We had a tough weekend. That's the best I can explain it.

I hate to harp on things, but everything that could have possibly gone wrong this season has gone wrong. Before Friday's game at Buffalo State, we ended up on the campus of… The University of Buffalo. Yes, a completely different school. Although they are only five or six miles apart, it took us about half an hour to get there. Not the way we were hoping to start the day.

Having said that, maybe we should be taken to a different school before every game, as we had our best start to a match in recent memory. Instead of going down one-nil early on, we actually took the initiative and went up a goal after Heather neatly finished off a breakaway after a wonderful ball from Alli.

Unfortunately, the goal did the opposite of what it should. Instead of spurring us on to go get a second, we sat back, apparently hoping to defend our modest lead for 81 minutes. It's disappointing, because the coaching staff and I have said time and time again: once we score, let's not sit back and protect our lead, let's go and get another!

When you invite teams to attack, they will inevitably accept, and we were down 3-1 before the break. In the second half, we had a couple really decent chances to pull back within one. I thought we had a couple shots at penalties that weren't given, but to be fair, Buffalo State had one in the first half that simply had to be awarded. Regardless, the second foul especially had to be a spot kick. If that wasn't a penalty, then there shouldn't be penalties at all in soccer. It was upsetting, because getting a goal back would have made things very interesting.

The next day, we faced a Fredonia side who are the in-form team in the SUNYAC right now. Twenty-five minutes in, we were tied nil-nil and had created the best chance of the match. The next 10 minutes can only be described as a cataclysm. You can't expect to allow four goals within that time frame and get something from the game. One of their goals told the story of our season: heroically defend a corner and do everything like it says in the textbook, and then switch off for three seconds and concede a goal that shouldn't be allowed in mini-soccer.

As we head into our final conference weekend, I hope that as many of you as possible can make it out on Saturday as we recognize our seniors. We'll say a lot more about them over the coming week or so, but I'm going to miss each and every one of them with all my heart.

Thanks to the team for the wonderful view from outside my office this morning.



Go Bears,
MM