Milligan University’s men and women’s soccer teams were scheduled to play games against Tennessee Wesleyan this past Saturday. Due to a number of positive COVID-19 cases on each team, most team members are currently quarantined and therefore the games have been canceled.
“It’s frustrating for us that the game got canceled because everyone on the team was really looking forward to playing. Especially since we were supposed to play against the best team in the Conference,” said Odin Solheim.
Since the men’s team has already spent a couple of days in quarantine, a plan to reschedule the postponed games is in development.
“The games that got postponed are to be scheduled right before the Conference Championship starts on Nov. 23. It is going to be a tight schedule. Around 4-5 games over a short period of time,” said Solheim.
“It is a mixture of sadness not having any games this week, but it’s important not to lose hope that we can come back stronger and achieve our goals no matter our difficult situation,” said Alex Frances.
In order to maintain their physical health and remain in good condition, the head coach for the men’s team, David Lilly, is hosting daily virtual zoom workouts. Since this weekend’s game against Tennessee Wesleyan is the first game to get postponed for the women’s team, no information regarding practices and rescheduling of games has yet to be presented to the team.
“I’m sure we will do meetings with the team virtually, but since the quarantine decision is still very new, we haven’t had time to adjust yet,” said Lauren Davies. Davies is one of the players who doesn’t have to quarantine since she didn’t experience any close contact with the team because of an injury.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating to have four very important games postponed and having to take two weeks off in the middle of the season, “ said the women’s Soccer Head Coach Lisa Buckley. “But we are confident that with the guidance of health services and the athletic director the decision to quarantine was the right one. Going into the season we knew this would be a possibility, our focus was on providing our student athletes with the opportunity to compete this season.”
The next games for both teams will be against Reinhardt University at Milligan. The men’s team is scheduled to play on Nov. 11, and the women’s team will play a week later, on Nov. 18.
Headline photo: Milligan men’s soccer team at a previous game.