Champs of Merlin

The day after Christmas, we had a Sacred Heart Prep alumni girls soccer game. The turn out wasn't as great as may have hoped for in terms of alums showing up.. but we had a number of seniors from last year come, and were able to put together a decent alumni vs. current players soccer match! With some encouragement, I even got my kicks in, played some soccer [which felt GOOD] and scored a few shots. Luckily, I wasn't even sore the next day! I have to mention... After we'd finished playing, two of my old teammates showed up to say "hi". What a wonderful holiday treat and surprise! It was nice to see Rebecca and Ali and catch up with them for a few minutes.



On December 27, our team made the trek to Orange County for the Excalibur Soccer Tournament, which was a big success this year. The girls stepped up and played some really good games of soccer.

Our first game against Los Alamitos on Dec 28 started out with a rough first half. The girls turned things around and had a better second half, but weren't able to put in any shots, leaving us with a 0-3 loss. Based on the results of our first game, we were then sent into the Merlin bracket -- which is a bracket in the tournament for all teams who lost their first game. Our second game was an early morning game on Dec 29 against Thousand Oaks. Our team came out with a 4-1 win. That afternoon we played Santa Inez (a team we had played against last year in this same tournament). We won the game 2-0. The next morning (Dec 30) we played in the Semi-Finals of the Merlin bracket against Walnut. This game was one of the more exciting (and nerve-wracking) games to watch as neither team was able to put in a goal by the end of the second half. The game went into Penalty Kicks. Each team sent their 5 girls up to take PKs. Miraculously, our goalkeeper, Chris Sours made 3 saves on the first three PK shots taken on her. This was an amazing feat. I don't know if I've ever seen a keeper make 3 PK saves in a row, and am not sure I ever will again. After four PK shots by each team, we were the winners. The girls were so excited.. the entire team ran and piled onto their amazing goalkeeper and each other. That afternoon, we played in the Finals of the Merlin Bracket against Cypress. This was another exciting (and rainy!) game.. with the end result being a win in our favor 2-0. Champs of Merlin! 

Since we did so well in the tournament, they chose one of our players for the All Tournament Team -- Lizzy Weisman. Lizzy received a trophy and will be mentioned in next year's tournament program with the other All Tounament Team members chosen from this year.

Of course, for the girls, this tournament is also a great bonding and social experience for them. We kept them busy with different activities each night including dinners at Buca di Beppo, California Pizza Kitchen, frozen yogurt at Pink Berry and shopping at the Newport Beach Fashion Island mall. One of the night's, the parents of one of our player's graciously hosted our team and parents at their Newport Beach beach house for a beach/BBQ team party. On our final evening, we came up with a surprise activity for the team. Originally, we'd planned to go to Disneyland that day, but with our games lasting longer in the tournament, we had to come up an alternative. We decided to keep it as a surprise for the players, so the suspense was killing them for the majority of the day. That evening, we took them to a Nail Salon and Spa where they were all able to be pampered with manicures and pedicures. I would bet this is a first time experience as far as SHP athletic team social outings go. Needless to say, the girls loved it! After that we took them back to Fashion Island mall for some shopping as well as a nice team dinner at The Yard House.

All in all, it seemed each of the girls had a really great trip, and that the tournament was a great success for the team this year.