St. Mary's At Home

After our losses last weekend the Brunswickan announced that we “officially eliminated from playoff contention”. My apologies to the Bruns, but that’s not the case, so let me break it down for all of you who aren’t scoreboard watching.

In the AUS every team plays each team in the conference for games that total 8 points in the standings. We can play a team twice in games that are worth 4 points each (like when we played Memorial in November), or we can play a team four times in games that are each worth 2 points (like the four games we have against Dalhousie this month).

Acadia, St. Mary’s, Cape Breton, and Memorial have locked playoffs spots. St. FX has one locked because they are hosting. That leaves one spot up for grabs. UPEI can’t make it because they only have 6 points. So it is down to Dal or us.

Right now we have 12 points and Dal has 20. Our game against St. Mary’s this weekend is a four-point game. Dalhousie has two two-point games against Cape Breton. If we beat St. Mary’s and Cape Breton sweeps Dal then we will have 16 points, and Dal will still have 20. Then, we head to Dalhousie for our last two games of the season. If we sweep them then we will have 20 points, and so will they, so it will come down to a tie-breaker. The first tie-breaker is head-to-head (where we will be tied again) and then it goes to point differential.

Is it going to be easy? No. In fact, Dalhousie could beat Cape Breton and it would totally be out of our hands. It is, however, possible, and that makes a big difference. We walk into the gym every day knowing our dream is still alive and that we still have something to work for.

We have so much to fight for this weekend. We’re celebrating Emma and Meg’s last home games. We have great supporters and fans that do so much for us. We have teammates who aren’t able to dress because they’ve been hurt while doing work for us. And we have each other. We have every reason to fight to win, but I think we’re beyond any “rah-rah” speeches to get us jacked up to win. We each need to look inside ourselves and decide if we are willing to put it all on the line. Win or go home. Take no prisoners. Leave it all on the floor. Take your pick of sports clichés because no matter how you phrase it the fact of the matter is still the same – it’s now or never.

Allie