April 16, 2008
In the 13th edition of the 2008 Blog, freshman Annie McCarthy updates you on the joys of traveling on the road and upending No. 31 Ohio State, as well as fun off the court.
Way back when, the Illinois Women's Tennis Team took a little trip to Boca Raton, Florida. One night, the coaches took us to the movies and gave us a choice of two movies: Juno or Bucket List. Of course the intelligent and comedically inclined people decided to see Juno while the others were stuck sitting through Bucket List. Michelle started off on the right track, deciding to view Juno but suddenly was struck by some odd urge to leave within the first five minutes. After being terribly disappointed with Bucket List and seeing that Juno won all kinds of awards, Michelle realized she had made a very unwise decision.
Back in that ever-so lovely turtle top, it was time to watch a movie--and this time we had all brought a few. Coach was insistent that the first film we watch be Juno. She comprehended that she had been wrong, and she decided to come crawling back to us Juno lovers. It was then that she admitted to us that the true reason she wanted to watch it was because Oprah constantly raved about it. M.S.D. LOVES Oprah.
After our arrival and a nice hearty practice, we were off to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. While there we dedicated our time to ripping on the world's worst waiter. If you wanted something, you had to ask a minimum of 4 times, and apparently the words "Plain Hamburger" are defined as meaning "Hamburger with lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, and pickles". The only plain thing about my meal was the fact that they failed to give me my order of French fries.
But now that I've released all that anger, I can talk about our television choice of the night: The Infamous Miss USA pageant. Shivani, Marisa, Kristina, and myself all made our predictions. Shivani wanted Miss Massachusetts (no surprise there...), Mish was all for Miss Oklahoma, Kristina had no preference until the evening gowns where she claimed that "Miss Texas was workin' it", and I was an adamant fan of Miss Missouri. After Miss Missouri made the worst evening gown dress choice of my life, it was all downhill for the rest of our choices. When Texas was announced as the winner, we were all quite upset, all of us except Kristina that is.
The next day, we started off with the very pleasing doubles point, however we came up short on the singles. Although we were of course very disappointed, we knew we had left it all out on the courts, and had played our hearts out. We had the rest of the day to sulk a little bit, but then it was right back to competition mode the next day. Now in Columbus Ohio, we again began the day with a satisfying clenching of the doubles point, but this time we knew that things were going to be different from yesterday--and what do ya know...we were right. After being complimented by two parents of future Ohio State players on my blogs, and losing my voice from cheering, we came out with a win on their senior night.
Momei's line judge tried to give her a hard time for beating their one and only senior--but she was quick to inform him that she was also a senior. Speaking of senior day, we will be honoring our intelligent little Momei and our hilarious Peruvian Alejandra this Sunday at our match against Iowa. We hope to see you all out there cheering for the Illini!
Go Illini!
Annie
