With nine minutes remaining in last weekend's game against Duke, Virginia freshman Kelly Quinn received a yellow card. Not seven minutes later, the Blue Devil's Christie McDonald joined her. In a game in which Duke was fighting to remain undefeated and Virginia was trying to turn its season around, pushing, shoving and tripping were the norm.
Yet at the end of the game, both teams lined up in two straight lines across from each other, stuck out their hands and began the methodical chant of "Good game, good game, good game." As the handshakes ended, Virginia senior Noelle Keselica hugged Duke senior Carolyn Ford, and the two went off to the side, talking animatedly.
"I've known her since she was like eight," Keselica said. "She played on my club team. She's one of my best friends. Throughout college, we've kept our relationship, and it's always great to see her, to play against her."
Considering that the primary focus is competition, it is easy to overlook one of the key elements of college sports: friendship. There is obviously a great bond shared between teammates -- but equal friendships can develop between players who may grow up to play on opposing teams. Professionally, friends, and even families, play each other all the time as players are traded from team to team. At the collegiate level, friendships develop between players who have played on the same high school, club and national teams.
"All these guys have played a lot of soccer with a lot of different players," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "They've played on regional teams, club teams, national teams, so I think almost everywhere we go, inevitably there's players that know one another."
Of course, going from playing together to playing against each other is not necessarily the easiest transition. Issues arise such as what happens when two friends face off against each other, how seriously one plays against someone they know and how much animosity is carried off the field.
"When you've been playing with somebody for so long, it's kind of weird to be playing out in the field against them." Keselica said. "I guess it's just something you don't really think about. With [Ford], I was marking her, and I take pride in that. You just play and give your heart out, and after the game you guys are friends again."
Being friends with girls on other teams can also have distinct advantages. It can be an outlet for comparing how different teams are playing, an independent source to talk to about what's happening on the team and a person to whom you can vent.
"You can gain so much from them," Keselica said. "Talking to them, they can even help you with what you can do against a team or how they're playing. It's an unbelievable relationship."
As valuable as the relationships can be in terms of soccer, Swanson said he feels they serve other purposes as well.
"I'm sure they talk a lot," Swanson said. "I'm sure it's a lot about soccer, but I'm also sure a lot of it's not. It's about life and how they're enjoying their different experiences and things like that."
Tonight, Virginia will have a chance to see more familiar faces as Florida State travels north to face the Cavaliers at Klöckner Stadium at 7 p.m.
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