Regionals 2KX

a. There are football players outside of my window talking about the meaning of life. Something about being thirsty and drinking champagne, and doing what he does and getting paper ... I don't know.
b. I'm hell of missing Chinese food.

This is legit what I ate every morning. GOD I miss it, and I miss China. Anyone wanna go back there and travel with me?
c. I have been hydrating so much I think I might pee my pants. Wait, did someone let Sarah write on my blog ... ?
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Welp, as you all know, it's Series time.
Got that NCAA-style Sweet 16 bracket all set up and it's time to go.

The matchup that we know for sure will happen is Michigan State. MSU was the first team we ever played against as a team, and that occurred at No Wisconsequences. We won that game, I don't really remember by how much, but we won it. Surprising, considering how many rookies we had. They had a lot of rookies too though, and if we have improved by so much since then, one can only imagine that they too have improved a lot. The name is this game, I think, is efficiency. We need to take good care of the disc and score. No point in drawing out points.

If we win the MSU game, we move on to play Notre Dame, who we played at Sectionals. We could have won that game, I think, but due to our planning and strategy, we decided early to pull out on that game and save up the big guns for UIC to ensure that we'd be playing at Regies. No pulling punches this time though. I'm kind of really excited for this matchup. Notre Dame was a physical team that really wasn't afraid to push it. It was competitive and a little fired up, and I am expecting more of the same out of them. Glad we're playing them early on too, because moreso than a team like Northwestern (who will beat you with their great break throws like they did to us at Centex), I feel like ND is a team that relies on hard, physical D and just running you around on O (they had a LOT of girls ... don't remember how many they said ordered a jersey, something ridiculous like 46). We'll have the confidence from winning the first game and the legs for it. I'm actually really excited about this game.

I can't predict any further than this, of course, so I won't. I'm pretty sure Michigan is going to find themselves in the championship game on the other side of the bracket. I think that Illinois St./Indiana game should be good. Based on their score from Sectionals (7-6 Indy) it should be an exciting first round game. I think it'll be Case/Michigan in the semis on the other side of the bracket, but with the kind of season Valpo's been having, one really can't ever say for sure with them. Who the shit knows, I think, is the way T-Bag would put it. (Been a while since you've seen that name here, hasn't it?) On our side of the bracket, I'd like to say Illinois/Northwestern.

So there's that.

It's gonna be a really interesting weekend for us as a team. We're really, really young, and only a handful of girls on the team have had experience playing at Regionals. I'm interested to see how the young bucks will respond. The key to our success this weekend is going to be simple: value the disc. It's never a surprise in any sport -- the team that commits fewer turnovers usually pulls out with the win. We need to quit monkeyin' around and do the damn thing! Our offense has been looking a lot better at practice, and even Sarah is catching on to things now! Hot dawg! From a team aspect, I'm amped. It should be fun. I'll be "tweeting" our scores periodically so holler, Menace Alum and Supporters.

As for myself, well, I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous. There are only a few days left until Regionals, but I still haven't been cleared to play, and I haven't practiced since before Sectionals. (PUT ME IN, COACH! I KNOW I'M BAD, BUT PUT ME IN! I SWEAR I WON'T LET YOU DOWN!) I guess that happens when you wake up in a pool of your own blood, but what can I do 'bout it?

(Thanks for rupturing my blood vessels, Valpo Girl. Got the D though, so uhhhhhhh.)

In any case, I hope I can step up to the challenge this weekend. This is probably the most nervous I've ever been for a tournament, so I got a lot of stuff I need to work out mentally and internally before the disc is in the air on Saturday. Seriously amped.

Got a little something personal coming tomorrow. Give me some time to get my thoughts together. But for now:

Work hard, dream big.