This weekend, the girls competed in the Club National Championship. It is a 3-day tournament with teams from all over the country. Eden’s team was playing way over their ahead against older competition. They went 0-4 but they held their own in most games. Elizabeth’s team dominated. They earned the #1 seed in the playoffs. They rolled through the 1st round, 16-2. Then played some stiff competition in Fort Hunt 2019 in the quarterfinals and won in dramatic fashion in overtime. Next, they beat Motion 2019 Purple in the semis to set up a matchup vs TLC 2020 Red.

We dominated most of the game, outshooting the other team 10-2 and had a 2-goal lead heading into the last 3:30 of the game. At that point, the wheels came off, or rather the referees whistles got busy. TLC ended up in the final minutes with 3 free position shots and a bunch of turnovers by the referees, and was able to take the lead with 30 seconds remaining. It was a dramatic comeback victory for TLC, but leaves me and the team feeling empty. I personally feel like the team was cheated, even 2 days later.

What is worse, my daughter feels like she failed. She was a finalist in the Club National Championship and should be very proud of that. But, she is having a hard time getting over the fact that they should have won the game and did not. Their tournament record for the summer was darn impressive, going 18-2 in 3 major tournaments, winning one of them and runner-up in the other two. They outscored their opponents 210-54 in those 3 tournaments. But the sting of the last loss will hang with me and them for a while.

Small solace, but after the game, John Harbaugh, who was watching, came over and talked with the team. He told them that they had big huge hearts. And he said some other stuff to comfort them. And then he told me that he likes what I’ve done with this team. It was good to hear the praise.

Elizabeth told me though, on the ride home, and again yesterday, that she is determined to come back and win this tournament next year. I am glad to know the drive that inside that little body. Love you Liz!