Talented soccer team finally grabs attention of students
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
How could Friday night's women's soccer game be summed up?
Cold.
Very cold.
But the freezing temperatures didn't stop several hundred members of the student body from coming out to see top-ranked Notre Dame beat Harvard 2-0.
Who knows why all those people turned out? Maybe it was the yellow foam fingers that were given away to every student who entered. Maybe they were looking for something to do and standing in the cold was their idea of fun.
Or maybe they wanted to see one heck of a soccer game and have a great time in the process.
"The fans were awesome and there were cheering a ton," said senior forward Meotis Erikson. "That really helps a lot."
The fan support at the women's soccer games has gradually risen over the season, with more and more people realizing just how good they are. And it's about time. After all, the No. 1 sign lighting up the sky over Grace Hall isn't lit up for the football team.
The students who braved the cold weather were determined to have a good time. They cheered for the Irish, heckled the Crimson, and incorporated several cheers that have become standard at football games.
After every Notre Dame goal, a few students did pushups. Before every corner kick, the fans circled a hand over their head and yelled just as they do before every kickoff at a football game. Shouts of "Go, Irish, Go!" and "Let's go Irish" sliced through the night sky.
A few students even showed some creativity with their cheers. At the start of the second half, they moved to the bleachers behind Harvard goalie Cheryl Gunther and proceeded to make the next 45 minutes the worst of her life.
Cheers like "Chheerryyylll, Chherryylll" reverberated throughout Alumni Field every time the Irish mounted an offensive attack. And when a sliding Mia Sarkesian knocked the ball past Gunther to put this Irish up 2-0, the twenty-some students behind the goal chanted, "It's all your fault! It's all your fault! It's all your fault!"
It was nice to finally see some support for these talented athletes, and the students who showed up couldn't have picked a better game to attend. The Irish play their final home game of the season Friday, when most of the campus will be celebrating Thanksgiving at home with their families.
So, Friday's game was the last chance to see this talented team play this season. And the students who stood through the freezing temperatures to watch the Irish play weren't disappointed. Despite playing on a field that was more suited for hockey than soccer, the Irish came out fired up and dominated play for most of the game.
When the final horn sounded, the team didn't grab their warm stuff and take off for the locker room. Just like they do after every home game, they walked across the field and waved to the fans as if they were saying, "Thanks for coming."
"We're really proud of our fans," Erikson said. "We hope they keep coming back."
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, November 20, 2000
