Chicago Invite

What's this? A tourney preview? Haven't seen one of these in a while, Sarah's Best Friend. I know, right? It'll be short, but a preview nonetheless, just as I promised.

Anyway. Feels like it's been forever since our last tournament. It's been over a month, in fact. I don't know if everyone else agrees with me, but I was definitely starting to get a little bit restless, being confined to the Armory and Irwin (I never have to be in those buildings ever again unless I want to be. Whoa). Well, I guess I also wasn't a big fan of the extreme asthma attacks I've been getting in those places lately either. The WORST.

But anyway, it's going to be unbelievable to be able to run around on GRASS again. I don't know if our shins and knees could take any more of the Armory. This weekend, Chicago Invite kicks off our "home stretch" of tournaments leading up to the Series. We've always treated this like a "home tournament", since a lot of us get to go home after months away, so it'll be doubly relieving to be playing in Thrillville.

That being said, we've got a nice little schedule on Saturday. We get to start off against UW-Milwaukee and Dayton, two teams I don't know anything about. I've never played against them or seen them play, but I'm thinking that if we keep our ridiculous errors to a minimum, we can win these games. In the last week at practice, we've been seeing our turnovers go down, and it's all because we're making better decisions. I think that especially with the weather we're going to be having this weekend, our decision-making will play a huge part in deciding our success or failure. We just can't turn the disc, especially on judgment errors.

Our third game of the day is against the top seed in our pool, Case Western. We played Case last year at Invite for the first time after hearing a good deal of hype about them. It was a really close, very competitive game, and I think we won by a point. I bet they're excited to play us again, and I know they're gonna be tough. I think they're basically returning all their ballers from last year, so they've got a number of super senior studs to keep us busy. I feel like this game is gonna be a fight. As long as we can get a few points up on the board early in the game, I think our confidence level should stay up there. Sometimes with a young team, a lack of confidence is a dealbreaker. I think we can hang with a lot of teams, but once everyone starts to hang their heads, we just mentally check out of games entirely, and that loses them for us. I think our key in this game will be to keep our offensive feet under us. That's something we've been struggling with a lot lately, and as long as we're efficient on offense, that gives us more legs for D, which is going to be really, really important in this game. Their handlers are active and have great throws, and I remember one or two of their cutters basically getting it every other. It's gonna be a battle, and I'm amped for it! It's going to be great to be able to play against Case Western before the Series, and it'll also be great for us as a team (going into the weekend with only one spring "win") if we can hang with a Regional contender.

As for the rest of the tournament, I think Bella's gonna win it all in their first year at Invite. I think we'll see another Bella/Bro Claire finals matchup, so pretty boring, but that's what I think. I find it interesting that Eau Claire is going in fourth, behind Case and Northwestern, but I think Sol will find their way to finals. In my opinion, Pool D's gonna be the toughest. North Park's good and athletic again, so their being third in their pool might be a bit misleading. Pool C is Northwestern's to lose, and I'm looking at Wisconsin-B to be the bracket buster here. We had quite a time playing against those girls last year, and I think they're gonna make some noise in that pool. Wisconsin isn't going to have a tough time, soooo ...

Should be a fun weekend. I'm looking forward to another great tournament run by the Johnsons (LOU MALNATI'S YESSSSSS), and my last college tournament (last tournament ever?) at the Polo Fields.

Game time, Illinois.