Indiana University Athletics
Travel Diary: Charley Traylor
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 16, 2006
Junior back Charley Traylor has helped lead the Hoosier defense this season. The team is currently allowing 1.33 goals per game. He sat down with IUHOOSIERS.com following Indiana's 1-0 loss to Saint Louis.
Thursday was a little hectic because I was trying to get all my homework done before we left. I was running from class to catch the bus.
The bus ride was long and boring, a pretty standard bus trip. I slept most of the time. We were excited to see that we got Dougie back, who is the bus driver that we have had for the past three years. We haven't had him the past couple of trips, so it was nice to have him back.
We got to the hotel, which was pretty nice, except for the fact that mine and Chris Munroe's room was the only room that wasn't a suite. It was a small room compared to everyone else's, so that was disappointing.
Friday was really laid back. We had an early breakfast before training session. During walk-through, we did a jog and a stretch to get our legs loose and ready to play. After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon sleeping and resting to prep for the game.
Saint Louis is always a really competitive game. It's one of those games we really like to get up for because it's always been a big rivalry. Both teams have really long traditions. Also, I've played against a lot of the older players at Saint Louis for eight or nine years through club and regional teams. It's nice to be able to get bragging rights with all your friends, because some of us are close to a lot of the guys on the team. It was disappointing to lose because throughout my college career, I've never lost to them. I always had that bragging right, and we lost that this weekend.
It's always tough not to get results when we get up at 8 a.m. to practice every morning to get results. With a young team like we have this year, we're going to have bumps in the road. I think what's going to determine our season is how we handle those bumps. I think as the season progresses we're going to get a lot better. Each game we're getting more and more comfortable with each other. I'm really confident with where we're going to be five or six games from now.
It was really disappointing to not get the result we wanted. Playing in front of that many people in a nationally televised game, you always want to get the result. After we got scored on, our play stepped up a couple of notches and I think we need to learn how to play at that level the whole game. We had some pretty good opportunities at the end. It was very disappointing, but you can't worry about the past. The game is over, so we're focused on the next game. We've learned a couple of lessons from our losses this year, and hopefully won't make those mistakes again.
Saturday we had a long bus ride home. I think everyone's ready to relax and have a nice day off before we practice again tomorrow afternoon. We haven't had a day off in awhile.
