08/17/2009
Women's Soccer Ends Preseason Trip Against League Champion UCEM; Read About Day 7

The Clark University women's soccer team departed on August 11 to Costa Rica for an international preseason trip. The 8-day, three-game trip will include time in San Jose and San Carlos. This marks the first time Coach Brady, in his ninth year, has taken the team on an international trip.

The trip will include three games against local club teams, opportunities to train and a number of popular cultural attractions. In addition, the team will take part in a community service project. The players will visit a childrens community center that cares for and educates 200 low-income children between the ages of 1-12 years old.

The players will team up during the trip to provide daily updates from Costa Rica.

Day 7 (Saturday, August 17, 2009) Provided by the seniors

Read AboutDay 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |

As the trip was coming to an end, we decided to wake up early and soak up the last rays by the pool. After breakfast we had a two hour bus ride back to San Jose for a 1-night stay and our last game. Our trip has come full circle, as we returned to the same hotel. We then played the top first division team in Costa Rica, UCEM. We played well especially in the second and created some good chances. However, we came up on the short end falling 2-0 to a very good Costa Rican womens team. We learned a lot from our opponents and look forward to taking some of the moves and playing styles that we have learned from these great teams. We then cleaned up and went to our nice, but sad, farewell dinner at Tony Romos. Costa Rica Soccer made a slideshow with many of the photos of the trip while we enjoyed our last meal in Costa Rica as a team. As part of their presentation they presented everyone with a small gift to help us remember this unforgettable experience. We presented our unbelievable tour guide Roberto and bus drive Randall with a Clark t-shirt as well as some of the staff from Costa Rica Soccer Tours. Everyone has been amazing in making this such a great trip. We ended the evening back at the hotel hanging out as team, dancing and reminiscing about the unbelievable past seven days. Tomorrow we leave early for a short stop in downtown San Jose for some last minute shopping and a walking tour of downtown before our flights back to Boston. -- The Seniors