October 21, 2005

You wouldn't think that women's college soccer would be the hottest ticket in town, but the University of Portland's game tonight against Santa Clara (UP's biggest west coast rival) sold out days in advance. That'll teach us to be slackers and think we can just show up at the game and buy tickets.

We went to the game, anyway, since CSTV was taping the game for a later broadcast and UP worked it out with CSTV to air their footage live in the Chiles center, for all the people who couldn't get tickets. We intended to just kick back in the Chiles center and watch, but we found a good view of the field along the stadium fence and ended up watching most of the game there, along with a ton of other people. Which made me smile. Stadium was sold out, there were 300+ people watching in the Chiles center, and people were nearly climbing over the fence just to get a peek at the game. So much for people not being interested in soccer and womens sports!

And UP delivered, playing an amazing game and beating Santa Clara 3-1. To add to it, Christine Sinclair scored two goals, the second of which was her 100th NCAA goal (a rare feat), and making this the 17th consecutive game she's scored in. Somehow I think the Santa Clara player who made a few snide remarks to the media before the game may be reconsidering her words. "Our team is more about that everyone is so solid. We don't have a ridiculous standout. We're all fighting together."

Well, good for you, Santa Clara. I hadn't realized that not having any standout players was something to boast about, but at least you can take all your solid players and contemplate your loss together. Ahem.

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