Jan. 12, 2010

Last time we spoke I was telling you about how we beat Penn to bring in the New Year. Unfortunately, just two days later (Tues, Jan 5) we lost to Princeton in Tom Gola Arena. They played smarter than us which is not shocking since they do attend Princeton. And yes, they ended up scoring more points than us, just like they did on their SATs.  

The game was at noon and it was actually a part of our annual Elementary School Day which pushed our women's basketball new attendance record to 1,762 people! That beat our previous record of 1,476 in 1998. I think my looks had something to do with the increase in attendance to be quite honest. HaHa.

Anyways, the game was pretty crazy. As you can imagine, nothing is more enjoyable than listening to 1,700 screaming children. 

As for the game itself, it was stressful for us, and we knew going into the game that Princeton was a team we cannot make bad decisions against. We started off the game losing 20-2. We were surprisingly able to come back towards the end of the first half and bring the score to 25-28, Princeton up. That is the closest we would catch up to them however, and they ended up winning 68-47. Every loss is a learning experience. It was time for us to start focusing on A-10 play.

We had Wednesday off and Thursday we were back in the gym preparing for Richmond. While the team practiced, I picked up the slack of our DOBO, (Director of Basketball Operations) John. John is picked on by the team all the time, but he is a great sport about it. We all have fun joking around with him, and we all like to say that he rarely ever does anything, although he does do a lot for us! As a Student Assistant Coach now, however, I help out with his jobs. It is alright with me because I always gain new office work experience in this position, and I could not have been more thrilled with what I was about to learn how to do next.

Anyways, Friday we had practice before leaving for our exciting 5 hour bus ride to Richmond. John and I left practice early to gather some treats for the team. I must say I picked out some really delicious foods for us. Chrissie Doogan, our Associate Head Coach, is pregnant with her third child on the way so she told me to get lots of wonderful snacks. Then we were on our way.

When we got there we had 30 minutes before we left for dinner so I worked out. We ate dinner and went to bed early to get our beauty rest for the next day's game. We had shoot around in the morning then had pregame meal which ended up being a huge inconvenience for the entire team as well as the hotel staff. There was a misunderstanding so they had to cook up some more food for us as quickly as possible. We made sure we all had a filling breakfast before we got ready and left for the game.

The game was really suspenseful and close until the end of the second half. Jamie Walsh (#24) hit her third 3 point basket of the game with just over 8 minutes remaining. Jamie is the schools new all-time leader in 3 pointers surpassing Meg Wilkinson (2001-2005) with 176 3 pointers!!! Congrats toots! We all call each other toot or toots thanks to Jamie, her family, and Sydney, her dog...It is a long story...maybe next time.

Anyways, the game was so close, but we just could not pull the upset we were looking to. The final score was 65-52 and as if that is not depressing enough, we had a five hour bus trip home ahead of us. We always end up having a good time on the bus trips although we complain before we board! We watched some movies and played never have I ever which always spices things up a bit. Usually we like to make prank phone call our friends, but it just did not happen this trip. Possibly the next one!

We leave for Charlotte on Tuesday (Jan 12) to play on Wednesday! Hopefully we can pull an upset against Charlotte this year! Last year was an intense game that we ended up losing in overtime. This year we hope to get a win at Charlotte.

Until next time, Keep Truckin'!