James Monroe Plunges Forward
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Saturday, November 15, 2008
VIRGINIA BEACH, Nov. 14 -- James Monroe's Taylor Herold and Phoebe Willis huddled under a tent following their 2-1 sudden-death overtime victory over Western Albemarle in a Virginia AA/A semifinal Friday at the USA Field Hockey National Training Center.
Soaked from head to toe, they beamed as the leftover rain streaked from their hair, bled through their bandanas and trickled down over their smiles.
Senior goalkeeper Sarah Fisher was hunched over and doing her best to form a complete sentence between breaths.
"We're going swimming in the ocean now," said Fisher, who had 11 saves. "It's probably going to be really cold."
"I went on Monday," said Herold, who ventured out of the Yellow Jackets' oceanfront hotel on the eve of Tuesday's 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Grafton for the frigid plunge.
"We made a bet with our teammates," Willis added. "We have to go in for at least two minutes."
Some would say that the Yellow Jackets already had their swim, fighting through a sloppy, rain-soaked affair, a 12-minute rain delay and as much as an inch of standing water on the turf before earning the Fredericksburg school's second state final berth in three years; James Monroe lost to Chancellor, 2-0, in 2006.
In Saturday's 10:30 a.m. final, the Yellow Jackets (21-5-1) will face Tabb, a 1-0 semifinal winner over Orange County.
"Our whole team motto is 'believe,' and that's what we kept saying out there," said Willis, a senior defender. "We had a bunch of goals taken away out there, but we fought through it."
After Herold, a sophomore forward, had her breakaway diving finish waved off, she scored the winner less than 15 seconds later on the Yellow Jackets' sixth corner -- an insert from junior defender Libby Brown that Willis redirected.
"Phoebe looked at me and said, 'Do you want this to be our last game?' " Herold said. "I was so winded from that last breakaway. She hit me the ball, and all I could see was an opening."
James Monroe took an early lead in the first half when Herold scored on a feed from junior midfielder Chelsea Morris. Western Albemarle senior forward Effie Nicholaou tied the game at 1 just 20 seconds after play was resumed following the rain delay.
