Ohio travels to Cincinnati, showcases players in front of their hometown friends and families.
Coach Aaron Rodgers is preparing his squad for a trip to Cincinnati this week for a fixture against Xavier.
Yet the matchup brings a little more to the pitch for some Ohio players.
“I have a few friends at (University of Cincinnati) and Xavier and they’ll be able to see me, so I’m excited to go back,” sophomore Megan Niebuhr said, who is a graduate of Saint Ursula Academy in Cincinnati.
Niebuhr said her parents make the two hour and forty-minute-long trip to Athens whenever they can to see her play, but now that she's returning home, she knows there will be pressure for her to perform well.
“It’s always a little nerve-wracking because a lot of my friends don’t play sports back home," Niebuhr said. “But it’s nice because they will get to see me perform in my own world.”
Freshman Rianna Reese, who is a fellow Cincinnati native, is grateful her friends will see her play.
“My family actually has gotten to come to a lot of games,” Reese said. “But it is an opportunity for my brother and sister-in-law to see me too.”
Reese, a graduate of Lakota East High School, said she too feels some pressure performing in front of her friends and high school coaches.
“When a lot of your high school teammates and coaches are there,” she said. “You want to perform well for them. (You) want to represent your high school and area well.”
Rodgers does recruiting out of the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area and he intentionally schedules his non-conference games for those particular areas.
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“We try to schedule games in areas where our girls are from,” he said. “It also helps because I know there are a lot of Bobcat alumni in Cincinnati, and it’s good for them to come out and support us.”
Last year, Ohio (1-5) lost to Xavier 3-2 in double-overtime, just seconds before the game’s final whistle in Athens.
The Bobcats will now visit the Musketeers (5-2) at the Xavier University Soccer Complex Friday, where they will try and build off of their goal scoring tendencies from last week’s 3-0 victory against the Robert Morris Colonials.
“I think it’s going to be a great environment,” Rodgers said. “It always is and I’m going to look forward to it.”
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