Lauren Hudak

September 12, 2005

Our first away trip this season was to the picturesque little city of Oneonta, New York. For such a small place, Oneonta made an amazing demonstration for their 10th annual Mayor’s Cup. It seemed that the entire place shut down just for our soccer games, and the whole city was participating in this festival-like event (which is not surprising, considering that Oneonta is the site of the soccer hall of fame!!). Christopher Newport, as well as ourselves, were fortunate enough to be invited to the tournament. Once we arrived in Oneonta, our fearless “ambassador Rod” was there to meet us and help with anything we needed; he even gave us a gift bag full of t-shirts and trinkets from the sponsoring organizations.

After the grand introductions to the city, we had our first game against Hartwick College. Thinking that the tournament couldn’t be any more extravagant or amazing, we arrived at the field and discovered that skydivers, yes that’s right, skydivers were landing on the field before they announced the teams. Three men floated down to the field with their smoke trailing shoes and decorative flags; crazy stuff, seriously. After beating Hartwick (thanks to Bedford, Jamie, and Adrienne), we enjoyed a fabulous Italian dinner at Ruffino’s restaurant.

The next morning the tournament charade continued with the Mayor’s Cup brunch. The mayor gave a moving speech after we (of course) were the first in line at the buffet. Sue even got up and said a few touching words at the banquet.

The Oneonta game gave us a little more trouble than our previous games, and I spent most of the time on the ground since it was one of those physically taxing games. No skydivers this time, but the cute little girls that we were escorting out onto the field proved to be mutinous and cheered for Oneonta the whole time. I was crushed. After two overtime periods the game was called. On the bright side, though, we ended up winning the whole tournament off goal differential, and Cisco took home a gaudy defensive MVP trophy to go with our enormous cup. I can say with confidence that our weekend in Oneonta was unforgettable.

Lauren Hudak is a senior from Dunwoody, GA. She would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.