Furman Women's Soccer Europe Diary

Presented By Melissa Turner

ENTRY #1

One word for the first two days of our trip: exhausting.

We all made it on the plane in Atlanta for our two hour flight to Newark, N.J., where we shared a ride to Brussels, Belgium with Vanderbilt. Senior captain Kaye Brownlee described our flight as "a modern plane with lots of entertainment options." Some of us slept for most of the ride, while the rest of us watched movies. Many of the players experienced discomfort. Brownlee said, "My feet are swollen - my toes are like sausages."

By the time we arrived in Belgium, it was Friday morning. We gathered our bags and found our tour guide, Marc, with little trouble. We are staying at the Rolduc Monastery in Kerkrade, Holland. As soon as we got all of our things settled in we went into the main part of town for lunch. Lunch was quite an experience! Most of us settled for ham and cheese sandwiches. After lunch we finally had a chance to take a little nap before practice. Brian told us he was very pleased with our performance in practice given the situation.

After showers and dinner, we got ready to go to a pro game of MVV (home team) vs. FC Zwolle. The fans were pretty crazy. Freshman goalkeeper Jessy Knight came out of her shell a bit. She was an experienced spectator, having been to many MLS MetroStars games. She described the game as "cool" since soccer brings everyone together. It didn't matter that we were from the United States.

The highlights for our first day were sitting in a section at the cafe that didn't serve food at lunch, the waiter spilling water down Melissa Vogel's back, and finding our smokey seats at the MVV pro game.

Game Results:

Furman also participated in the Throne Ladies Cup on August 18. Furman won the tournament with a 3-0-1 record. The other American team in the tournament, Vanderbilt, finished fourth.

Game 1 (pool play): Furman 2, Standard Luik (Belgium) 0

• FU goals: Katie Carson (off Kelly Shedd corner kick)
• FU goals: Cristina Echavarry

Game 2 (pool play): Furman 0, Stedeco (Holland) 0

Game 3 (pool play): Furman 2, R.K.T.S.V (Holland) 1

• FU goals: Katie Carson (header off assists from Turner, Turgeon)
• FU goals: Emily Turgeon (Turner assist)

Game 4 (final): Furman 2, O.D.C. Boxtel (Holland) 1

• FU goals: Melissa Turner (Echavarry assist)
• FU goals: Kaye Brownlee (unassisted)
• note: Turner tied the score at 1-1 with ten minutes to play and Brownlee's game winner was scored with two minutes remaining in the championship match.

Comment from head coach Brian Lee: "The tournament gave us some great competition and all is well so far."