Notre Dame Meet Reflection
Last Friday at 7 am, the fencing team made their depart to the University of Notre Dame. We stopped for lunch at a mall in the middle of Ohio. There were many different options, but I made the bright decision to eat Chick-fil-A. We then arrived to our hotel in South Bend, Indiana at around 4 pm. My best friend Lizzie lives in South Bend, and I got to see her shortly after we settled at the hotel. While waiting for her in the lobby, I saw her white Prius pull into the parking lot and I could not wait to see her. I ran outside and gave her a huge hug that lasted a solid minute. Never mind the 30 degree weather, I was ecstatic to be reunited with her after not having seen her for over six months. Since we arrived to South Bend rather early, we had a couple hours to kill before dinner. I spent this time with Lizzie, of course. One of our favorite activities is to drive around, blast music, and sing along. Lizzie is a very intense person, and she was so happy to be with me that she was slightly distracted while driving, and I did not feel very safe. After telling her to be more cautious several times, I gave up trying to control the situation and accepted the possibility of getting into an accident. Somehow, we made it back to the hotel safe.
For dinner, the coaches chose to take us to ‘Bruno’s Pizza’, which is an Italian restaurant with a lot of meaning to Notre Dame fencing. The Notre Dame fencing team would always eat there after meets, and their last head coach was very close with the restaurant’s owner, Bruno. Our head coach loves tradition, which is why we always dress up for dinners while traveling. His strong liking for tradition is also the reason he took us to Bruno’s. During our dinner, we got to meet the owner, who gave the coaches wine that he made himself. The atmosphere during dinner was warm and cheerful, and we all enjoyed salad, pizza, pasta, and cheesy garlic bread, the latter being my personal favorite.
After the wonderful dinner, we took pictures, thanked the owner, and climbed back into the bus. Back at the hotel, I did some homework and tried going to bed early. Unfortunately, when I know I have a ‘big day’ coming up, it is very hard for me to sleep well. I got around 4 hours of sleep that night, and woke up feeling unprepared for the day that was to come. After having breakfast at 6 am, we left to get to Notre Dame thirty minutes later. Once at the gym, we stretched, warmed up, and were ready to face our first match against Wayne State University at 8. The first day went well for women’s foil. We beat everyone except Notre Dame, whom we lost to 3-6. I only fenced three matches on the first day. I lost one to Notre Dame and Stanford, but I won one against Stanford as well. We finished fencing at around 5:00 and went back to the hotel shortly after. My parents came to visit, so I went to dinner with them and Lizzie that night. I was extremely thankful for this time with them, and it was a nice escape from a long day of fencing.
On the second day, I had more sleep and was feeling optimistic about the day ahead. I made sure to share my positive vibes with my teammates, and this gave us renewed energy and confidence against our opponents. We beat everyone, except UNC, by one match. The highlight of the day, however, was when we destroyed Northwestern 9-0. Northwestern is a strong team, but our thirst to win was at a high, increasing our precision and determination. Personally, I did very well on the second day. I fenced 10 matches and won them all. Overall, this meet went very well for Penn State.
Goals for future meets:
- Listen to my coach’s advice while fencing, but keep a balance between his advice and my own fencing.
- Keep calm before and during matches.
- Trust in my attacks more.
Thank you for reading!