Women's Soccer: Katie Parucha

Hey fellow Seawolves! My name is Katie Parucha, or KP, and I am a junior on the women's soccer team.

Although we are three weeks into school, it feels like a good amount of time since our team has been up in Ropo (Rohnert Park). Our first day of double days was August 16th and started out with the infamous "doggies" fitness test. Going into summer, our whole team knows that this grueling test needs to be prepared for, but once it is completed, an attitude of relief and a feeling of accomplishment sets in. During double days, we did a lot of scrimmaging and small sided games in order to get our touch back, along with get a feel for how the new players perform.

After only two days of double days, the whole team was able to travel to Lake Tahoe and stay at Allison Kern's house. We were "roughing it" when it came to the location of the two story house seeing as it was on the lake. The clear blue Tahoe water and soft sand is her family's backyard and I don't see how it could get much better than that! Training in Tahoe was difficult, but I feel that it added to our work ethic and team unity. The toughest challenge was for our team to run up Mount Heavenly ,which is usually covered in snow and used for snowboarding... luckily for us it was a clear path and gave our coach the great idea of giving us the task to race up it. Although it was an extremely hard run, it was one of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever witnessed. As our team made its way through the finish line, we were gasping for air and wanted to collapse, but after we had collected ourselves, we knew that it was "all down hill from here"... literally. Overall, Tahoe was an amazing trip and I really felt that our team grew much closer not just as teammates, but also as friends.

Once we came back from Tahoe, the reality of season had begun to set it. We played UC Santa Cruz the Sunday after we arrived back from Tahoe. The end result was a draw of 1-1 after three 45 minute halves. We played a longer game because it gave everyone a chance to get some playing time and show the coaches what they had to offer. We came out playing a 3-5-2 formation which is what we played in the spring. Since then, we have gone back to a 4-4-2 which has worked out for the better as we have created more offensive opportunities and tightened up our defense.

Since then, we have played Santa Rosa JC, Domnican University, and Western Oregon. We successfully have beaten all three which gives us some confidence going into season. The game against Western Oregon was our first match that counted towards our overall record and was a close one. Although we had possession of the ball the majority of the time, we couldn't finish our many opportunites to score. Jaci Davey scored with 30 seconds left in the first half, which gave us a positive attitude going into the second half. Unfortunately, Western Oregon came back and scored tying up the game at 1-1. Our team kept pressing and continued to have a little trouble finding the back of the net, but within the last 28 seconds of the game, junior Taylor Colacion scored a header off of a cross from freshman Lauren Fryer. GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Last year our team was on the other side of the spectrum seeing as many of our games resulted in losses within the last five minutes in the game. This was a great way to start off our season! I would like to thank all of the fellow athletic teams that came out and supported us during that game! It was awesome having some fans at our games!

Our first CCAA game is against Cal Poly Pomona this Friday at home at 4:00 p.m. and we couldn't be more excited. Everyone on our team is going into this season with a positive attitude and I feel that in doing this we are setting ourselves up for success! The next time you hear from me will be after our first two games. Until then have a good week!