CU CUP tournament
Alyssa's soccer team participated in the CU CUP tournament over the weekend. Her soccer club, CU, hosts this tournament each fall. The tournament is always held at Voice of America park (VOA) in Liberty Township, Ohio.
The tournament games were the first ones that Alyssa's new team, CUP North 1, played together. Based on knowledge of our opponents and who we would likely face in the final, Donnie predicted that we'd make it into the final game and likely lose in the final. He predicted who we would face in the final based on who was playing in that bracket. He was entirely correct! We beat our first three opponents easily and then lost in the finals to a team from Michigan, the Novi Jaguars.
Alyssa's team looked good for the most part. They looked their worst in the first half of the final game where at half time, the score was 0-3. The final ended up being 4-2 so at least we didn't get shut out. In all the games, Alyssa played almost exclusively as center back. This is a new position for her. Last year, she played almost all outside back. Both are defensive positions. She got to play a little bit of offense in one of the games when we were up by several goals. She almost scored :) She had a great shot that the goalie, unfortunately for us, saved.
Her team had 8:00 am games on Saturday and Sunday. WHAT??? Whom did we make mad within the club to get that? We had to get up around 6:00 am both mornings since we live over half an hour away from VOA and she was supposed to be at the fields half an hour before game time. Her second games each day were at 12:40. I didn't go to her 8:00 am Saturday game (I still got up at 6:00 am to help get Alyssa ready and then to run before I had to get Jacob and Abby where they needed to be). Abby had dance and Jacob was reffing rec soccer in Springboro. Donnie and Alyssa stayed in the Mason area after the first game on Saturday. Donnie's dad came and picked me up for the second game so I didn't have to drive to VOA. I appreciated the curbside service :). I went to the 8:00 am Sunday game. Alyssa went to a friend's house (Ainsley) after the game. Donnie and I decided to go home in between games even though we didn't have that much time in between games. Then he and I headed down to VOA for the final game.
The girls enjoyed being runners up in the tournament. Winning would have been nice. However, they had three solid wins in the tourney and each girls still managed to snag a medal for their runner up accomplishment.
I took some pictures of the games that I attended. I'm the "official" team photographer so I had to take pictures of everyone. In the first game that I attended, the Saturday afternoon game, I got some pretty good shots of other players. Just about every picture with Alyssa was blurry. I got better pictures of her in the third and fourth games.
Here is Saturday's second game against Celtic- we won 4-0.
Alyssa wore a pink headband in all of the games. It makes it easy to spot her in pictures :)
These next three show Alyssa running back to her spot after celebrating a teammate's goal. Love her smile!
It rained on and off during the second game. Almost as soon as her game ended, it started pouring rain. The area received quite a bit of rain Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Combined with the above average rain we'd had the preceding week, come Sunday morning, the soccer fields, parking lots and walkways were muddy messes.
Sunday morning 8:00 am game. We played FC Pride. We won 2-1.
Check out the spray of water on the field near Alyssa's feet as she stepped hard on the grass
Alyssa gets ready to take a corner kick...
... that ended up being a corner tap to a teammate nearby
After the first game on Sunday morning... Alyssa chats with one of the moms whose daughter used to play on Alyssa's. Note Alyssa's mud specked socks...
Mud like this will lead to mud speckled socks and shoes
That blue sky came a little late... The rain had done its damage. The VOA parking lot was a veritable sea of minivans and mud.
The final game. We lost to Novi Jaguars 2-4.
All eyes are on the ball...
After the final game... Alyssa spotted her coach from the last two seasons, Coach Katie. Alyssa ran over to Coach Katie and hugged her. I didn't capture the hug with my camera but did get a picture of them talking.
At the awards ceremony- Alyssa receives her runner up medal
After the girls received their medals, they went over to where their opponents in the final game were standing and shook everyone's hand. Good sports!!
Alyssa's team...
Alyssa with the team runner up "cup"
The tournament games were the first ones that Alyssa's new team, CUP North 1, played together. Based on knowledge of our opponents and who we would likely face in the final, Donnie predicted that we'd make it into the final game and likely lose in the final. He predicted who we would face in the final based on who was playing in that bracket. He was entirely correct! We beat our first three opponents easily and then lost in the finals to a team from Michigan, the Novi Jaguars.
Alyssa's team looked good for the most part. They looked their worst in the first half of the final game where at half time, the score was 0-3. The final ended up being 4-2 so at least we didn't get shut out. In all the games, Alyssa played almost exclusively as center back. This is a new position for her. Last year, she played almost all outside back. Both are defensive positions. She got to play a little bit of offense in one of the games when we were up by several goals. She almost scored :) She had a great shot that the goalie, unfortunately for us, saved.
Her team had 8:00 am games on Saturday and Sunday. WHAT??? Whom did we make mad within the club to get that? We had to get up around 6:00 am both mornings since we live over half an hour away from VOA and she was supposed to be at the fields half an hour before game time. Her second games each day were at 12:40. I didn't go to her 8:00 am Saturday game (I still got up at 6:00 am to help get Alyssa ready and then to run before I had to get Jacob and Abby where they needed to be). Abby had dance and Jacob was reffing rec soccer in Springboro. Donnie and Alyssa stayed in the Mason area after the first game on Saturday. Donnie's dad came and picked me up for the second game so I didn't have to drive to VOA. I appreciated the curbside service :). I went to the 8:00 am Sunday game. Alyssa went to a friend's house (Ainsley) after the game. Donnie and I decided to go home in between games even though we didn't have that much time in between games. Then he and I headed down to VOA for the final game.
The girls enjoyed being runners up in the tournament. Winning would have been nice. However, they had three solid wins in the tourney and each girls still managed to snag a medal for their runner up accomplishment.
I took some pictures of the games that I attended. I'm the "official" team photographer so I had to take pictures of everyone. In the first game that I attended, the Saturday afternoon game, I got some pretty good shots of other players. Just about every picture with Alyssa was blurry. I got better pictures of her in the third and fourth games.
Here is Saturday's second game against Celtic- we won 4-0.
Alyssa wore a pink headband in all of the games. It makes it easy to spot her in pictures :)
The girls celebrate after a goal
These next three show Alyssa running back to her spot after celebrating a teammate's goal. Love her smile!
It rained on and off during the second game. Almost as soon as her game ended, it started pouring rain. The area received quite a bit of rain Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Combined with the above average rain we'd had the preceding week, come Sunday morning, the soccer fields, parking lots and walkways were muddy messes.
Sunday morning 8:00 am game. We played FC Pride. We won 2-1.
Check out the spray of water on the field near Alyssa's feet as she stepped hard on the grass
... that ended up being a corner tap to a teammate nearby
After the first game on Sunday morning... Alyssa chats with one of the moms whose daughter used to play on Alyssa's. Note Alyssa's mud specked socks...
Mud like this will lead to mud speckled socks and shoes
That blue sky came a little late... The rain had done its damage. The VOA parking lot was a veritable sea of minivans and mud.
The final game. We lost to Novi Jaguars 2-4.
Here the girls celebrate after a goal. We were down 0-3 at the half :(. We scored two fairly early in the second half.
All eyes are on the ball...
After the final game... Alyssa spotted her coach from the last two seasons, Coach Katie. Alyssa ran over to Coach Katie and hugged her. I didn't capture the hug with my camera but did get a picture of them talking.
At the awards ceremony- Alyssa receives her runner up medal
After the girls received their medals, they went over to where their opponents in the final game were standing and shook everyone's hand. Good sports!!
Alyssa's team...
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