Breathing < Success (SOL=2K11 Conference Champions)

The weekend of Conference (previously known as Sectionals) had come. Sol did what we could with lower numbers at practice than you might hope for in the week leading up to a big tournament to prepare ourselves for the teams we would face in the Lake Superior Conference. With 7 teams attending (Madison, Milwaukee, Marquette, Stevens Point, Whitewater, Madison B and Eau Claire) and only 2 bids to Regionals there would be no room for mistakes this weekend. With the second seed entering the weekend, getting upset by one team could have led to Sol not qualifying for Regionals- an unthinkable idea for all.

After much chaos caused by Mother Nature herself and wandering around Appleton's Fox River Mall instead of playing games on Saturday, we were left with a one day format to be played Sunday. A big thanks must go to Robyn Fennig and Scott Sawinski for doing all they could to make Conference happen! With only one day to get things done instead of two our team knew we had to commit to executing each point and come out strong.

Our Sunday was to start against UW- Miwaukee Black Cats- a team we faced a few times in the fall and they definitely challenged us so we were expecting the same this time around! It was go time!! Our first point of the day was filled with a lot of zone from both teams and many punts in hopes of getting better field positioning. It lasted 40 minutes and may have been the hardest I have had to work as a deep-deep all year. Usually when points last long it is hard for the sidelines to stay in the game since they are not actually on the field, but it can be said with complete honesty that each player on our sideline was in that point till the second we scored. It felt awesome and made each players job much easier to have someone constantly talking to them. Sidelines have not been our strongest all year, but I think this single point helped each player realize HOW HUGE SIDELINES ARE IN ULTIMATE!! After that point was scored (and the time limit of the game was halfway up...) Sol was able to keep the flow going scoring 5 more before hard cap went on and the game ended with a final score of  6-0 Sol.

Our next two games of pool play were against Marquette Moxie and Stevens Point. After establishing a flow in the Milwaukee game we were able to carry that over into each of these. Our friends on Shockwave were able to sneak one in against us making that games final score 11-1 while the ladies of Marquette were able to put 2 up against us making that final score 10-2.

Winning our pool put us in a position to play the Bellas in the first place game- winner goes to Regionals and loser defends their 2nd place spot in the backdoor game. After playing 3 games leading up to this we were feeling really confident in our play. Our handlers were meshing better than I can remember for multiple games in a row, our cutters were always open when the handlers had a look through the cup and OUR SIDLEINES were still ballin outta control. Bella won the flip choosing to pull with Sol starting on offense. We were able to take the first point causing much excitement within our sidelines! Sol was then able to put in 2 more to go up 3-0 to start the game! It's always good to go up right away in every game, but even more important in games versus teams like the Bellas. It's a team who historically Sol rarely beats. We started to realize that placing first was possible and put our foot on the gas to keep rollin till half where the score was 8-4 Sol. With the Bellas fighting back and making the score 8-6 with hard cap on we knew we had won the game with one point left to play. Going to the line we were fired up and excited to have one more point to score again, but unluckily for us the Bellas were able to take the last point making the final score 8-7. Sol was able to hold on and win with a huge upset.

A smart man (by the name of Pat Niles, world champion) once told our team that "If the outcome of the game was determined by the name on your jersey no one would play Ultimate. There is always a team that is "better" and should win. You play Ultimate because there is always a chance your team can win." On that day we played a team that looking at the name on each teams jersey's we should not have beat. But on that same day we played them and it was our day to win facing much competition from the Bellas.

Great job this weekend Sol! Take the time to think about all the things we have done together to get our team where we are. We were not the same team as we were in the fall, at the Iowa scrimmage or even Midwest Throwdown. 10 days till Regionals 2k11. The biggest tournament of your life to this point. Don't let up now, breathing is overrated anyway.

SOLove <3