Our First NESCAC Weekend

This past weekend, we headed to Middlebury and Williams for our first NESCAC games of the season. For the freshmen, this was an entirely new experience for a good majority of the team. We left Friday morning at 8:30 to avoid the impending snowstorm. Settled comfortably on the bus, I awoke to Coach McBride telling us we were free to go shopping before lunch in Lebanon, New Hampshire, which is always good news! We all walked around for a while, buying everything from fudge to sunglasses shaped as palm trees (good choice Mary Cummings). After a delicious lunch at Chili’s, we got back on the bus and finished our trip to Middlebury.

Our first NESCAC game of the season was an exciting one and although we ended up losing by only two points, I really feel like we worked together and put everything we had into the game. It was a back-and-forth battle and something that will definitely make us better in the long run. We had dinner on the bus on our way to our hotel, a 90 minute ride south on the way to Williams, our opponent the following day. Although Julianne Kowalski described this hotel as coming from the movie “Psycho,” it was very quant and really fit into the scenery. The next morning, we woke up and went over game film and the scouting report for Williams. After an awesome breakfast, we went shopping again at the Manchester outlets to kill some time before heading to Williamstown.

We had another tough loss against Williams, falling behind early and never really being able to make up the difference. Although the losses this weekend were really frustrating, I think we experienced what a typical NESCAC weekend is like and how we need to be both mentally and physically prepared for each game. To sooth us a bit on the ride home, we feasted on food provided by parents. Mary’s dad brought us a cheese plate, shrimp, and chips and salsa and Karlyn (like always) had an abundance of fruit. On the ride home some people did school work, while others listened to music or talked to each other. Despite the losses, everyone seemed to be in a decent mood and more in tune with what we need to do moving forward to be competitive in the NESCAC.

This trip was especially exciting because Coach Sid succeeded in consuming over 30 shrimp. Heather “Boo” Pratt also explained the phenomenon of the “bathroom dance” from her elementary school (make sure to ask her about this; I think Coach Sid was crying from laughing so hard as she told this story). We arrived back at school around 10:30, a bit tired, but ready for the night ahead!