Our goal heading into the weekend was to come away undefeated, and undefeated we were, in real style! We didn't lose a single game, and no one scored more than 17 points against us in any game all weekend! We were seeded first in the Silver Bracket, or 9th overall going in, and we felt like we could have been seeded higher, and put somewhere in the Gold Bracket. But we also felt like we hadn't come up with a key win since early in the season when we beat Conn and Trinity, and maybe this was a chance to prove ourselves? If not prove ourselves to "others," it provided an opportunity for us to gain some confidence, and prove to ourselves what kind of team we can be. We've played a very tough schedule, and have lost some very close matches, and really haven't had many easy wins, so we also felt like this could work out OK if we were able to get our game really clicking and have good success against all of these other teams. We wanted to put everything together this weekend to help prepare us for our last week where we'll face four Conference foes in the last four days of the regular season. I think we accomplished our goal of being sharp, and putting together consistent play throughout the weekend.
Whitney rejoined us in practice on Thursday night for the first time in several weeks, so that was fun!! She looked great, and you'd never know that she'd been out for that long--she didn't miss a beat! Team now totally intact, we headed down to Mt. Holyoke to win our Bracket, starting with Mt. Holyoke on Friday night! As the #1 seed, we guessed that Mt. Holyoke might not give us a great game, but I'm not sure we expected to wipe the slate clean without letting anyone even score in the high teens against us?! Everyone on our team played, and contributed in almost every match! That was FUN!! We looked sharp, and it was a great time in the season for EVERYONE to contribute. Going into the final stretch, it's important to know that everyone is ready to go, and we confirmed that this weekend!
To top it all off, Lindsay Patterson was named Silver Bracket MVP! Lindsay had a great weekend, both offensively and defensively! Not only that, she is the backbone of our team in so many ways, it was really nice to see her get publicly recognized for her efforts! Congrats Lindsay!
On another note, we had a few fun surprise visits down there! Well, one of them was a fun surprise for me, but not to Kate! The team went to the locker room when we arrived Friday night, and I walked into the gym, and sitting there alone in the gym as the basketball team finished sprints were Mr. and Mrs. and Amy Heath! Kate's parents, along with big sis Amy were there for the weekend to watch Kate for the last time in her college career. Amy is headed off to Germany for three months, and her parents won't be able to make it to any of our remaining games, so that was certainly a fun weekend for them to see. Also, we had a brief visit from Lauren's mom (of course--she watches more volleyball between all her girls then even me, I think?!); Elissa's parents (who may be our best fans?!); Ellen's parents were there for Saturday's games, and we had a surprise visit from Ellen Dickson ('08) who happened to be getting fit for her wedding gown literally across the street from the Athletic Complex. She apparently saw the bus pull in with VT plates, and ordered her mom to pull in behind it! Shrieks of joy were let out upon seeing them, and that was a fun start to our Saturday! Congrats to Ellen, who is due to be married to her long-time sweetheart Andy later this Fall!!
We didn't get home all that late, even though it was absolutely POURING RAIN. AND, we got our Pad Thai after all! What a treat. Only 5 of us ended up getting it, but others got the Mexican they were craving, and we even had some great "treats" from Kate's mom, and Ellen's mom: the HUGE cookie cake from Ellen, and Mrs. Heath's signature chocolate covered pretzels among some other goodies! (At least I think they're from the mom's. You never know--it was Ellen Dickson's DAD who used to bake all the goodies then!)
Needless to say, I think we boosted our confidence this weekend, and we should actually feel rested and ready to put it all out there for our last few matches! It should be a very exciting race to the finish line, as Williams, Bowdoin and MIDD are all searching for a higher seed in the tournament, and Bates and Colby are looking to try to scrape their way into the Tournament. That all adds up to some fierce competition, and some great matches! It doesn't get much better than this. As I've written before, our destiny is entirely in our own hands, which is exactly where we want it!
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