All season I have been anticipating regionals and those games that everything would come down to in order to determine if we would get a chance to fight for the title or not. For months I have been fighting to not let myself think past regionals because of the pure reality that nothing is guaranteed, no matter how well your pre-season games go. If anyone wants to argue this point, take a look at the SW region or some of the other upsets. It is scary how the entire season comes down to one tournament, but it is also really exciting and neat to see how the playing field is leveling out and there are new programs building and prospering. The sport is growing, and that means that the some powerhouse programs may or may not always be the ones on top, but I do think they deserve the recognition that in many ways this growth is because of their leadership and the precedent they have set.
Because this is my last season, it has been an emotional roller coaster for me. The combination of that, insane amounts of stress for the impending finals we had to take this week, and the great competition present at North Central Regionals, all made this past weekend quite the show.
Coming off our teams 4th consecutive sectionals championship, Scorned entered regionals as the #1 seed. Our first game was versus Wisconsin Eau-Claire. SOL has been a sister-team of Scorned's since 2010 when the teams played each other about ten times during the regular season. I don't really remember how it started, but it definitely had something to do with our boom box, the song "Party in the USA," and the creation of this blog (started as a suggestion by SOL). This game was fought hard by both sides and maintained a fun atmosphere through its entirety.
14-6 Woman Scorned of Wisconsin Eau-Claire
The second game of the day was against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. These ladies had both the height and passion to propel any great young team. They used their advantages well with a big zone which adequately shut down our deep game and forced us to work it around the field in the sleet/rain. Both teams had great bids and fought hard with a great attitude during the worst weather of the tournament.
15-4 Woman Scorned over Wisconsin - Milwaukee
The last game of pool play put us at the main fields and against the host team Carleton Syzygy. Prior to this game, Scorned worked up a pep talk and got the blood flowing. We were warm, pumped, and ready to rage. Scorned hit the ground running on the first pull and started off the game on fire. Never letting up, we took the game at a fast pace 15-10 and ended our day winning our pool.
15-10 Woman Scorned over Carleton College
After games, Scorned hit the showers for a great experience in the nicest shower room in the North Central Region. In Cami's own words- "Normally, I would wear sandals to prevent getting foot fungus, but in here, I'm the one giving it not getting it." Dinner at the Hoistad household was fantastic and followed by intense study sessions in preparation for tests this week.
Sunday morning games put us up against Wisconsin Bella Donna in the semi's. As Kevin said in his pre-game pep talk, this was our first of two chances to reach our goal of qualifying for nationals. (FYI- every time he has given us this "2 chances" talk, we have taken the second chance)
As the game started, Bella came out hard and took the first point of the game. It was clear quite early on that they were fired up and ready to play us hard. Bella offered a tougher defense than we had been used to and it showed as our offense struggled to break through. Poor decisions and nervous execution were major factors in our offense, but ultimately Bella Donna just played a better game than us. The tension on the field was tangible, and both teams were playing with heart to attompt to secure their spot to nationals, but Wisconsin stayed with discipline and proved that they have what it takes to win.
10-14 Wisconsin over Woman Scorned
With some disappointment, we huddled up to bring ourselves back together for the backdoor route. The next game was versus our friends from Minnesota. Although the past games with them had not been exceptionally close, this was regionals. Everything is different when the end of your season depends on each game. Minnesota came out hard and forced us to give everything for each point of that game. These ladies play with spirit, focus, and passion. They are always a fun team to play and this game was no different. I have absolutely loved playing them every year and I respect their hard work and team ethics so much. They definitely know how to have fun while keeping the focus and giving every game a good fight.
15-13 Woman Scorned over Minnesota
Over on the other pre-backdoor field, SOL was giving Carleton a run for their money and making them work hard for the spot in the backdoor. Carleton took the win, but SOL played a hell of a game and showed that there are more than just a couple of top teams in this region.
Scorned came into the backdoor game uncharacteristically. Carleton took a substantial lead from the get-go (something like 4 or 5-1) and were fighting hard and playing like a team that knows how to win when it matters. I honestly can't say what changed our momentum in that game, but I remember looking up wind across the line and thinking, "this could be your LAST game on Woman Scorned... are you ok with that?" I'm definitely not saying I changed the moment of that game with my answer, but I know that at that point I stopped paying attention to the score or anything else and just started playing with the song "Give Me Everything" in my head (not a joke- I was singing it all game).
Scorned got a break at some point. Then we must have converted downwind. Another break or two and all of the sudden it was half time. I had tried to look at Lana's notebook for the score before that point and was for some reason under the impression that we were down 6-9 (we hadn't even had half yet, so not sure what I was thinking). To my confusion, we took half 8-6. Sometime in the first half, ISUC showed up on our sidelines and potentially made the impact we needed to change the game. These guys' support and cheering brought us up to where we needed to be to continue the fight, forget our loss, and play the game the way we knew we could.
The second half was a hard fight by both teams. Points were traded, big D's were layed out, turn overs were happening more often than usual due to the intensity and stress of the game. Although Syzygy fought hard even up until the end in the most spirited game-to-go I have ever played, Scorned took the win with a throw from Pesch to Jess in the same end zone where Woman Scorned qualified for our first National Tournament in 2009. It was amazing and felt just as special as it did in 2009 and 2011.
13-11 Woman Scorned over Carleton
After an incredible weekend, Woman Scorned will be making the trip out West to our 3rd College National Tournament. We are incredibly honored and excited to have the privilage to this extended season and we have no plans of taking even one minute of it for granted. We will also probably blog about the great crap we are going to do, so get excited for that!
Huge thanks to Carleton for hosting. Thanks to our AMAZING COACHES for leading us to accomplish our goals thus far this season. Thanks to the great alumni for supporting us all weekend (Ying Ying, Jazzy, Jessy, and everyone else via twitter!...I'm sorry if I'm missing anyone)
-Lindsey Gapstur #2
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