I would like to begin this post with the following premise: anything I write on this blog between now and the end of the summer, if not longer, is irrelevant compared to whatever the Phillies and Eagles do. One can easily argue that anything I ever write is irrelevant compared to those two teams, the Eagles in particular.
One can also argue, though I don't believe this at all, that fans of individual City Six schools don't care all that much about what the other city schools do. I happen to think that the best thing about the nature of this region's college sports teams is that their fan bases do all pay attention to the other teams to some extent.
Nonetheless, I'm ready to accept the notion that this post is about something that only a sliver of the people who read this blog care about, and I say that knowing that one of the things I really want to do with this blog is to write about stuff that doesn't get attention from the main media outlets in the region.
So you've probably figured out by now that the something in question is the Penn women's lacrosse team's 9-7 win over Maryland this afternoon that put the Quakers in the final four of the NCAA Tournament, which will take place at Franklin Field this coming Friday.
In the name of transparency, I will admit that lacrosse is a sport about which I know a few things, but not nearly as much as basketball and football. Nonetheless, I ask you to consider the following storylines, and I ask you do to so making the most honest effort you can to ignore the specific team involved:
-- The rather obvious one, that a Philadelphia college sports team is not only playing in the Final Four of its sport but is doing so on its home field.
-- The fact that said team beat arguably the most dominant team in the history of women's college lacrosse to get to the Final Four.
-- The fact that said team came back from a 4-0 deficit to go up 9-6, then gave up a goal with just over four minutes to play, prompting this writer to say out loud in the press box that he wondered whether we were about to see a classic Philadelphia sports collapse (to be polite), if we hadn't seen one already.
-- And finally, that the game-tying goal (at 5-5) and the subsequent goal (which gave Penn a lead it never relinquished) were scored not only by two of the team's top attackers, but by two Philadelphia-area natives.
If similar things had happened in basketball, or (heaven forbid, given the teams around here not named Penn State) football, it would be a huge deal. As it stands, given that the Phillies are losing 13-2 as I write this post, I find Penn's win today at least worth of attention on here.
"It makes it that much more important, more special" to be from this area, said senior attack Chrissy Muller, who is from Rydal, Pa., to be specific, attended Mount St. Joseph's Academy and scored the game-tying goal today. "I think Philadelphia is a great area for lacrosse and women's lacrosse, so I think to have it here, and the accessibility of Franklin Field for everyone to come, all the high schools, it just makes it a lot of fun."
Sophomore attack Becca Edwards, a native of Flourtown, Pa., and graduate of Springfield Township High whose first goal of the day gave Penn a 6-5 lead, concurred.
"Being from this area, it's nice that my high school team will be probably coming and that people who've supported you through it will be able to see you succeed in a big arena."
Then you have the angle of Penn playing Maryland specifically, a team which has 10 national championships to its name, including seven straight from 1995 to 2001. And as I can tell that this post is getting pretty long, I've saved the fun part of this angle for after the jump.
First, you have the trash talk Penn coach Karin Brower dished out after the first-round win over Boston University, claiming that "we want to play an ACC school, and I think that the ACC is a fantastic conference, and I don't think they give a lot of respect to other programs out there."
"I would like to take down an ACC team... and show that conference, especially, what a great team we are," she somewhat pointedly added.
Then you have Penn's goaltender, Sarah Waxman. She came here from Washington, D.C., and admitted to not knowing much about lacrosse in high school -- except that the big school a few miles away from her was really good at it.
"When I saw that we got the bid and knew that we were going to beat BU and that the next game would be against Maryland for a berth in the Final Four, I was like, 'Oh, my god, we're going to play Maryland?'" the junior said. "I think Rachel Manson and the rest of my house was like, 'You're going to play Maryland, and you're going to beat Maryland.'"
Which she did, making ten saves, including a few quite crucial ones in the second half.
In the postgame press conference, I asked Maryland coach Cathy Nelson Reese if she had known anything about Waxman coming into the game. The first thing she said in answering that question, and some of her other remarks, might sound a little familiar if you know anything about the nature of ACC sports.
"We learned a fair amount about Penn this week, [as] we hadn't faced them throughout the year," she said.
And then there was what Reese said after being asked to reflect on her first year as a head coach. Her initial response -- which seemed quite honest -- was, "I... that's a good question. I hadn't thought about this, I didn't expect it to end today."
Now granted, the Penn players talked about how they insisted that coming into today's game, they absolutely expected to be back at practice Monday. I'm certainly willing to accept that kind of talk for motivational purposes. But there was just something in Reese's tone of voice that sounded a little too honest.
"It's hard, I wasn't ready for it to end," she said right at the end of her remarks. "That's a hard question, now I'm going to be thinking about it all day."
Even if what Reese said wasn't intentional, I couldn't help thinking that this was exactly what Brower was referring to a week ago.
But I do give Reese for the quote of the day. In the middle of the aforementioned reflection, she said, "At the end of the day, we all wake up tomorrow... well, we hope."
I think we can all agree on that one.
