Iowa State’s Women Scorned won their conference and my team UW Eau Claire defeated annual champions the Bella Donna’s (Wisconsin) for our own conference win. Did anyone see these wins coming? Not really. But whether it was the elements (wind, rain, etc) or skill, these teams came away as conference champions. What will be the most interesting is how the central regionals will be seeded going in. All of the teams that won didn’t perform as well as Wisconsin, Carleton, or Iowa did during the regular season. Iowa State, and UWEC came out to win, and it definitely showed through the scores at the end of the day.
I am so proud of my team SOL. We were a completely different group of ladies this weekend than we were even at Centex (and that was our best tournament yet). Even with the insane windy conditions, we played with patience, offensive skill, and just plain damn good defense. We also kept up our funtensity, which is how SOL succeeds, every time. The first point of the day was about 40 minutes long against Milwaukee’s Black Cat. I was chosen to be on this first line and I’ll tell you it was a challenge but we came away with the point in the end. If it had gone differently, I feel that our team would have had a completely different day. But SOL fought so hard til the end that we came away with the score. It was the most amazing feeling in the world and we knew at that point that we could win. Our final game of the day was against Madison’s Bella Donna. I can’t remember the last time they hadn’t won this conference tournament. We knew it would be a challenge but we had won all of our games so far and we didn’t want to stop this amazing momentum we were in. We went on a 3 point run in the beginning and immediately I thought to myself “Holy shit, we could beat the Bellas today”. We fought point to point from that part of the game and worked it to half. After half, it was a battle to finish with a win right up until hard cap. SOL knew that if we kept scoring and held onto it, we could defeat this team. I was on my toes the entire time and had to pee so badly, but I couldn’t take myself away from this game. SOL has traditionally been beaten by the Bellas every year at sectionals/conference and for once we knew we could come away with a victory. Hard cap finally went on leaving the final score at 8-7 UWEC over UW. After lining up to shake hands with Madison, we freaked out. Our team had defeated the “undefeatable”. It was the best ending to what could have been the most horrible weekend ever. And SOL became conference champions for the first time in our existence.
I’m still thinking about it. Every single thing that was done in that game. Every ridiculously awesome play. Everyone, even our newbs, cheering on the sidelines. Our handles moving that disc so well and working the field like they were vets. Our zone defense was so sick. No one stood a chance against it. And our offense played so well on their toes ready for anything, getting that disc no matter what.
I can’t even express how much I love SOL right now. I honestly didn’t think we would do that well at sectionals gauging off our earlier performances. During the Bella game I was freaking out because I knew that we could do it. And it was the most amazing feeling when we finally won.
Our team ended the day by going to Culvers for some delicious burgers and ice cream.
I’d like to make a shout out to all my SOLmates out there, past and present. We couldn’t have done this without you. We are going to hit the ground running at Regionals. And who knows what could happen this year. With so much strength in the central region, we could get more bids than ever to nationals. That means more chances for our team to get there. And for all we know, SOL could go there for the first ever too. I have full faith in this team after this weekend. I don’t have anymore doubts. And yeah, we can keep improving and working on the mistakes we made this weekend. And that will make us so much better, and get us so much closer to victory.
I cannot even begin to explain the potential this team has for the next few years. Our newbs are playing like vets already and its SOO SICK. I can’t wait to see SOL playing in the future. I’ll be there on the sidelines with my fellow alumni, cheering for this team.
I love SOL.
Let’s fucking do it.
BANGARANG. RUFIO!!!