3rd place

6th seeded royals women place 3rd in NCCAA
the 7th seeded boyseseses took 4th

Wednesday night the hiu royals, both the men and women, piled into a big yellow bus that shuttled them to the Los Angeles International Airport. There they boarded an 11pm red-eye that arrived in Orlando at 7am.

We traveled with Delta Airlines on their contemporary "Song" airpline. On each seat back was provided 24 channels by DirecTV, movies and music (and what better than with complementary headphones - usually you have to drop $5 or so).

Once we arrived at the Best Western of Kissimmee (ki-SEM-me) we dropped our bags and napped until noon. Before our first practice we grabbed brunch at Cracker Barrel - a homestyle cookin' restaurant and a gift shop with, what mom and dad (yep, they came) would call, "atmosphere." Nearly every breakfast order came with buiscits, gravy and grits.

Florida wasn't far off from California - I really didn't feel like I was out of the state. Coach Jayson said Orlando reminded him of a green Victorville. Did you know that both Disney Land and Disney World are in Orange County? Lisa Teberg, from Arizona, wouldn't stop observing that "there's water everywhere in Florida." When we went to the NCCAA tournament in Kentucky for basketball I definitely experienced a culture shock - no business accepted credit cards, no one had cell phones, there was old cars and beaten down junk left in front yards and most people were missing teeth.

Friday afternoon we watched the boyseseses knock off the number two seed Bryan College 2-0 before we upset the number three seed Spring Arbor 2-1 (Lisa Teberg headed one in off of a corner kick and Jennifer Love sent a left-footed beauty across the 18' hitting the farpost and into the goal).

Saturday the boys fell to NYACK of New York. Early in the first half both a player from HIU and NYACK were red carded for fighting - Karlin, HIU center back, received his red card while protecting his teammate Pato from being kicked while on the ground. A few minutes later HIU half back Ian Mighty was sent off the field after receiving a soft red (two yellows) for rough play. The rest of the half and the entire second half was played with 10 NYACK to 9 HIU players. You could only imagine how uneventful the game was in the socring column, that is, until the Referee awarded NYACK with a penalty kick. Although HIU 'keep Garret had blocked a PK attempt that would have allowed Bryan College to tie in the quarterfinal, he was unable to save this one. When we all thought that hope was lost, Nik bulleted a shot into the far upper v off of a free kick about 25 yards away with under 3 minutes to go. The game was not decided in regulation time, nor overtime. After 120 minutes of play had ended, HIU lost to NYACK 4-3 in a shootout.

Our game was a bit less exciting. We lost 2-0 - a goal a half. Serena, Amy, and I received yellow cards. Both losses incurred a consolation game for the men and women scheduled for Monday.

Sunday was soccer-free. We all attended First Baptist of Kissimmee and learned that the "main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing," with a strong southern accent on both the main and the thang. I ditched the team (who went to downtown disney and the florida mall) after church and skipped to the coast, Daytona Beach, with the folks to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. We also visited St. Augustine - the oldest city in United States (oldest - not meaning first, but it is the oldest city that still remains). It was a Spanish settlement - Ponce De Leon was searching for the fountain of youth. St. Augustine reminded me a tad of Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls) - so I thought it was a hit. There was a gazebo and the grounds were decorated festive holiday style.

On Monday the boyseseseses played their consolation game for 3rd place at the same time as us and on an adjacent field - so I'm not sure what went on during the game, but they lost to Indiana Wesleyen and took 4th (I do know there was a PK involved - and that always makes a game skeptic).

Our consolation match for 3rd place was against Malone College who won the coin toss and took the wind advantage in the first half (and trust me, the wind was an incredible advantage). I scored in the 4th minute of the game on a volley off of a cross from defender Lisa Teberg. Late in the half Malone tied the game at one apiece as their forward chipped our 'keep. We were incredibly happy about the end of the first half and were ready to take advantage of the craziness of the wind. Buuuut just a couple minutes into the 2nd half we had to evacuate the field because of a near hurricane (the winds were around 50 mph). It was chaos, you couldn't see beyond 10 feet and the ball shot to the right even if you kicked as hard as you could into the wind. After about 10 or 20 minutes we were back at it, but the game was worthless because the wind made it impossible to accomplish anything, including a goal. There was no scoring in the second half and after 90 minutes of play we went directly into a shootout. I was first to start the penalty kicks and scored with an open healed shot on the ground into the right triangle - the 'keep dove the other way. In the first round of shots we tied 3-3. One of our players hit one over, and one right to the goalie. Taryne saved two for us, and nearly saved 2 others. Now the game was up to a sudden death shootout with one player from each team. Serena scored for us like a champ, the only one to burry the ball in the to the left netting... and Taryne saved another attempt to seal our win. It was the perfect way to end our game, and to end our season.

the roomies: me, christine, jessica, shaunna

Each evening the girls team would gather in a hotel room to review the game, prepare for the next one, share what was on their hearts, and sing. If you're curious how bad our singing voices are, just know they attempted to have me lead - ha, what a joke. My favorite part was Emily's robot dance to "Father Abraham." This time of fellowship and devotion was one of my favorite parts of the trip, and is truly what makes the trip so memorable.