Going into the tournament there was a lot of hype built up around our team. As a team that has NEVER before had anyone look twice at us, it was a very interesting position to be in. Despite our efforts to look past the talk and focus on our team goals, the nerves definitely showed in our performance in Friday games. An inability to come out strong in games gave us sizable deficits to have to come back from. We won our first game of the tournament against Ottawa on universe point after coming back from being down, but our game against Tufts was not as successful ending in a loss.
After coming together to find ourselves as a team and talk about some of the issues that had plagued us in the first day of games, WS came out hard on Saturday looking to still win the pool. Our first game against Cal was one of the strongest of the tournament. We took the lead early and maintained our advantaged all the way to win the game. Fired up and ready to upset Virginia with hopes of a straight shot to Quarterfinals, we walked into our next game ready to go.
The game against Virginia was one that I will take with me for the rest of my life. It was played on the showcase field which increased our viewership to probably more people than have ever watched us play any game in our history. It was neat for me to hear Robyn announcing the game and saying each of our names every time we made a play or pulled the disc. It was definitely not something that you experience in most ultimate games. Virginia had been one of our favorite opponents from Centex, and we were more than a little excited to play them. The only let down of this game was that we forgot to play "Meet Virginia" on Boomy for them. Both teams traded many of the points but Woman Scorned took the game after a long, hot, hard fought battle with Hydra.
After the game, Kevin brought us the news that Tufts has upset Cal to take the pool win and we would be facing a pre-quarters game. Desperate to find shade and water, the team seeked shelter in various tents waiting for games to play out and determine our opponents. Ohio State was determined as our PQ match up and the game was set to be played on the same field that we played Iowa in PQs last year.
As the game started, it was clear that both teams were tired. Ohio State started by converting way better than we did and they went up something like 5-1 on us. Somewhere around the middle of the game, a big storm blew in and the wind picked up in a strong diagonal direction. In theory, this should have been the end of the game for us, being down by 4 points or so and having a stiff up/down wind advantage to the offensive team, however we were not done fighting. If there is one thing the North Central trains you well for, it's playing ultimate in any kind of weather. Scorned scored multiple upwind breaks but remained down one break going into soft cap. As the game came down to the time cap, Fever took a time out. Kevin explained that we had roughly 90 seconds to score down wind before cap went on and the game would end. We made the conversion in less than a minute, allowing us to have one last shot upwind to tie the game in hard cap and go on to universe point with wind advantage. The disc was pulled, a D was achieved, but Fever was not ready to lose their chance either and a turn over resulted in their final down wind conversion and a ticket to quarterfinals for them.
Sunday was a new day for us. With all pressure gone, we came out to play our game. Despite the alteration in our goals, ninals seemed like a worthy accomplishment and we took our game against UBC ready to rage. I don't remember much about this game, except that Mag hurt her ankle really bad, they wouldn't trade jerseys with us, so many of our younger players stepped up big, and we won the game.
The ninals game put us up against Cal again. The game was just straight up fun. Cal is a great team, with many great players, and awesome spirit. We ended our season last year in this game but versus Washington and had a similarly spirited game. This year, we contended much better. Both teams traded points for much of the game, but in the end Cal took the win by only a couple points.
Scorned finished tenth in the nation for a second year in a row, but more importantly, we played with heart and spirit through the entire tournament. Never once did we give up on a game, and not once did we let our heads hang and surrender. I don't think many people would say that we played to the potential we had, but we did fight through the frustrating times and played with heart in every game and that means more than a win any day. Before nationals we had to write a blurb about our team for the handouts. In this we stated:
"Throughout our history we have maintained these core beliefs:
1: Having fun is the most important thing. Winning does not
dictate fun. If we play the game right and give all we have, ultimate is fun
whether we win or lose.
2: We want to be the team that every team wants to play. We
compete our hardest against every opponent but never at the sacrifice of
spirit.
3: Commit to each other as one cohesive team. Hold yourself
and your teammates accountable, and value each other for everything each person
contributes."
I believe that we stayed true to these core beliefs and that is something I am proud of. There is no other team that I wish I would have played for, no matter what placement they achieved. I think we proved many things to ourselves and about our program this season, and despite ending our last tournament lower than we had hoped, we still had the opportunity to compete for 3 more weeks than many teams and at the highest level possible in college ultimate. I have no doubt in my mind that this season will drive the future of our program and this tournament will fuel the hearts of the 2013 Woman Scorned team.
We would like to say thank you to so many people for what they have given to us this season. We can not name all of the people who have stood behind us and put their faith in us to drive our spirits through the season. Thank you to all of the people who donated their time, money, houses, and other resources to our journey.
Thank you to our coaches, Kevin and Lana, for all of the time running practices, coaching tournaments, thinking about the team, and being the best role models and leaders for each of us in both ultimate and life. We can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you both, and we could not have accomplished even half of this without you.
Lastly, I would like to say thank you to my teammates for everything they have given me the past 5 years. I could not be more blessed to have had so many friends willing to give their all with me, push me to do my best, and stand together no matter what happened on and off the field. It has been the most amazing ride I could have ever imagined.
Lindsey Gapstur #2
Great post. I dribbled in my pants a little over that photo of everyone on the line...it's intense. Needs to be a poster on every WS players wall, old and new.
ReplyDelete