Oct. 4, 2007

U.S.A. - If you were not fortunate enough to make the trip to the Golden State to watch the Tigers play top-ranked Stanford and third-ranked Santa Clara, you have probably seen the pictures and read the game stories to try to get an idea of how fun the trip was. I was lucky to get the chance to accompany my favorite soccer team, and it was an experience I will never forget. I've had some time to reflect on the trip, now I'd like to take a look back...

Once the national rankings were released Monday (Sept. 10) and I saw Mizzou moved up to 20th in the SoccerTimes.com poll, and Stanford and Santa Clara, the Tigers' next two opponents, were ranked No. 1 and No. 3 respectively, I knew the upcoming trip out to the Bay Area for the Stanford Invitational would be a special one. I already had the entire weekend planned out in my head, and I was excited to start the trip. What's not to love about a few airplane rides, two great soccer games, a visit to a beautiful part of the country and dinner at Kristin Andrighetto's house?

All of those elements turned out to be great, and it started with the flight from Kansas City to Oakland. My favorite part of flying across the country is the view of the mountains in the west when the plane glides from the Midwest to the Rockies, and this trip was no different. The view made the plane ride go by quickly, and all of the sudden we started our descent into Oakland International Airport. Speaking of our descent, I knew from looking at a map before our flight that OAK (the airport's official code) was right on the east side of San Francisco Bay. But I didn't realize we would be so close to the water when we were landing! At one point, I made a joke about us landing IN the water, but we landed on the runway safe and sound, and dry.

After we landed, we did what normal people do every day, head to the baggage claim. This was a group of 25, however, and our team took over one whole segment of the conveyer as players were picking off teammates' bags and calling out their names. At some point there was even some cheering going on as players' names were yelled. My next favorite moment came when the bag of about ten soccer balls came out of the baggage ramp with the other luggage. We were in town for BUSINESS, after all.

My favorite soccer team!

We rented three vans to take us around the Bay Area for the weekend, which was a welcomed change from the large buses we usually take. I have nothing against the nice buses with leather seats for our Midwest trips, but being in a van made the trip seem more authentic for some reason. The traffic from the airport to Palo Alto definitely made the trip feel authentic. It was rush hour, after all, something that we don't really have to worry about in Columbia. But the traffic thinned out once we drove south of Hayward and crossed the Dumbarton Bridge. If there was traffic over the bridge, I definitely did not pay attention, as I was gazing north towards Oakland and San Francisco. I had already caught a short glimpse of the San Francisco skyline while on the jet, but this view was just as special. The full view of the Bay, with the modest Oakland skyline on the East and the thin outline of San Francisco's iconic TransAmerica building on West, made me realize just how cool the area was.

When we got to Palo Alto, we went past our hotel to a nice Italian restaurant, where we got to sit outside, got our food quick and enjoyed our dinner and the scenery of the area. Once Coach Blitz mentioned a nearby ice cream shop, the entire team finished quickly and scrambled for some spare change to purchase a post-dinner treat. At the ice cream shop I ran into my friend, and former Mizzou soccer player, Aria Hudetz, who now resides in the Bay Area. She joined the team for many activities throughout the weekend, and rooted for us at both of our games. .raisedquote {font-family:arial, helvetica; font-size:14px; font-weight:700;} .raisedquotesig {font-family:arial, helvetica; font-size:12px; font-style: italic;}

The trip to California was a great experience and a blast. Soccer wise, we kicked butt. During the games everyone was extremely intense and it was great to realize we are as good as the best. Even though we didn't come out with the results, I never thought I could be as satisified as I was with two loses. We gave it our all. We played Stanford on Friday and Santa Clara on Sunday. Saturday was a great time to see some of California. I had never been to this state before so it was pretty exciting. The team all went out to lunch then Coach allowed us to walk around shops downtown for about an hour or two. I enjoyed all of the scenery and a little free time to walk around. My favorite part of the trip was going to dinner at the Andrighetto's. It was a great time to hang out outside in their beautiful backyard and eat the delicilous food! All of us girls enjoy eating at each others home towns so thank you moms!!! I even got to see the Golden Gate Bridge from the plane, although we didn't have time to do much site seeing, it was a great experience to travel that far and compete against the best teams. Kelsey Stokes

After the ice cream, and our first visit with Aria, we arrived at the team hotel, the beautiful Crowne Plaza Cabana on El Camino Real in Palo Alto. I would discover its true beauty the next day, as it was already dark outside when we came in.

We went to sleep at a reasonable hour, and got a good night's rest, which gave me enough energy to take a walk around town once I woke up. It was fun to walk around Palo Alto, looking at the businesses, the trees and the beautiful homes.

