11/08/24 - National Tournament
This was a great tournament since we are now the back-to-back-to-back national champions! Our first game against Florida State was pretty easy since they were the last seed. There were no surprises in the game and the whole team got to play in this game. Surprisingly, our second game against the University of Virginia was the closest. They played with a lot of intensity and their shots were not missing, whereas we were missing most of our goal opportunities in the first half. The refs were also a problem, as they did not call the game how we are used to and somewhat favored Virginia. We played composed, however, and pulled ahead of Virginia after halftime and secured our spot in the semi-finals. This game was a wake-up call to us since we were not expecting such a close game so early. The semi-final game with Cal Poly went very smoothly as we started the game intensely due to our mistakes in the previous game. After the second quarter, we maintained a 4-5 point lead for the rest of the game, shutting down this offensive-sided team with our defense. For the championship game, we again won due to our defense. Cal Maritime focused mainly on offense and by shutting down their offense, we maintained a comfortable lead throughout the whole game.