A Season Of Rebirth

NWSL Matchday Five

A laid-back gathering of Spirit and Courage players at the Carolina Ale House in Cary brought together three UCLA grads (Caprice Dydasco, Katelyn Rowland, and Taylor Smith), two from Cal-Berkeley (Arielle Ship and Sam Witteman), Meggie Dougherty Howard, Cali Farquharson, and Christina Gibbons. Once all had arrived and food and drinks had been ordered, the friendly cross-team interrogation began.

Sam Witteman: Ari, are you and Meggie FINALLY going to admit you're together?!

Arielle Ship: You mean you're actually BUYING the Instagram trolling the two of us are doing?

Sam: So you're just making it LOOK like you're a thing? No actual feelings between the two of you?

Meggie Dougherty Howard: Oh, there are definitely feelings. We just want to get the coach's dander up at the moment and piss off our two "holier-than-thou" teammates before actually coming forward and acknowledging to anyone we're a couple.

Caprice Dydasco: Same goes for Cali and I and other couples on the team. Jim hasn't been NEARLY as bad as the Red Stars coach in calling out player relationships, but the off-handed comments about how the larger crowds at the SoccerPlex should allow us to find some "normal" men in the stands hasn't sat too well with us.

Christina Gibbons: Luckily, Paul more or less stays out of our private lives, unless of course it seeps into the locker room, like the Sam/Abby situation this off-season. Now, I don't know either one of them THAT well, so Katelyn and Taylor have been filling me in on what happened and the back story.

Caprice: Abby is one of my best friends, and I am quite miffed with Sammy for doing her as wrong as she did, but I don't have it in me to do to her like KO did a couple of weeks ago, or what the Dash players probably will when they come to town in a few weeks. Besides, our team is in too big of a hole in this league to have players sent off or suspended for payback fouling.

Taylor Smith: They were TIGHT, but Abby never wanted to accept that Sam just could not be "out" with her. We've been able to keep the locker room fairly unified despite the differing opinions about what happened, because the bigger goal is winning the league, which we failed to accomplish last October.

Katelyn Rowland: Any of you got some advice on how to find SOMEONE to date? This "bro girl" thing is getting tiring, as the guys don't take me seriously as a possible girlfriend and the ladies all seem to not know how to approach me.

Caprice: Anyone on your radar, Kate?

Katelyn hemmed and hawed a little before opening up. "Like a few. I crush the hardest for Makenzy (Doniak), but she's too damn hot for me to get with. Prudhomme from St. Louis FC would be a nice one, although we'd never be able to play together since she's a keeper as well. Michaela (Hahn) is someone else I've thought about, but she is like 300% straight so no chance there. (Megan) Oyster if that ex-baseball player ever exits her life."

Cali Farquharson: If I can chip in a little insight. When Caprice and I began to get close, she had some of the same feelings as you seem to have about Makenzy. I told her the inside mattered more to me than the outside, and that I was more interested in having a girlfriend and partner who saw me more as endgame and less as "good enough for now". I also picked Megan's brain a little to get some background information on her so I knew how to best approach her. You close to any of the Wahoos?

Katelyn: None of them straight-away, but I'm tight with the Great Horan, which brings Sonny into play.

Taylor: Good place to start. Another option is to maybe instigate a Virginia/UCLA mashup when Seattle visits here in a couple of weeks. McCall (Zerboni) played with Lauren Barnes at Westwood, and you have Danny (Colaprico) and Kristen McNabb on the Reign from UVa. Add me and Darien (Jenkins) from our side and maybe the sparks can be made to fly.