This past weekend, February 25th and 26th, the Lady Tritons flew to UC Davis for the annual Far Westerns Ranking Tournament. Starting off as the number 1 seeded team of the tournament, UC San Diego knew that all the other 24 teams were out to beat them in order to get a bid for Nationals, making this an everyone vs. UC San Diego type of weekend. The weekend started off great with morning pool victories against Cal, San Jose State, and Boise. Surprisingly UC San Diego won all three matches in 2, which by our track record that’s actually a miracle (we really do love third games). These victories allowed us to keep our number 1 seed in the tournament.
Day 2, the Lady Triton’s played much tougher opponents and started off the day competing against Cal Poly SLO’s B team. After stunning defense by Emma “Chubs“ Choi and amazing kills by Sarah “Giraffic Jam” Reinhardt, Amanda “Tiny Neck” Dieterle, and Bri “Gobble Gobble” Inghilterra, the ladies obtained a victory in 2 sets. After 2 hours of waiting the Lady Tritons played against a new opponent: Santa Clara. Even after some amazing defensive plays, serves by Julia “Ace them” House, and kills by Gabbi “Klutzy” Heitmann throughout the match, the Triton ladies unfortunately fell to the resilient Santa Clara. Even with that loss, UC San Diego made it to the gold bracket playoffs.
The first round of playoffs the Triton Ladies played against one of their toughest opponents yet….. UCLA. Points for both sets were tight and the battle was very close but sadly the Tritons fell slightly short to the Bruins. Highlights of the match were Sydney “Crazy- eyes” Riegert slamming down the line kill after kill, Alicia “zdt zdt“ Chen killing it at the net (literally no one could stop her mighty swings), Hannah “The Rock“ Hartin making plays and kills from off system plays, and Rachel “Swiggity Setter“ Robinson making an amazing play with a solo block that surprised everyone (yes, including herself). Although not satisfied with the weekend, this tournament showed that the Lady Tritons are on the path to greatness. And just like Phil “Philip” Brault told us (Mind these are not his exact words): We are working towards being the best in April (Nationals) and every match until then is a valuable learning experience.
We’d like to give a special thank you to the Keller family: Cheryl, Kris, and Melissa (Lady Triton, Class of 2015) for spoiling and taking care of all of us this weekend. They opened their home, fed us, and re-energized our spirits so that we were motivated to work hard for this tournament and now for the rest of our season. Another special thanks goes out to their lovely dog Charlie Fish who was the cutest, most lovable sock-stealing alarm clock and Therapy Fluffy we could ask for! We love you Keller Family!
