Today was a big day! Today was the day I, and the rest of my teammates, officially became Olympians! It is still hard to believe! I am so honored to represent my country and Lancaster County at such an amazing competition. Okay moving on to more exciting things. Our first game. Tonight we played in a steady rain for most of the game against Argentina. It was a nice change from the incredible humidity. We came out to a very slow start and found ourselves in a quick 2-0 hole. Obviously, not the way we wanted to come out against one of our biggest rivals in the opening game of the Olympics. However, we showed great strength and persistence and fought our way back to 2-1 at half time. We were full of energy and excitement to start the second half. About 6 minutes into the half one of our players got a yellow card and was sent off the field for about 13 minutes. This meant we played down a player for a good chunk of time. Very hard to do normally, let alone against the #2 ranked team in the world. Our defense was incredible and our goalie Amy Tran made some incredible saves (this was also Amy’s 100th game!!!). We held onto the 2-1 score until we were full strength again and then with about 11 minutes left another player got a yellow card and sat out for about 5 minutes. This was extremely frustrating for us because we played most of the half 10 v. 11. We strung together a couple of great passes and then Kelly Doton smashed a great ball into the circle and Angie Loy made an awesome tip to score the tying goal with about 3 minutes left. We went nuts. It was a great comeback. Although we know we are a good enough team to have pulled out a win, and we certainly didn’t play our best tonight we are okay with the tie. It is way better than a loss.
On another note, my family arrived safely in Beijing. My mother, brother and sister all arrived safe and sound last night in China. They are staying with a couple other hockey families in the area. It was absolutely great to see them after the game. I am so glad that they have the opportunity to experience this!
Thank you to everyone who got up early this morning to watch the game. I greatly appreciate the support. I can’t tell you how many emails and Facebook messages I have been getting. Unfortunately, it is hard for me to respond to everyone, but please know that I am extremely grateful for your thoughts and prayers.
More specifically, today I’d like to thank my Aunt Terry, Uncle Ed and grandma Betty (aka Mom K) for their continued support and amazing encouragement. I know that they are watching every game no matter what time of day! I love you!
