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NCAA Spring Festival Blog: Day One
Women’s Tennis player Paola Cigui is blogging for www.csucougars.com about her experiences at the DII Spring Festival.
Sophomore Paola Cigui recaps day one of the CSU women’s tennis team’s trip to Louisville, KY, site of the NCAA Division II Spring Festival. Cigui, a native of Italy, is in her first season at Columbus State and is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation in singles.
Louisville Day 1: TRAVELLING AND OPEN CEREMONY
It’s Monday, 14th of May- the most important and exciting week is in front of us. This is in fact the week of the Division II National Championships! This year the event is taking place in Louisville, the 16th largest city in the United States and the largest in Kentucky. Located on the banks of the Ohio River, it seems the perfect place to host an event such as the National Championships festival, involving not just tennis, but also golf, lacrosse and softball.
It is 6.30 a.m., let the first day of our journey start! We started our trip in a taxi to the Atlanta airport, followed by two flights- one from Atlanta to Chicago and another from Chicago to Louisville, our final destination. After a long day of travelling, we finally settled in the Louisville Marriott Downtown. It is a very nice and big hotel located just one block from the Fourth Street Live, Louisville’s downtown entertainment center.
After a last minute arrival, we went to Churchill Downs, where all the athletes and coaches were invited for the opening ceremony. Located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Churchill Downs is a thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby. The atmosphere in the wonderful dining room in Churchill Downs was amazing. We ate a delicious dinner and listened to the speeches of the University of Louisville president and NCAA president Mark Emmert. Their words made us feel even more proud and excited to be involved in such an important event as the national championships festival.
After the videos with sport images that were projected for us athletes and coaches that are participating in the National Championships, I could not think about college tennis in general and the situation that we are playing in the last event of the season. The National Championships represent for us a reward, a gift, for all the work that we did during the season.
Especially in this part of our lives, tennis is part of all of us. We live for practices, long bus rides, countless pairs of tennis shoes, grips, broken strings, water, Gatorade, sprints and intervals. Blisters and soreness are part of all of us. We live for the way it feels when we beat the other team, when we are feeling proud of ourselves and our teammates. At the same time we live for the pain that occurs after a defeat because of only one ball finishing in the net. We live for the way we become a family with our team. We live for competition, pain, the adrenaline before an important match, the team spirit that has to come out from every single member of a team in order to be a successful one. We live for the energy that we create around our match courts.
Our personalities are respected in how we act within our team. In addition, where else can we find a better opportunity to show our qualities, if not in a National Championship? The Cougars are ready for an awesome week of matches!
Finally, the opening ceremony finished with a fireworks show and music. It was a great first day, certainly though because of the many displacements, but at the same time full of emotions and the unforgettable pictures! The Cougars are ready for a new day- the practice day.
Let’s go Cougars!
The Cougars defeated Lewis in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinal Round. Be sure to keep up with Paola Cigui and the rest of the Cougars Women’s Tennis team here.
Louisville Sluggers
On Saturday May 12 the Flagler Saints softball team did something that had never been done before–they defeated 3 -time defending Southeast Super Regional champs North Georgia to advance to their first ever Division II Softball World Series. One of the Saints senior leaders also happens to be the Peach Blog’s very own Lauren Ely, who has blogged for us throughout the year. Lauren will also be blogging about her trip to Louisville for the DII Championships Festival and Flagler’s shot at winning a National Championship. Here is Lauren’s first report from Louisville:
Lauren Ely
What a day!
We just got back from an amazing dinner at Churchill Downs for the opening ceremony of the 2012 National Championships Festival. The ceremony gave us a chance to explore the grounds where the infamous Kentucky Derby is held and relit the fire we felt on Saturday to continue winning.
This morning we left Georgia bright and early at 4 a.m. We flew out of Atlanta to Charlotte, from Charlotte to Cincinnati and drove on a bus in to Louisville before the opening ceremony.
Our team is excited and thankful to have the opportunity to compete for a national championship. After going through an end of the season slump and losing seven games in a row, we thought our season might come to an early end. We have talked several times about how we were truly given a second chance when we narrowly qualified as the last seed in the region rankings.
