@CanesFutbol Captain's Corner: Oct. 19, 2016
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – For the second year in a row, the captains of the University of Miami soccer team will be writing a blog for HurricaneSports.com throughout the season called Captain’s Corner.
Wednesday, in advance of the final two regular season home matches of her career, senior Gianna Dal Pozzo provided the latest installment. The midfielder/defender from Naperville, Ill., looks back at the team’s trip to South Carolina, reflects on her time at Miami and more . . .
Hello, Canes fans! Thanks for reading yet another edition of Captain’s Corner.
We traveled to play Clemson, but stayed in Greenville, South Carolina. This is where Molly [Lynch] lives and her parents were nice enough to host a dinner for us Thursday night. We had a tough loss on Friday. The team limited Clemson to only one shot on goal but fell, 1-0. We’ve been playing well, just haven’t capitalized.
I feel good going into this weekend because I know we’re going to break through. Thursday night we play Louisville and Sunday afternoon we take on Virginia Tech. It’s nice because we control our own destiny. With two wins this weekend we can advance to the ACC tournament. That’s been our goal all year and we are so close to achieving it.
Wow does time fly; this Sunday is already senior day! I was just wrapping my head around being a senior and now the season is coming to a close. I’m excited because my parents along with my teammates’ families will be here. Throughout my four years, I’ve become very close with my teammates’ parents. It’s like seeing your extended family when they come to visit and always nice to get a nice meal as well (: It’ll be fun with everyone together celebrating our soccer careers.
Looking back, I remember during fitness tests and hard practices thinking, “Man I can’t wait for this to be over.” Not going to lie, sometimes it felt like a chore, but it’s completely worth it when your team gets a big upset win against highly-ranked teams like Virginia or Notre Dame.
Even the small things in practice, like when you score a sick goal and joke about it with the goalie or someone megs you and then laugh about it with them, make it all worthwhile. No, I don’t want to run the 120s test ever again, but I would if it meant I got these four years all over again. Obviously, I love soccer, but the people I play it with make me love it more.
I don’t plan on playing professionally after college, so when our season is over my soccer career is over, as well. That’s hard to say considering this has been my life for the past 16 years. I have tried to avoid being sentimental and thinking about all of my “lasts” this fall. I think it puts pressure on yourself to be perfect and distracts from your game.
Come out and support the seniors in their last two home games at Cobb!
