Editors Note: Julia Speace is a senior defender on the Gaucho women’s soccer team, as well as a regular contributor to the Daily Nexus with her professional sports column titled “Speace of Mind.” Printed in this edition of Nexus Sports is her latest entry in her weekly blog, which also appears on the Gaucho Athletics Web site.

So this week we only had one game, Friday night versus Fresno State. It was our last game leading into conference, which begins this weekend. We face Riverside on Friday, and then Long Beach on Sunday- both away. But for a quick recaplet on the weekend, we played the Bulldogs to a scoreless tie through two sudden death overtimes. It is not exactly the result we wanted, but a tie is always better than a loss, I guess.

I have never seen an athletic department run away with a mascot theme the way Fresno State did. They are darn proud of their mascot, which is the extremely original slobbering, teeth-baring dog with the overly-clichéd spiked collar. They had a sort of Nativity-like scene in the front with our favorite little bulldog hanging in his bulldog house with all his bulldog bones scattered around him. They had big paw prints littering the walkway leading to the field. Lastly, they had a blow up doghouse where the “lady bulldogs” ran out to enter the stadium. Wow. Somewhere in that athletic department there is a Jeff Lewis that just flipped this stadium out.

The field itself was sort of a concave shape, which I would imagine is pretty difficult to play football on. It was definitely harder to play soccer on because a rolling ball would get a little bit of loft due to the bumpiness of the ground. But hey, to each his own, and if the Fresno State teams know how to play on it, then they should use it to their advantage. The game itself was physical, but played well on both sides. Not being biased or anything, but the only attack they had was from their goalie, who could kick it practically the length of the field. Cool. I was a little nervous that she was going to get a goal and then we were going to turn into “that team” on YouTube that got scored on by the opposing goalie. Ugh. Embarrassing. However- we didn’t suffer such a fate, and managed to keep the little soon-to-be criminologist in check. And yes, I happen to know she is doing criminology –  thanks to Fresno’s huge scoreboard that listed all the girls’ cool majors. When Britney Spears announced she wanted to get a job in forensics because, you know, “CSI is cool,” she should have gone to Fresno State. Should have gone there instead of Tarzana to that barber shop, where, you know, she sort of shaved her head. I can only imagine the long list of mystery crimes she would have solved… and how all of America could have avoided her VMA “comeback performance/debacle.” But alas, Ms. Spears has come back with a vengeance, and now will be on Glee! So all is right in my world.

As the game went on, the tension and frustration mounted. Some girls are more apt to handle the pressure than others, and this could be said for Alissa Sanchez’s mark. Girlfriend went crazy,. and smacked Alissa for no reason, other than she was probably angry that Alissa was getting the best of her. Long story short, Sanch had to use some self-defense tactics, which largely consisted of holding her arms up over her head to withstand the blows that were being showered upon her. The referee, however, hopped on his “stop the violence” soapbox and decided to give red cards to both. Annoying, and wrong. But I won’t go on about the referee. I am just saying, self defense gets you off in the court of law, but not on the soccer field? Lame. Anyways, we tied 0-0, and afterwards I went home with my parents. My dad, loaded up on a Coke and two Milky Ways, drove the four or so hours home, whilst my mother chatted away to him, and I slept. Wonderful! Win-win for everyone, I say.

And that will do it for my week! Lastly, though, I will fill in gaps. Sanch, Kylie, Kat Serdio and myself, along with a gaggle of freshmen who were bored to tears by “Wall Street: blah blah I forget” saw “Easy A” on Friday. We liked it, and Emma Stone is pretty funny in it. She has some zingers, which made us chuckle. I also love me some Amanda Bynes, and so that was an added bonus to it. However, I can’t get the song “Pocketful of Sunshine” out of my head now because of it, which is annoying, to say the least. Oh well. Anyways, that’s it for me! Have a swell week, and I’ll catch you on the flipside.