So let's go back to the week of September 20th, preparation for Colorado College and UTEP. We were very excited to open up conference play with two of our biggest rivals! We landed in Denver on Thursday and drove straight to my house in Littleton for lunch and a little relaxation. After a long morning of travel, we stuffed our faces with sandwiches, fruit, and our favorite - snicker salad!! The weather was beautiful so we sat outside in the back yard and proceeded to do one of the things we do best - a photo shoot  Afterwards we went across the street to Clement Park to go for a walk, look at the mountains, and see the Columbine Memorial. It's always fun going to our teammates' houses while we are on the road and I am so happy we were able to go to mine this year. The next day we came out flying against Colorado College and ended up winning 1-0... altitude, shmalitude!

After a huge Friday night win, we were on our way to El Paso, TX the next morning. We had a short practice before heading to dinner - where we waited nearly 2 hours for our food. Needless to say, Taylor was NOT a happy camper! After dinner we went to the Memphis vs. UTEP football game to cheer on our fellow Tigers. It was fun to watch them play on the road, even though they ended up losing in the final seconds. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the trend that weekend. UTEP is always a tough team to play against because they are extremely physical and hard-working. They were on top of their game, and we were at the bottom of ours. We lost 2-1, a tough one to take, but we learned a lot that day. We can't take any team for granted, hard work beats talent, and everyone has to be on their game. Later that night we drove to Las Cruces to eat dinner at the Strnadova's house! Aja and Vendula's parents cooked us a delicious meal which included their homemade guacamole and salsa... yumm! Little did we know, the next day was about to be a long travel day. We left our hotel at 9 am on Monday and after numerous delays, a missed flight, more delays, and a broken terminal walkway, we arrived in Memphis at 1 am on Tuesday morning!

But don't worry, less than 15 hours later we were back in action at South Campus running flowers like champions!!! We had UCF coming up on Friday and there was no time to waste. After one of our best weeks of practice yet, almost all of our parents came in town for parent's weekend. It was a chilly Friday night and we had something to prove after coming off a huge upset the weekend before. We scored early and controlled most of the game, but they got a lucky break in the 88th minute to tie it up. After a hard fought and scoreless overtime, we were disappointed to walk away with a tie when we were only minutes away from a victory. Once again, lessons learned.

Sunday's win against Southern Miss was a great way to end parent's weekend. Thank you to all of the parents who came out to support us last weekend and to those of you who couldn't make it - we missed you!! And here is a little quote from Friday night's pregame speech: "Play for your parents tonight because they are the ones who wiped your boogers and your butts." -Coach Brooks Monaghan