With last week’s difficult outing, in New Haven, behind us, the Lady Lions turned their attention to our next day of competition, against Fairleigh Dickinson and Dominican, this week. Our early morning practices, in beautiful (and a bit chilly) autumn weather, were focused and productive. Everyone seemed eager to get back out on the field against a live opponent, and see if we could do better, this time.

So, yesterday morning we gathered at Molloy, before loading into the vans and heading toward Dominican University. It’s only about forty miles away, and we were sailing along until the second half of the Cross Bronx Expressway, where we hit a traffic jam all the way to the George Washington Bridge (classic). Once we got over the Bridge, we took in the beautiful fall foliage along the Palisades Parkway. Again, we arrived at Dominican with only enough time for an abbreviated pre-game warm up, before it was time to begin against FDU.

From the start, we were significantly better than the week before. Our Energy, Effort and Enthusiasm, was much improved, even if our Execution was only slightly better in the beginning of the game. Our competitiveness was definitely better, as well. Our players seemed less nervous and confused, this time. FDU is a Division I program, with a lot of big, fast athletes. But while we did not play great, we were able to hang with them.

With only a short break between games, we had to quickly re-group and get back out there to take on the host, Dominican Chargers. Dominican was a terrific team, a year ago, but graduated 15 players from that team. I was worried, we might be a bit tired to start the second game. But, it almost seemed like an advantage for us, being fully warmed up. In what was a fairly even battle, the Lady Lions, again showed improvement. There were certainly areas where we struggled and our gains, were by no means across the board. But, overall our performance was encouraging.

So, our Fall Ball Program is now tapering down. No more competitions and only two practices per week for the next month or so. There is still a great deal of work to be done, if we are to become the kind of team we will need to be in the Spring, if we are going to compete for our Conference Championship, again. But, I feel like this young team, has already made significant progress, this fall. We got better with each game we played and within each game we played. Again, we are a long way from being good, right now. We just need to continue to work hard individually and collectively, and we will see where this year’s journey leads.

GO LIONS!