THE women's national football team had their first of two games against US collegiate teams on Wednesday night.

Playing at PHC, the team took to the field against John Carroll University, a Division III programme out of Cleveland, Ohio.

Scoreless at half time, John Carroll put away their first and only goal of the night to which the national team responded with the equaliser two minutes later. The score remained 1-1 for the rest of the match.

"I felt our team did well under the circumstances," said national team coach Vance Brown. "We trained a couple of times in June and did relatively OK.

"John Carroll was a good, strong team ¿ tough and normal to a lot of US teams that just have non-stop playing. This game gives us a chance to work on some things and see how the girls respond to some changes we needed to make. (These types of matches) helps us to gauge where we need to be for the Island Games," he said.

John Carroll coach Tracy Blasius, who also came to the island with her team in 2004, was pleased with the outcome of the match and felt that Bermuda's speed and skill put her team to the test.

"We have very contrasting styles of play. The national team are so good on the ball, so quick and so we needed to adjust to deal with their speed. It was a great experience for my team to play against a team like that," she said.

Joined by Paul Heenehan, a celebrated 30-year-veteran of US high school soccer and voted the National Coach of the Year in 2004, the university team played four games during their visit against teams from the BFA's Women's Division.

"We had four games back-to-back over the last two days. I think the girls are tired but are having a blast. The experience has been absolutely incredible ¿ I can't say enough good things about our time here. We plan to be back in 2011," she said.

The national team now face Babson College, a Division III team from Massachusetts on Saturday.

Coach Brown and the national team, who haven't played this team before, are looking to further sharpen their play.

"From the college's website, it looks like they had a relatively good season last year so we are looking forward to some good competition," said coach Brown.

The match will be held on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at PHC field in Warwick.