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Hello and thanks for clicking on my blog! My name is Ginger Miles and as Virginia’s women’s lacrosse volunteer assistant coach – and former goalkeeper – I’ve decided to give anyone who’s interested a behind the scenes look at life on the road with our women’s lacrosse team. We’re certainly a fun bunch and I’ll be posting weekly with the inside scoop. Thanks for reading!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Hello UVa lacrosse fans! This weekend the team made the trip all the way to Boston, Mass., for two showdowns with ACC rival Boston College and Harvard. The beautiful city of Boston is probably most well known for its rabid sports fans. Everywhere we went, folks were talking about opening day for the Red Sox or how well the Bruins were doing this year. Boston fans know all there is to know about Beantown sports.
For this blog, lets recap the weekend with a little Q&A to see how well you know your UVa women’s lacrosse team and staff by attempting to answer the questions below!
Question: Who, after repeated reminders to remember identification, arrived at Dulles airport bright an early at 9 a.m. and realized she had forgotten her wallet in her car back in Charlottesville?
Answer: Brittany Kalkstein. After forgetting her wallet and having a near panic attack, Britt was able to make her way through security and check in with surprising ease. With a little explanation of the situation, and the large group, security was pretty understanding and let her through.
Question: With our plane boarding and half the team stuck in security it was a mad scramble to make our flight. In the madness, who left their laptop and cell phone on the “people mover” from the terminal to the main gate?
Answer: Colleen Shearer. Just as the door to plane closed shut, Colleen realized her laptop was still on the “people mover.” After begging to be let off the plane with no luck, Colleen spent a large portion of the trip on the phone with airport security, TSA, United Airlines and Alltel. (Sunday we were happily informed that the laptop was rescued by a heads up employee who held it for us to pick up on our way home. Yay!)
Question: Which UVa lacrosse player was excited to return back to Boston, which she called home for two years as a player at Boston University.
Answer: Jenny Hauser. She was America East Player of the Year and All-American while at BU and happily pointed out all of her old haunts as we drove through the city.
Question: Who arrived at practice on Friday only to realize that they had forgotten important articles of equipment for the weekend?
Answer: BOTH Lauren Benner and Sarah Hairfield. Hairy forgot to bring cleats/sneakers/athletic shoes and Benner forgot her goalie gloves. After doing a little switcheroo and borrowing at practice, we were able to get by without the items, thankfully. With a thunderstorm rolling in, though, practice only lasted 30 minutes before lightning was spotted and we had to call it quits. More time to get ready for dinner!
Question: Who sampled as many meals as possible at Friday night’s dinner in the city?
Answer: ME! (Ginger) As a self-described “foodie”, I was happily surprised at the small, family owned home style Italian restaurant Colleen discovered that had impeccable service and a menu that left me overwhelmed with delicious options. Naturally, I had to taste them all.
Question: Walking back to the bus after dinner, which player caused a large commotion after seeing a rat on the Boston city streets?
Answer: Bailey Fogarty. There actually wasn’t a rat, but it was a well-executed prank that sent players running and screaming (and laughing hysterically). Good one, Fogs!
Question: Which player got shafted into a threesome and had to sleep on the pullout couch in the suite at the hotel?
Answer: Annie Taylor. Stinks to be a first-year. Ashley McCulloch and Caity Whiteley pulled rank and Annie slept on the pullout. It actually may have been the better option, however, as all the rooms were equipped with tiny twin beds.
Question: Who ate the most cinnamon rolls at breakfast both days?
Answer: Julie Myers with a whopping three each morning. They were really good cinnamon rolls.
Question: Who won the most draw controls against BC to help us gain the extra possessions we needed to win the game down the stretch?
Answer: Brittany Kalkstein. Boy am I glad she charmed her way onto that plane!
Question: Which coach wore a flower headband to dinner Saturday night after the big win against BC?
Answer: Heather Dow. Surprised you there, didn’t I? Actually Kaitlin Duff was initially wearing the headband, but with a little prodding, HD was convinced to wear it into dinner. I think she pulled it off.
Question: Who ate the most food at dinner HANDS DOWN?
Answer: Renee our videographer for the weekend. At the Cheesecake Factory Saturday night, she ate a massive portion of orange chicken and rice, a full side of fries and almost an entire slice of cheesecake all by herself. For those of you that don’t know, Renee probably weighs 90lbs soaking wet. Impressive.
Question: After dinner the girls were free to roam the mall until pick up time. Who made the most purchases?
Answer: Tie between Jenny Hauser and Jen Holden. Both loaded the bus with arms full and grins from ear to ear.
Question: Which player is notorious for always arriving at athletic trainer Blair Putnam’s room before anyone else to get treatment on game day?
Answer: Ainsley Baker. Ains says she likes to “get in and get out” as Blair’s room, aka the Training Room, is a busy place after breakfast on game day.
Question: Who got their first start against Harvard on Sunday?
Answer: Sara Hairfield. Hairy, despite having to borrow cleats, stepped up in her first start posting 11 saves in the win.
Question: Who had more than 15 fans at the game on Sunday?
Answer: Whitaker Hagerman. The Boston native brought out all the troops on Sunday to cheer us on to victory. We counted at least 15 in the Hagerman clan, as it was quite an impressive showing.
**CORRECTION: Although Whit had a large showing, the Weymouth clan brought at least 26 family members and at least 75 fans in support of Blair and the Hoos throughout the weekend! I knew there were a lot of Weymouths but holy smokes! As Blair said “Weymouths were EVERYWHERE!”
Question: Who scored the most goals on the weekend?
Answer: Our other New England native, Blair Weymouth, chalked six goals and one assist in the two games. She had quite a fan base as well, but I didn’t have the chance to count them all.
Question: Which player used her scrappy play to garner a career-high seven caused turnovers on Sunday vs. Harvard?
Answer: Kaitlin Duff. Informally known on our team as a pesky gnat on the field, Duff wreaked havoc on defense and in the midfield Sunday moving her up to sixth all-time in Virginia’s career caused turnovers records. She also had four goals on the day. Atta girl Duff!
Question: Who was able to read an entire book over the weekend?
Answer: Katie Shannon. KS put down the nursing books this weekend to jump into the vampire craze them team is on right now. I’m not sure what the fuss is about “Twilight” but I’m about to go out and buy it myself if I see one more person reading it.
Question: We gave ourselves a little more wiggle room at the airport this time to avoid the mad dash at the gate that we managed to pull of Friday morning. With more free time, which player beat Kelsey Myers (Julie’s eight year old daughter who accompanied us this weekend) in a rousing game of “Go Fish” at the airport?
Answer: Brittany Kalkstein. Luckily her mom brought her passport to the games so she was able to get through security with ease this time.
After a long bus ride from Dulles, we finally made it back to Charlottesville around 11:45 Sunday night. Pretty late for a school night, but just another day in the life of a Division I athlete. So how well did you do???
We’ve got two more regular season games and a full week to prepare for the next matchup against George Mason on Tuesday, April 14th. Although there are no games this week, tune in for another installment next Monday as I break down some of the inside lingo of Virginia lacrosse.
Go Hoos!
Ginger