Ballaas Games 9 (Tues.), 10-11 (Sat.)

Hot. Hot. Hot. Tally weather.

Well, the good news is that we won on Tuesday to play in the semi-finals, which was yesterday (Sat. 8/4). The bad news is we played against no. 1 seed first at 5:00 p.m. The sun beating hard that day and 5 less players, including one of our best ladies missing. Just warm-up alone was enough to make us drench in sweat. We had an advantage because it was red's 2nd game to play. But their advantages were, besides experience and young lads, that we had less players and they were already in game mode. They pretty much killed us with zone defense, shutting down our handlers. We had a rough game ending at 15-6. I think. Everyone made mistakes and it got intense among the teammates. However, we had one more game to play to compete for third place.

Uggggh. We all didn't seem up to playing another game. But, we all decided to just play for fun. No pressure. Just have fun out there. When we all loosened up, everything clicked. More solid points, no turns, no drops. I even caught a few midfield and made complete continuations. Scored a couple points. Yay. It was a fun way to end the night. Maybe it was best for my sake, that we didn't have to play as No. 1 seed that day, which meant 3 games in a row, on one of the hottest days of Tally. Don't forget to factor in nasty humidity. My hips and joints were sore by the end of the first game. But it wasn't too bad playing a second one, especially when the clouds and a slight breeze started to "cool" the air. My fan club (sister-in-law, niece, nephew, and the hubby w/ the kiddos) cheering on the sidelines with their homemade signs was a kind reminder to have fun.

Thanks Esther & Lily for the signs!

One opponent talking some smack halfway through the game, revving our captain up to play for fun but to WIN. And we sure did. As old as I am, I often asked to cover the handler because they don't run hard cuts. I needed a break from cutting badly. There were a few times the handler could've called a foul on me for contact during throws, but she was gracious. I don't know why I have difficulty blocking lately. Maybe I'm not willing to risk as much as I used to.

Anyway, we won 15-9. We still made some mistakes, but we shook 'em off and laughed it off. We had fun. Captain Cheese even called the cup-o-saurus defense. Eh? We formed a 6 person cup around the handler and made dinosaur sounds. It didn't work, which I think he knew. They scored a point. Oh well it was fun. We ended on a positive note and no tension from the loss before. The team took a group pic for me and signed their autographs for my up-coming team frame.

I told them one of these guys/gals will be famous one day. I know it.

 Barksdales Ballaas 3rd Place Summer 2012. May I add that's out of 10 teams. ;)