Nationals 2012 recap

This year we went into Nationals seeded last - that's okay!There's no where to go from there but up, right? It was unfortunate that we were missing 3 players - #79 Jahleel (Jello) Bonaobra, #1 Leigh Stewart, and #19 Sarah Innes - as it would have been a great experience for them to develop for next year's tournaments. Our entry pool went something like this: D1 California (Pie Queens) D2 Virginia (Hydra) D3 Iowa State (Women Scorned) D4 Tufts (EWO) D5 Ottawa Gee Gees (us) We had played 3/4 of these teams before, and were excited for the opportunity to rematch. Based on the chatter that was floating around blogs and whatnot, not a lot of people were expecting 20th seed Ottawa to give them much of a game, likely. On day 1 we played Iowa State, and California. We took both teams to high scores, with teams on either side making great plays. The games were long, and went to time cap. Ottawa ended up losing to Iowa State in a close, close game of 14-13 over Ottawa, with the Gee Gees being on defense and Women Scorned taking the last point. Similarly, in the California game Ottawa started up at the beginning. With a lull around half time, the Pie Queens started to come back. Pie Queens for the time-cap win of 14-11 over Ottawa, taking the last three points. On Day 2 Ottawa played against familiar team Tufts EWO in the morning. Tufts had some players who had returned from injury, but so did we. With a slow start from the Gee Gees, Tufts pulled away after half, taking the game 15-9. Props to Tufts who continued this winning streak and took Washington to a close game in the women's semi-finals. Day 2 game 2 against Virginia Hydra was not much better. The Gee Gees were not able to match up with the defenses that Hydra threw at us, and Virginia took an early lead in the game, with Ottawa not catching up in the way that we wanted to. Final score Virginia over Ottawa 15-6. These loses in pool play dropped us to the 13-20 bracket for Day 3. This was not somewhere that we had anticipated being as a team leading up to the tournament - our goal had been to make quarter finals - and for a lot of team members it was frustrating to have 4 early pool play loses. Day 3 gave us an early game against Wisconsin Bella Donna. In our two match ups against Bella Donna earlier in the year, both had been Ottawa losses (15-5 in Nashville, and 11-8 at Keystone Classic). This game, the Gee Gees played as a team, and there was a determination and heart that had been lacking the last couple of days. We didn't pull out the win, but this was the first game of the tournament where coach Ken told us that we "played as a unit" and that made him proud. Final score was hard-capped at 11-10. This loss meant that we played for the 17T/19T spot. We played against Humboldt State, a team that had come out of the woodwork this year, and made some huge upsets in their region (taking 2nd place in the Southwest behind California). Keeping with the trend, the Gee Gees ended up losing in a close game of 15-13, leaving us tied for 19th place at the end of the tournament. Well, we did go up from 20th seed. A 19th place tie isn't much better, but we took most teams to tight games. While some teams may misjudge us, saying that the Metro-East region is weaker, maybe... but maybe not: while the Gee Gees lost all games, we proved that we're a team to be afraid of, and not to underestimate - that we could roll with teams who were seeded 4th, 6th, 8th, etc overall in the tournament and make them fear for their seed. All this being said, the tournament was a great experience for everyone who

was able to attend. The opportunity to play against teams from other regions, play offense against various types of zones, and see the capabilities and strategies from other teams is unmatched. We're excited for "the show" again next year, as that is and continues to be our goal.