Proud to be a Titan

On Saturday evening, the Titans welcomed the #1 team in the nation, Wheaton College, to Blooomington for a CCIW showdown. The team came together and played not only with heart and determination, but also with their heads for all 90 minutes. We unfortunately came out on the short end of the 2-0 result, giving Wheaton their 32nd straight win and improving their record to 14-0 this season.

We did a lot of great things and I thought we got one right with our tactics. Wheaton has been averaging about 6 goals per game and taking an average of 25 shots per game, just incredible figures for soccer. We thought that if we could minimize their chances and create some chances off our organized pressure we'd have a chance.

Have a chance we did. At halftime the score was knotted 0-0 and Wheaton only had 5 shots in the period. We only managed one shot but were in their end as much as they were in ours. We caught them offsides several times and that proved to be an effective tool on our side throughout the match.

Wheaton scored early in the second half off a very good effort from one of their All-Americans to go up 1-0 with 43 minutes to play in the game. We didn't back down, and created some forward momentum for the rest of the game. When it was still a one-goal game, we had a couple of looks off corner kicks, and kept play in the midfield for the majority of the time. They got a second goal on a bit of a scrappy play, and although we were down two like true Titan soccer players we didn't stop fighting until the end. At the end of the day, however, Wheaton just has 3-5 players who should be playing at the division 1 level and were simply too good.

It was a true team effort from everyone, starting 11 on down through the reserves on the sidelines who were into the game from the get-go. Our back four of Tina Rodriguez, Patty Troxell, Carissa Nemmers, and freshman Tori Samson played very well against three of the best strikers in the nation. Our goalkeeper Alli Novak was steady in holding onto the ball and not giving them any rebounds to pounce on around the goal. All of our midfielders and forwards worked very hard and really played super against a very good side. If we can find a way to bottle the emotional and physical effort put forward last night for our remaining 6 games we'll make some noise down the stretch.

Next up is an away game at Elmhurst on Tuesday afternoon. Our challenge will be to put on our best efforts in a mid-week, mid-afternoon affair. Elmhurst is a tough team, who took Augustana to overtime on Saturday before falling 1-0. We have 5 CCIW games remaining, and if we win them all we'd have a chance to be the #2 seed in the conference tournament, and that should be our goal for the stretch run. Go Titans!