After I returned to the hotel, we went out for breakfast at a restaurant just down the street from the hotel. Forgive me for not mentioning this previously, but Friday was my birthday! This, of course, caused a jovial reaction by the players and staff, and prompted them to sing Happy Birthday to me twice during breakfast. I pretended not to like it, but it made me feel special inside.

After breakfast we went to the field on the campus of Stanford University to do our standard "walk-through" practice. This is one of my favorite parts of the trip, because I get a chance to look at the soccer field and the rest of the campus, and watch our team have fun during their practice. The players like it too, as they get their first look at a new field and get to play what look like fun competitive games, such as dodgeball and soccer-tennis.

Early practice before Friday's game against No. 1-ranked Stanford!

After the walk-through, it was back to the hotel to rest, eat, rest again and get ready for the game. This was the first time it hit me that we were playing the best team in the country in a few hours.

When I walked into the pre-game meeting at the hotel, I noticed the team was focused and ready to play the game. After the short meeting, we left the hotel and headed towards the Stanford campus.

Once the game started, I think the players and everyone watching realized that although there was a lot of hype about his game, it was just a contest between two good women's soccer clubs, and it turned out to be a very close games. The Tigers and Cardinal were tied at 0-0 for most of the first half, until Stanford scored on a penalty kick to take the early lead. The Tigers would tie it at 1-1 in the second half, but Stanford scored again a few minutes after that, taking a 2-1 lead. Mizzou would again come back, to tie it at 2-2, but Stanford scored in the 88th minute off a corner kick, to eventually win the game, 3-2.

After the game, the team cooled down and went back to their hotel, to get some rest, heal some injuries and get ready for a day off in California Saturday.

Saturday, the team woke up and went to lunch before we spent some time shopping and walking around beautiful downtown Palo Alto. One of the highlights; we saw the headquarters of facebook.com, a popular social networking site.

After we got back from our shopping trip, it was back to the hotel room to get caught up on college football. Everyone was excited to see the Mizzou score, as the Tigers defeated Western Michigan, 52-24, to remain undefeated. I also turned on the Florida-Tennessee game and the Notre Dame-Michigan game for a while.

It was perfect, right when I was getting bored with football, we took off for Kristin Andrighetto's house, which was about 50 miles north of Palo Alto. I caught a ride with Kari Adam's mom and one of her friends, and what a ride it was. We took off behind the two player vans and headed up in the hills towards Kristin's house. On our way there, we passed picturesque golden hills set against a beautiful blue sky the views were a welcomed surprise, as I had thought we were just going to take freeways. But while the scenery was great, I was getting hungry, and I'm sure the players were, too.

Soon after I realized I was hungry, we arrived at the Andrighetto's where a full spread of chicken and beef had been prepared for us. They also had a large HDTV set tuned in to the Nebraska USC game.

Hanging out at the Andrighetto's

This gathering served as a good opportunity for me to meet some of the players' parents and friends. I had a good time chatting with Mr. Thornton and Mr. Tarr, as well as Kristen's friends from high school. After we ate, we all got into the vans and headed back down to the South Bay. It was a fun drive back, as the sun was setting on another West Coast evening. We got back to the hotel, had a short team meeting and fell asleep, ready to get up and play another game, this time against No. 3 Santa Clara.

We woke up Sunday and gathered as a team to watch the pre-game video, which included highlights from Friday's game and special clips of random Californians saying our team motto: "Do work." Team manager Laura Buehrig had asked people to say the phrase whenever we went out in public over the weekend, and it turned out to be a great pre-game video. It put the team in a good mood, and we again headed to campus for the last game of the trip.

The Tigers came out aggressive offensively in the game against Santa Clara, scoring about six minutes into it. The Broncos scored before halftime, and added one more in the second half to take the win, but the Tigers were still proud they played hard against two top teams.

After the game, we headed back to the hotel, and then quickly to the airport, to catch our flight to Las Vegas. If you ever get the chance to take a connecting flight from Oakland to Vegas, take it, because flying over the California desert is an experience like no other. Its hard to explain, but just imagine the sun setting against mountains, sand dunes and a hazy sky, and you'll see in your mind what we saw out our windows.

We arrived at Las Vegas International and walked over to our other plane, which was ready to take us back to Kansas City. The flight to MCI was un-eventful, as was the bus ride back to campus, and I finally cuddled into bed at about 2:30 a.m., hoping to get enough sleep before my 9 a.m. class later that morning.

The trip was everything I had hoped for; two great soccer games, fun flights, good times with the players and staff, beautiful scenery and a nice dinner at the Andrighetto's. I can't wait until the next road (or plane) trip!