Here's a recap springtime for the Lady Gnomes...
We kicked off our season with Knox's indoor tournament, Winter Whiteout. Because we've got a lot of girls, and were only able to get one bid to Knox, half of our women played with Western. The Gnomes lost in the semis and so did Western(?). It proved to be a fun tournament, as always, and a great way to kick off the semester.
High Tide
This year we took a men's and a women's team to High Tide, in Brunswick, GA. The Women's team went 2-1 in pool play, breaking seed, 1-2 on the second day, losing to Yale and William and Mary, and 3-0 on the 3rd day, winning the B-bracket. Over all we played well and had a great time.
Ok...now for what this blog is REALLY about...Chicago Invite.
We were placed in a power pool for the tournament. I think initially we were a little intimidated. Overall on Saturday we ended up playing 3 teams that qualified for Nattys last year, which is a tough schedule for a team that's never even been to regionals to go into.
Valpo
Despite the snow at 9am on Saturday we played a spirited, competitive game against Valpo. Valpo throws a pretty tight zone that we had to work against in the wind. I didn't keep any stats this weekend, but if I remember correctly, Valpo had 3 upwinders to our 1. We lost 12-8...and all of the sudden realized that we still had 3 more games in EASILY the worst weather I've ever played in.
Wisconsin
One of the girls on Wisconsin had the most beautiful upwind pulls I've ever seen. While I was trying to just rely on rolling the disc to gain yards, this chick could pull it remarkably close to our endzone, sailing through the air and landing flat. I had plenty of opportunities to gawk at her pulls because we lost 13-1. Frustrating...yes, however, Wisconsin is a very solid team and losing to a team that proves they deserve the win isn't the worst thing in the world.
SLU
The wind picked up a little for this game. Thankfully, we won the pull. No upwinders were scored...one of THOSE games. We did manage to snag two callahans (Yay Colleen and Brooke!!!!). Winning against SLU ranked us 3rd in our power pool, so for our crossover we had to play Illinois. We had about an 1 1/2 hours to warm up before the game, but it didn't seem to make much difference. It was still cold, there were still snow flurries, and this time the fields were transformed into what I would consider most comparable to a mud wrestling pit. We lost 7-6, and despite the elements, and managed to squeeze some fun out of the game.
That night I most definitely did not get all of the mud out of...me. I also discovered the giant blisters that had formed on my feet. I didn't know they were forming during the day because I couldn't feel my feet...and holy cow...these blisters are HUGE. It's my own fault though. I, the responsible captain, left my cleats at home and borrowed cleats from Tyler on our men's team. The cleats actually fit pretty well...at least I THOUGHT they did.
Saturday Night Colleen's mom fed us some pasta, sloppy joe's, garlic break, and lots of snacks. She also washed all of our clothes...because she is AWESOME. Props to Colleen and Catie's families for letting us crash at their houses. Hopefully their houses fared a little better than my car's light interior. I'm just glad I didn't wash the interior after High Tide...because it managed to get dirtier this time around.
Sunday morning I woke up all the girls at 6am to start getting ready for our 8am game. Everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion. Judging by the emails I received the night before I found no evidence of Sunday games being canceled, and since the weather was a lot better today I had to assume the tournament would go on. On the way to the games one of the ISU men called us and informed us that the tournament was canceled. I don't know the exact reason why, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that it was some combination of the the fields being torn up, cars getting stuck in the parking lot left and right, and teams dropping.
I'm not upset with the TD's or anyone who took part in planning the tournament. It was obvious that a lot of time and effort was put into throwing this tournament and it's just really unfortunate that that something as uncontrollable as the weather caused the tournament to get cut short. I really hope that this doesn't discourage the TD's from throwing Chicago Invite next year. I really think had the weather been a little more cooperative, this tournament would have been phenomenal.
Today we had our club photos through the university. FYI...our new uniforms look way hot.
Check out our rookies rocking them...
Ashley Betke...SKY
Prion...represent