We slammed the door on our slump and have finally begun playing like the team we knew we could be all season. Our three-game series against North Georgia showed the heart our team possesses and that we have the ability to beat anyone, underdog or not.
Tomorrow we will get a chance to mingle more with the other student-athletes from golf, tennis and lacrosse, and we will have some time to practice and hopefully see more of the city. Goodnight!
Click here to follow all the action from the DII Championships Festival.
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NCAA DII Championships Festival
Division II is always looking for ways to stay on the cutting edge for its membership. One key initiative that exemplifies this mentality is the championship festival. This concept, started when the first ever DII Championships Festival was held in Pensacola, Florida in 2006, brings an Olympics-like environment by combining multiple DII National Championships at one host site.
There have been five previous Festivals, with the most recent iteration taking place in 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky. That Festival in particular was so well-received that Louisville, and host institution Bellarmine, were again selected to host this Spring’s event. More than 1000 student-athletes across six sports (men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, softball and women’s lacrosse) will compete for the right to be crowned as this year’s best.
The Peach Belt Conference has enjoyed another highly competitive Spring season, which has resulted in an amazing 8 out of 13 schools qualifying a team or individual for a National Championship:
- Men’s Golf – Georgia College, USC Aiken, UNC Pembroke and Georgia Southwestern (J.P. Griffin qualified as an individual)
- Women’s Golf – Armstrong and UNC Pembroke (Jenna Birch and Meghan Moore qualified as individuals)
- Men’s Tennis – Armstrong and Augusta State
- Women’s Tennis – Armstrong and Columbus State
- Softball – Flagler
The 2012 Championships Festival starts on Tuesday with the first round of Men’s Golf, and continues through Saturday. For more information on the Festival click here.
Best of luck to all our PBC teams, show the nation what this conference is all about!
Reality Sets In
The Lander Bearcats advanced to their first ever NCAA Elite Eight after downing Wingate in the Southeast Region Final. Unfortunately their season ended with a defeat to Rollins College. Senior Rachelle Rasley graciously volunteered to blog about the experience.
Rachelle Rasley
Rollins was a great team but we truly felt we were the better team. We had prepared as best we could but the ball just didn’t seem to bounce our way Tuesday night. Coach Pederson told us that it was disappointing that we couldn’t show everyone who doubted us what Lander was truly about. We played our hearts out but we all agreed we didn’t show the nation who we were and how we really played. We walked sulking to the locker room and we sat there in silence. I felt my heart sink. I looked around at all of my fellow teammates that I have had the privilege to play with over my last two years of college and the tears began to roll. I have never felt more part of a family than I have here at Lander. Each of these girls truly care about every player on this team.
My role in particular on this team was not the one who took the game winning shot or the one who set school records with points or steals. I was a vocal leader. I had an interesting perspective sitting the remainder of the season on the bench. With my background and view of the game I was able to help my teammates during games and was the one to pick them up during the roller coaster ride of runs during the games. I was always asked why I ran extra or got extra shots up if I didn’t really play. My response was that I have to perform at a high level to make the team better and push the starters. If they aren’t pushed in practice WE don’t get better as a TEAM. Yes there were times when I felt like giving up and not coming in to work out extra but I kept telling myself that win or lose, playing or sitting the bench, if my name was called, I would know deep inside that I had did everything in my power to make sure I was ready. That is something I want to reiterate to anyone out there reading this because as coach Pederson always says, “stay ready.”
My teammates always made me feel apart of the team no matter how much I played and emphasized that every puzzle piece to this team was needed for the ultimate goal of winning a championship. We never let anyone in our “wolf pack” lag behind. It was truly an honor to play for Lander University as well as Coach Pederson and Coach Shoemate. They have taught me lessons that I will carry for the rest of my life. I honestly feel like I became a much better person transferring to the good old city of Greenwood, SC.
After a valiant effort Lander was edged by Rollins 66-62 to end their postseason run. Click here for a recap of the game and here for video highlights.
