this loss, just like the ones before, don’t come close to defining this team. No, we didn’t win but we played a very good team down to the final seconds. This senior class is filled with players with enormous hearts and skill that is amongst the best (if not THE best) in the country. We may be 10-6, but we may just be the best 10-6 team there ever was. We are not defined by our record because we know we are much better than our record would indicate.
Most teams wouldn’t be too upset with only losing to Northwestern by one goal, but not us. It’s not good enough. No one’s going to look back on the record books and say “Wow 10-6 but they sure did come close a few times.” All that speaks is wins and losses and for this team, close isn’t good enough. We don’t play for close. We play to win. As the old adage goes “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
We came into this season, like every season, with very lofty goals. Hopefully we’ve gotten losing out of our system, because now it’s tournament time. It’s go hard or go home time. And after this weekend we know that the only team that can beat us is ourselves.
ACCs start on Thursday for us in Blacksburg, as we take on the home team – the Hokies. We’ll take it one game at a time and if we play a tiny bit better than we played on Sunday we’ll be coming home with a championship trophy – I’m sure of it. We’re headed in the right direction and this is a very good time for us to hit our stride.
Chins up Wahoo fans because “times, they are a-changin…”
Go Hoos,
Ginger