Portland sophomore goalkeeper Erin Dees has taken on blogging duties for the women’s soccer team, and she’ll be checking in from time-to-time to give fans an in-depth look into the soccer program. Make sure to bookmark www.portlandpilots.com/DeesBlog and follow Dees and the Pilots all season.
ENTRY #3
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Pilot Fans -
Unfortunately this weekend only brought us one win, when we wanted two. Friday night was a battle against Washington State that ended 1-0 in favor of us thanks to a breakaway goal by Amanda Frisbie. On Saturday we traveled down to San Diego to play the Aztecs of San Diego State. The game on Sunday did not end how we would have liked. We went down a goal in the first half, and then a shot off the post was as close as we would come to scoring during the rest of the game.
With our record at 2-1, we will be traveling up to Seattle for the Husky Invitational this weekend where we will play Seattle University on Friday and Boston University on Sunday.
When I was brainstorming about blog ideas this past week, I was trying to come up with a topic that is really specific to our team and program. I wanted to write about something that makes our program different from every other program in the country. And the one thing that really stood out to me was the fact that we have the best fans in the country. The students come out to our games and support us, the community comes out and supports us, and it is not just for “big games” but it is for every game. I cannot explain how much that means to me—and the rest of my team—as a player.
Cloee Colohan reminisces on her favorite fan moment as she tells me about her first home game of her freshman year; “they did the ‘go pilots’ cheer in the second half and I couldn’t even focus on the game I was in aww, haha seriously it was so loud.” A thing as simple as a cheer can really mean a lot; whether it is the motivation to make a slide tackle or the desire to celebrate a goal with the student section.
Kassi McCluskie stated that “the fans mean more to me than I could put into words, they make us who we are. It’s almost indescribable. The fans have created an amazing atmosphere here and with them Portland wouldn’t be the same. I fricken love them!”
Home games are exciting to play in even if no fans were there, but the presence of the fans are the reason I get chills when I step onto the field, the reason I cannot help but smile when I look around Merlo, and the reason our program stands out among most.
Until next time,
Erin Dee
PREVIOUS ENTRIES
- Entry #1 (Aug. 17, 2011)
- Entry #2 (Aug. 24, 2011)
