Monday, March 10, 2014

Oh how sweet it is..

As you all have known and heard, we are still dancin'!! This past week we traveled to York, PA which was about a 6.5 hour bus ride from good ole Berea, Ohio. The trip down wasn't too bad at all! We left on thursday morning, which caused us to have to miss classes thursday and friday; darn ;)  Many people had to take midterms and exams a day or two earlier and some even took them on the bus trip; this being a true testament to us being student-athletes!!

64 Teams
The first game against Lebanon Valley was a success. After a few "first-round"jitters, we got going and started to play like we are used to playing! After a solid defensive effort, we ended the 40 minutes of playing victorious with a final score of 66-48.After the game, and after everyone showered up, we stuck around to watch the first half of the York/LaRoche game to see who we would have to battle against on Saturday. After watching a few minutes, I knew we would have our hands full if York would win, and they did.

32 Teams
After shoot around in the morning, everyone was pretty excited to go out there and play. After all, we were the under dogs, the team that was suppose to lose, being 21-6 and playing at #10 York's home court, no one believed in us. But we did; and that's all that mattered on Saturday.
When the game started, we soon realized that the fouls weren't going how we "thought" they should be and we quickly had to gather ourselves and remind ourselves to be mentally tough. With just under 3 minutes to go, Larry went to the line to shoot foul shots and Aud and I stood back and just smiled... and realized if we did what we do for the last 2:55 of the game, we would be heading to the Sweet 16! With a crazy and scary ending to the game, and another solid team defensive performance (minus bow girl going off in the first half) we ended victorious with the final score of 67-52!

16 Teams
Facing the undefeated Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday is our next step. It's going to be a battle; we know that. Playing on their home court leaves us as the under dogs again and I couldn't be more excited that all of our dreams are coming true! 
I don't know what the future hold for this team; but what I do know, is that Baldwin Wallace is one of 16 teams left in the nation and no one on the outside believes that we can keep going...
That's what makes this journey all the more SWEET!

Never underestimate the heart of an underdog #RiseAbove

I hope that you all can tune in on Friday to watch/listen to us play and hopefully advance to the Elite 8! I want to thank everyone for their endless support throughout this entire season and I hope that we keep on putting on a good show for y'all!!

God Bless,

Shari Mangas #20 


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Look Everyone, We're Dancing!

After a heart breaking loss to Capital in the semifinals of the OAC playoffs, we all thought it was over.  We had a one in 50 chance to receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.  Monday, March 3, 2014, at precisely 2:30 in the afternoon, our team received the greatest news, we aren't done playing yet!  We received an at-large bid into the tournament along with three other OAC teams, which makes four teams from our conference going to the tournament.  The first round begins at five in York, Pennsylvania and we play Lebannon Valley.

We have felt what it is like to lose and think your season is over with.  We do not want to experience that feeling again anytime soon.  We have been given an amazing opportunity that we need to capitalize on this weekend.  This team has great potential and we all really enjoy playing with each other.  I cannot imagine another group of people I would love to experience this with.  We head to York, Pa Thursday morning and I cannot wait!

Here's to a long run in the tournament!

AWWWWW JACKETS!

Erin #14

The team rushing the court after our win, naming us OAC champs!