It's not one of their hardest matches of the season, but one of their most meaningful. Amid the swirl of classes, homework and battling through a pressure-filled soccer schedule, the Cyclone women's soccer team spent a few hours on Sept. 27 kicking the ball around with some special kids.

For the last few years, head Coach Al Palar has had his team interact with youths from Oak Park Special Olympics Unified Soccer. This is not only a chance for the players to break away from the hectic daily schedules of a college athlete, but also to give back.

"Volunteering and giving back to the community is amazing. I feel like in doing so you feel so much better, you're helping other people, it's amazing. Just spreading love. All the kids had fun laughing, playing, it makes everyone happy," said freshman Iris Cruz.

All the athletes split into four teams and played two simultaneous games for about 20 minutes before switching up opponents for another 20. The Cyclones guided their new young friends on the field and high-fived them after they made plays and goals. A few hugs were exchanged before all was said and done.

"A day like this is very hard to beat. The emotions and feelings I had during these two hours or so outweigh any feeling of winning, any game or scoring any goal. To see the excitement and all the happiness that was flowing through everyone's faces was so heart-warming," Palar said. "I don't often get to see this side of our team, and it always puts things in perspective for me as a coach. These kids we get to play with are so incredibly special to us, I wish we could do this once a week. I always look forward to taking this trip with the team. Best game on our schedule every year."

For sophomore Sylvia Kordaczka, this was her second season playing with these worthy opponents. "We have a long season, so coming out here and getting to play with the kids is fun," she said. "We stress out about the little things and take things for granted all the time, but coming out here and playing with kids seeing them have fun is such a blast. In high school I was part of Best Buddies so I've always liked doing things like this. Being able to do this throughout college as well is a lot of fun. I love hanging out with the kids. Seeing their smiles after they score goals is just awesome."