Sam Stevenson plays in her first college game Sunday against Maryland
My college career has now officially started. We played Maryland, which is the No. 2 team in the country, on Sunday, and though we lost, 17-7, the game wasn’t as bad as the score would seem because the team played very well.
I got to start in my first game and scored my first goal and I was really excited. Our attack had a little trouble connecting because Maryland has a very good defense, but I didn’t make that many mistakes and in general I was pleased with how I played.
The night before the game I woke up about seven times. We had an early team breakfast, and whenever I have to get up early I get nervous that I’m going to miss my alarm.
It didn’t really hit me at first that we were going to play our first game, but when we started getting dressed and when our coach announced the starting lineup and what we were doing to be doing with our positions, that’s when it hit me. I started getting butterflies because we would be doing out on the field in five minutes.
Warmups weren’t very good because even though we knew what to do, we were nervous and making stupid little mistakes.
I saw my family walk in and my little sister give me a smirk, and I was excited to see them. It was just nice to have them there for my first game.
It was chilly out and there was a lot of wind but it wasn’t that cold. We had to use Maryland’s football team’s practice turf because the lacrosse field still wasn’t in perfect condition because of all the snow there.
Right before the whistle I was taking it all in and pointing out who all the Maryland players were. When I was in high school last year I was like “Oh, My god,” but now I was one of them and it was really cool.
We played on a shorter field so the game went by a lot quicker. Everyone was uptight because of the nerves and we were keeping up with them OK. We were down 8-3 at the half and usually you can come back from that — five goals is not that big an amount — but they were just so good.
They had most of the possession the entire game, would get the draw and they like to foul a lot and had four or five yellow cards, so they stalled a lot until the person came back in, which I don’t believe is really playing lacrosse.
I played low attack. I only went over on defense once and the time I did I was nervous. Our offense just wasn’t clicking, which it usually does, but we weren’t talking or working together.
I didn’t get that many opportunities to shoot and only had one shot until late in the game, when I challenged and the defender tried to swing at my legs with her stick. She hit me, got called for a foul and I got an 8-meter, which is a penalty shot. Usually when I get one I get wrapped up in my thoughts and think don’t hit the goalie or miss, and then I miss. This time I just ripped it and it went in.
At first I didn’t think it was going in, but the shot literally went between the goalie’s head and the post, which consisted of three inches. I was really excited to score my first goal. Five of our six freshmen scored goals.
Our coach was happy with how we played in our first game, against the No. 2 team in the nation.
Now we are getting ready for our home opener on Friday against Duke. I think we have a very good chance of beating them. We lost to them by a few goals in the preseason and we played horrible as a team.
I’m really looking forward to playing my first game at home and my family is coming down for that and our game on Sunday against North Car0lina, so I’ll get to spend the whole weekend with them.
I’ll tell you all about my first two home games next week.
(photos courtesy of Jayme Stevenson)
