I am Surprising, I am surprising, I am SURPRISING! SOL plays Dodgeball

Anna Hettler got an e-mail from the UWEC Chapter of Amnesty International about a fundraiser to send some money to the war-torn region of Darfur in the Sudan. The charity event, “Dodgeball 4 Darfur” was pretty well attended, by guys.

Here is the story the Raccoon Assassins (SOL) taking them down on the guys.
As the only all female team in the dodgeball tournament, we had our work cut out for us. Between Brit Gartner, Heather Wroten, and Tracie Anderson’s sniping skills and me and Anna Hettler catching everything, we were feeling good. Sprinting to get the balls at the center line cost us the first game victory, as two of the Raccoon Assassins were eliminated as sacrificial lambs. We changed our strategy so that we pretended to bust off the line to get the balls, and stopped. Basically giving all the balls to our opponents. But it was okay, as that strategy proved to help us. We ended up pulling off a second game win against the mostly male team. In the best-of-three round, we ended up falling after a marathon game. In other words, we took on a somewhat shady team who liked to cheat (aka cross the center line by 5 feet with every throw, or refusing to go out even though they were clearly out), we took them to a third round game. We lose in overtime. Sad day.
We found more success in the losers bracket, beating Jumpstart, led by former SOLmate Lauren Novak. I can say it was weird to pelt her with dodgeballs after she was once our teammate just a few months ago. But, what must be done was done. We eliminated their team quite handedly in a 3-0 victory.
We lose the next round, despite Brit Gartner’s slide tackling maneuver at the mid-line, but end up winning the 10th place game. Heck yes. SOL can do other things.

I ended up picking up with Fenske’s Intravarsity team with former Eauzoner Chris Schasse after two of Fenske’s teammates had to leave. In the quarter finals, we ended up playing the team SOL lost to in the first round, which I re-named “Cheating for Charity.” The final game, the “Cheaters for Charity” team called a timeout, and subbed their two best MALE players for the remaining male/female pair who was on the court before the timeout was called. Talk about sexism. Our team ended up pulling out a narrow victory thanks to Justin Weber’s sick skills.
We faced the UWEC Dodgeball Club A-team in the semis. We lost by one in the first game. I single-handedly beat the Dodgeball Club A-team in the second game. It was all six of them vs. me after all of my teammates were eliminated. I proceeded to catch 6 throws in less than two minutes, getting all my teammates back in and eliminating all 6 of theirs. Speechless in my performance, my new teammates could not believe it. I was semi-recruited by the dodgeball club. Guess what I’m doing on Tuesday night? Playing dodgeball, obvi.

(Left to right. Top Row: Whitney Esson, Jess Haller, Melissa Brown, Heather Wroten, Anna Hettler, Robyn Fennig, Brit Gartner. Bottom Row: Tracie Anderson, Estelle Taquet)

The final game of the day was a showcase game of IV vs. SOL. Jess Haller took my place on her boyfriend’s team, since Fenske tore his ACL. There was an epic wrestling match for a ball to start it off, where I had to basically use Justin as a shield from getting pelted by his teammates. Brit outlasted everyone in the second game with her dolphin dives and nearly won the game single handedly.

What a great time.

I will leave you all with one of the best pictures of Eau2's captain HotCarl, who had one of the best costumes I have ever seen, winning second prize in a costume competition. Lookin' good Freddie Mercury.