A night to remember...

The night of April 4th was the most surreal night of my life. It was our inaugural game and my professional debut. The game wasn’t until 7 and the day seemed like it lasted forever. After a usual pregame meal and walk through it was finally time to get on the bus and head to the game. I was the first one on the bus with my ipod cranking and ready to go. I was getting nervous but I was so excited. Once we arrived, we pulled into tailgate heaven. I could not believe all the people tailgating to watch our game. We drove pass little girls waving at our bus. It was so surreal to be in the bus waving back, because I was one of those little girls once waving to the players waiting to watch them play. When we got into our locker room all of our jerseys were laid out in our lockers, with an inaugural scarf and a note from L134 our fan group. I love our fans they are by far the best fans anyone could have. They were loud and singing chants, it was so awesome to play in front of them. After watching some players dance we were ready to go warm-up. We all could not believe that this was happening. After warm up we came back into the tunnel and were paired up with a youth players to walk out onto the field with. Before I knew it kick off was here and the start to my professional career was underway. The first 10-15 minutes was crazy. It was so chaotic and frantic but we knew it was going to be like that naturally because of all the excitement and nerves. We had the wind against us in the first half so we had to be more cautious at the back. I would say that St. Louis had the better of the chances in the first half. All I knew is that we had to get to half time and we would be fine. The wind would be with us in the second half and we would have a chance to regroup and get back on the right page. Don’t get me wrong we had some chances in the first half but it was tough for us to play with the wind against us. The second half started and after the first 10 minutes it felt like a different the game. With the wind at our backs it allowed our backline to stay more compacted with the rest of the team and really give us a chance to pressure St. Louis higher. We were getting our chances and I knew that we were going to finish one. Then in the 78th minute it happened. Danesha played a ball to Brit who played it our to Marian who was making a run forward. She then crossed an amazing ball into the box. As I watched the ball sail across St. Louis’s box I saw Tarp out of the corner of my eye fly in and finish. It was the first goal in Redstars history!!!! We were so excited but all I could think about was no goals keep it clean in the back. The offense did their job and now we had to finish ours. We had 12 minutes plus stoppage time to seal the deal. St. Louis had a couple of free kicks (which I got a yellow card for.. and chances to get the equalizer but our amazing goalie Carre and the rest of our team was able to hold them off. After an extra two minutes of stoppage time the final whistle blew and that was it. We won the first game in Red Star history, it was such an amazing feeling. I ran straight to Carre and jumped on her. The start to our history and my career ended with a win and I could not be happier.