The week before Regionals, SOL had no idea what was going on thanks to the fact that the fields in Appleton pulled out and suddenly we were without a location to play on. A shout-out goes off to our fearless Regional Coordinator
Mikey Lun for pulling off a very successful tournament weekend.
And now down to business...
"For the first time in years, SOL walked away from Regionals without tears or any disappointments whatsoever. That is huge coming from this team. Every single SOLmate played to the best of their ability and left it all on the field. I could never be more proud of this team. We may not have made it to Nationals this year folks, but just you wait. SOL has the potential to become a powerhouse team in the next few years. As a primarily freshman/sophomore building team this year SOL saw just a glimpse of that potential. I cannot wait to follow SOL's journey next year." - Kathleen Nottingham
Regionals Day 1:
The wind was king this day at
Blackhawk fields in Madison, WI. During warmups our dear Princess Estelle was defeated by a deadly flying disc and had to make a quick visit to the dentist. Her royal highness returned ready to play but not without showing off her beautiful
new clean tooth! (love you Estie)
Eau Claire SOL v.
Luther Freya
For the first game of Regionals, it was windier than ever. This game mainly consisted of Luther and SOL trading downwind points all day every day. This pattern continued until hard cap went off and Luther was ahead in the end. Both teams played well, but I'd say SOL worked the disc more. We came so close to scoring upwind but weren't able to pull it off in time. Luther's Freya won this time.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Minnesota Ninja
The windy conditions continued as SOL played our next game against the Minnesota Ninja women. A very similar pattern of trading points happened yet again with that darn Megan Nimmo chucking it downfield, making SOL work the disc back up repeatedly :P The Ninja's had a really good team this year, especially with Christie Dosch coaching them. They've improved quite a bit and SOL had fun playing against them. SOL came out on top for this game with a score of 9-8 over Ninja.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Iowa State Women Scorned
SOL and Scorned have a friendship that knows no ends. We love us some Women Scorned. This game was again very influenced by the wind. Scorned had a strong handler line and was able to work very well upwind. Luckily our zone defense was able to keep them at bay. In the end hard cap went on and Scorned came out on top. SOL finished the game with an awesome upwind score so we still felt like champions in the end. B.Gart also decided to debut her rapper self to give Scorned a nice little cheer.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Wisconsin Bella Donna Crossover Game
Bella was out for blood this game since their defeat at Conference a few weeks ago. They dominated the game and pulled ahead faster than SOL was able to keep up in scoring. In the end Bella got away with the game, but SOL was already thinking about the next day and how we could play to the best of our ability.
SOL arrived back at Mamma Bray's house for a delicious meal of the most amazing lasagna we've ever tasted. At least that's what Samara, our official Lasagna Connoisseur said. Our delicious meal was soon followed by a secret SOLmate exchange and our traditional Saturday regional bonding activity. We headed for bed but not soon after listening to Brit get her pre-sleep munchies on, listening to Browndog's strange breathing sounds, and making sure Princess had a snore-free place to sleep.
Regionals Day 2:
The sun came out this second day of Regionals. No tooths were knocked out and SOL knew we were going to have a blast.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Luther Freya
Our first game was once again against Freya. But this time, with different fields and a crosswind, SOL was able to play our game and come out with a win. We were able to maintain control up to and after half. SOL maintained control of the game and won! We also discovered that getting that disc upwind was indeed possible and capitalized on that.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Iowa State Women Scorned
SOL went into this game knowing we had to win again in order to play in the backdoor game to go to natties. Scorned came out and definitely earned a win against us. Their team is really strong this year and we had fun playing each other as the underdog victors of our conferences.
Eau Claire SOL v.
Minnesota Ninja
SOL and Ninja played a shorter game so we could watch the backdoor game of Scorned v. Bella. We had more fun than ever playing these ladies again and dominated the game with Emily calling out scoring lines like no one had seen before. That darn Megan Nimmo really likes to chuck that disc. So we had to figure out ways to shut her down and keep the disc near the Ninja end zone. In the end SOL came out with a win for 5th place overall. We gathered together in happiness and extreme satisfaction with our performance over the weekend.
We then proceeded to watch Iowa State defeat the Bella Donna's for the 3rd bid to Natties. Extreme celebration was had.
When everything was done, SOL drove over to our
favorite chinese buffet. I smiled to myself because that is where I ate my first and now last post-tournament meal with SOL. It was a good finish to my years with SOL. We learned quite a few things about our team during this meal. Schneids is deathly afraid of the sound of chopsticks rubbing together. Brit demonstrated the sound of chopsticks banging against everything everywhere. A family of walrus took over half our table. Schmal thinks that
baby squid taste like chicken. And Mitchy looks hilarious with these.
The weekend could not have been more complete without Kathleen
mooning someone on the road. We all drove safely back to Eau Claire after probably the best weekend SOL ever had together.
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| SOL Regionals 2011 |
