Fresno State Athletics
9/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
A Women's Soccer Diary
This week's diary features senior defender Kristyn Kellogg.
 Senior defender Kristyn Kellogg
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Well, the moment was finally here. We had been waiting for this day since last November when we had to watch SMU and UTEP compete for last year's WAC Tournament title in Houston. Now after four months of 7 a.m. spring practice, three months of daily summer workouts and two weeks of grueling preseason workouts, the season was finally beginning.
We all knew that winning our first game against No. 25 Charlotte was absolutely vital for our team. Last season we struggled in our non-conference games and we got stuck in a rut until the WAC season began. However, this year we were determined to start off right. We would not accept anything less than our best performance.
With the mindset of "refuse to lose" we started our first game of the 2003 season. We were playing some of the best soccer I have seen us play since starting my career at Fresno State two years ago. Our defense was solid from the forwards to the defenders, and our offense was incredible. Every pass was one-touch as we worked like a well-engineered machine.
Against Charlotte, we found ourselves up 3-1 at halftime. A two-goal lead is a great position to be in but at the same time, a two-goal lead is one of the most dangerous leads in soccer because it can provide a false sense of security. Coach Welp warned us not to get complacent with the lead in her halftime speech and we took it to heart.
Charlotte was not going to lose without putting up a fight, and we know how it feels to have the lead and end up losing because it happened to us all to often last year. After 45 grueling minutes the whistle finally blew and a win had never felt so good. We all cheered and hugged and our coaches even did a little dance. We started the season exactly how we wanted to and it felt great.
The next day was an opportunity to relax and prepare for an even more formidable opponent, No. 12 Tennessee. We were excited about our big win the previous day, but in college athletics you don't have the luxury of relishing a victory for too long. On Saturday morning we traveled from Charlotte to Knoxville. I was so glad we took a bus because we drove through the beautiful Smoky Mountains. I really wanted to take a detour and visit Dollywood, which is a nearby theme park named after Dolly Parton. Apparently, we were only about 15 miles away from the park but I was outvoted and we continued on to Knoxville. That turned out for the best, as we were all excited to drop off our bags at the hotel and head out to watch the Fresno State-Tennessee football game.
I love to watch football and was excited to join the rest of the Red Wave fans cheer on our team among the 100,000 fans at Neyland Stadium. Even though the football team came up short, it was a great experience to be able to watch the game with my teammates in person.
As far as our game on Sunday, we knew Tennessee was going to be a tough opponent. You don't get a No. 12 ranking for just showing up; you have to win big games. From the start of the game we were on our heels. Tennessee had very crafty and quick forwards that worked their way to the end line to get a cross or corner kick. It seemed like we were defending for much of the first half except for some occasional moments where we could string some passes together and threaten the goal. It was a long first half and I considered us pretty lucky to only be down by one goal.
At halftime Coach Welp calmed us down and reassured us that we could still win the game. She told us that if we just made some minor adjustments we could regain control.
The start of the second half was an entirely different game than the first half. After making the adjustments we needed to, we began to find success with our offense. About fifteen minutes into the half we got a break- a penalty kick. Eriko (Yoshiki) did a great job at putting the goal away and just like that we were back in the game at 1-1. But about ten minutes later we had a defensive lapse and Tennessee scored to take a 2-1 lead. Even though we were only down one goal, we could not get our offense back on track and ended up with a disappointing loss.
Even though Tennessee was a tough loss we learned a lot from the game. We now know that we must have mental toughness despite our opponent or the score. And more importantly, even though we lost, we learned that we can play with the best.
