Mustangs Cap Comeback With Victory in Third International Game

Our last game in Italy
The view from our boat in La Cinque Terre
Meeting the Mayor
Standing on the famous bridge in Florence
The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa

Sorry. Due to some e-mail issues with my phone, I was not able to send through our stories about Florence on Saturday. We are now sitting in the airport waiting for our plane back to Rome, so here is an update on the last few days of our trip.

On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Florence by bus which was the start of a long day. We started with an hour walking tour with a local guide. We began at the largest cathedral in Florence, the Duomo, which begun in 1392. Across from that was the Baptistry with the Gates of Paradise that are pure gold. They were designed by Brunelleschi. It was a beautiful sight.

We then walked to the square, the Piazza Vecchio, that had some famous statues. There was a copy of Michaelangelo's David and 12 other original statues. We then had free time to explore the city which started with a walk to the Ponte Vecchio. The bridge had very, very expensive, but beautiful jewelry shops. Some of us headed to Santa Croce afterwards which begun in 1294. It is the finest example of gothic architecture in Italy. Michaelangelo and Gailileo were both buried here.

Then we headed by bus to La Spezia where we met the President of the club. The club had arranged a special trip for our entire group. They had rented a boat to take us on a tour of La Cinque Terre which means the five lands, or counties to us. The boat ride was one of the highlights of the trip. The scenery was majestic. We stopped quickly at Porta Venere as the Mayor and President of the Port, Giovanni Pistone, wanted to meet our team and welcome us to the area.

We then headed around the coast viewing the terraces and houses on the cliffs before departing from the boat. We walked along the 'lovers walk' that was on the edge of the cliffs. We stopped for some pasta at a local restaurant with an amazing view of the ocean. During this trip, we had the local press join us to get our opinion on the area. They presented our faculty member, Chip Rouse, with some historical books of the town. A very nice gift.

After this, we then headed to our last game on foreign soil. We were so grateful and appreciative to the President of the club, Enrico Ghizolfi, for such a very generous gift. The girls were tired after a long day, but excited to play. We had got there late so we only had 10 minutes to warm-up before playing against La Spezia.

The field was hard and tough to play our passing game in the first half. We struggled to get into a rhythm as the referee was not in our favor. We went down to a bad goal and went into the break without a response. We had a great team talk at the half and just discussed that we should use that half as our warm-up and now we were going to take the game to them and give everything.

The girls came out on fire and after a sustained spell of pressure, Samantha Novy turned in the penalty box and scored with a sweet left foot shot, give her a goal in all three international games. Then came a great moment for Brittany Ross. Due to injuries, our goalkeeper had been playing forward on the trip. She has a lot of speed and had been causing problems every game for our opponents. Katie Decker swung in a beautiful corner kick which Brittany volleyed into the net for her first career goal. She was so happy she cried!

We then wrapped up the game when Kayla Curry played a nice ball to Heather Redding who laid it off for Jen Hartman to score her first career goal. Jen has converted into a forward from defense and played very well in every game.

It was a great comeback and really showed our strength. I was so proud of the girls for playing so well after such a long day. They truly played well as a team and I am really excited for the year ahead. A great day of sight-seeing and soccer!