UNC Water Polo
1998 Dogwood Classic
Unofficial Results
WOW! When I come back, I come back with a bam. A DDP bam, in fact, for
you WCW fans. For you WWF fans - you wanna know why I came back? BECAUSE
STONE COLD SAID SO (YEAH ROJAS!). Although I wasn't too impressed with
Wrestlemania, I
do like my man Stone Cold. Ok, enough crap. I know all you UNC Polo fans
out there are wondering exactly what happened at the Dogwood Classic this
weekend. ESPN.com didn't carry the results, and so this is perhaps the
speediest mechanisms for getting them, thus you're here. I understand.
And I will not let you down.
We met at noon thirty (who says illiteracy is dead?) at Chinese 35. This
was to serve as a precursor to the king daddy, Mandarin House Knoxville.
Anyway, after exchanging stories from Thursday night, most of which were
mine, and most of which were either pathetic or not funny, we split up.
At 5, I picked up Mike, and then we got Adam. Adam had procured 2 books
on tape, 'The Partner' and a tangential Star Wars story. Let me get this
out of the way. 'The Partner' stinks. It isn't the average kind of
'stink', where you just don't like it, or don't care. No, this is the
much more painful, insidious 'stink', where you get all into it, only to
be let down by a crappy ending. Here you go: SHE TAKES ALL HIS MONEY.
There, I said it, save your money and your library card. 6 hrs of
listening only to have our hero dogged by his presumed trustworthy female
accomplice. They're supposed to meet and she'll give him the money and
they'll be together forever -
well, OH NO - she disappears. I guess it is ironic because he is the one
who taught her to disappear but I was just pissed. So, you're wondering,
what does this have to do with the price of tea in China (with apologies
to paige)? Nothing, I just figured I would use this forum to air my
displeasure with 'The Partner', and now I am done. Thanks, Lafferty,
Daniel. (name the movie and you must be a college student)
So the aforementioned book on tape took up the drive there, which
was highlighted by a trip to McDonalds, and some guy asking us to 'keep
the cussing down in front of his kids.' Oops. I think the cashier lady
liked me, because I asked her about the apple pies. Having worked at
McDonald's (no joke), I possess the insider knowledge that allows me to
skip the routine questions and go right for the throat. Rather than ask
'What comes in a Happy Meal?,' I'll say 'Let me get a look at the Q-ing
oven. I've heard the stories.' I'm not kidding - there is a oven they
call the Q-ing oven (=microwave) that heats up the
sandwiches before
they go in the waiting bins to be served. Ask around, you'll see. Wow,
what am i talking about? Oh yeah - polo. So we get to Knoxville, and
after joyous reunions with my Florida boys, I crashed. I wanted to go out
with my main gator Heinl, but Jeremy was giving me dirty looks (we played
Raleigh at 9) so I refrained. Oh well.
So in the morning, after
crappy
sleep, we go play Raleigh. They were the number 1 seed, but we thrive as
the underdog. We got behind 3-0 in the first 5 minutes, but due to
several spectacular saves by the UNC goalie, and us playing halfway ok in
the second half, we ended up tying 4-4. It was one of those games I am
sure both teams thought they should have won. The weather was awful, and
I spent my time trying to have as little of my body out of the water as
possible.
Which may explain why I gave up 4 goals. Anyway, after a one game break,
during which I did not get out (thanks for hangin', Tracy), we played Ga
Tech. Wow, that game was one of the worst I have ever played. Gave up a
couple crappy goals, but buoyed by Detar's key 2 pt shot, we won 7-6.
That proved disastrous in the tie-breaker with Raleigh, as they beat Ga
Tech by like 11 or something. Then we has a few hrs off, during which we
ate a McDs again, and lay around at the hotel. I came back to see Florida
play NC St - State hung for a little bit, but then Florida pulled away.
Then was the 5 alive showdown - not bad, although our nameless competitor
did rather poorly.
Our last game of Saturday was vs Tennessee. Now, I am not one to
complain (too much) but they started this thing new this year which I
found rather annoying. That thing was playing 'Rocky Top' after every
goal they scored. But I guess that is what home pool advantage is, so
whatever. All I can say is that if they would have afforded us the same
privlege, we would have heard our song 10 times, and 'Rocky Top' 6. So I
was pretty happy with that - we played smart and did what we needed to do
to win that game. Plus, Jeremy was a machine in the hole. He had
sweeps, lay-outs, and even lobs that found the sweet twine (oops, my
bad). The weather was still crappy so we went back to the
hotel and well, since the university lets me have this web space for free,
and my parents read this (hi jerry and jody), I'll just say we sat around
until we ate dinner at Mandarin House. Actually, that is true, but it
leaves out some pertinent details. WOW AARON, WE ALL CARE. ok, so
mandarin house was good. I happen to agree with whoever said that they
made general tso's chicken spicier. that stuff was burning my pipes.
That was the least I have ever eaten of it, I was on unholy fire. But it
was still good, and we had two coupons for 'FREE GIFTS FROM THE ORIENT.'
Ther anticipation built. What exactly would a 'free gift from the
orient' be? So,
when one of them got cashed in (Christian?) and he gets some chopsticks,
the disappointment is tangible.
I was like, no way, can you just tattoo 'LAME' on this coupon. So, i hand
the lady my coupon, and I say, 'Look, I'll take anything, but I DON'T WANT
CHOPSTICKS.' so, she gives me an amused look and leaves. My gift turned
out to be a truckload of fortune cookies (I hope she didn't get busted),
which I generously shared with everyone. So, after the buffet that time
forgot (what? sorry.), we got back to the lovely Days Inn and lie around.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember is Manny, my
boy from state, shaking me awake and saying rude things to get me to go to
the mandatory Sat night party. So I got up and went. It was pretty cool,
but for some reason I wanted to see Sat Night Live, so I didn't stay that
long. Of course, the Lady's Man never came on, so that was a waste. But
don't despair, the night is far from over. About 2, Jeremy and Rojas come
cruisin in and wake me up to tell me about their glory at the party.
Evidentally, they got ahold of the empty keg and proceed to 1)throw it in
the neighbor's yard, 2)hit it with a hammer, and 3)get others to do the
same. Taylor hit a fire hydrant with the keg, and Curb-Boy contributed by
bringing some
plastic chairs to destroy. Way to go, Curb-Boy. So we are bsing for a
while, and some dude from auburn comes in to tell us to be quiet, because
he is trying to sleep. Unfortunately, he was carrying a 40 oz of Bud so
that somewhat downgraded the seriousness of his complaint. Next thing I
know, he's lying face first on our floor, Bud in hand. But then he
disappeared so I guess it turned out ok. After taking multiple pictures
with his camera, which I am sure he'll love, we left him alone. Next, I
made some lame prank phone calls. I called NC State's room and said 'Pack
Power, sucka!' and hung up. Another time I said 'Wolfpack Pride, fool!'
Like i said, lame. And when it turned out i was calling Auburn's room,
that made it even lamer. Finally,
Rojas left and we went to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep too much, cuz I
knew Adam was coming home eventually, and I'd have to let him in cuz
everyone else is so lazy. This indeed was the case. Independent sources
place his arrival at close to 5am, but I am unsure.
So the next day we had to play State. That started off badly and got
worse, and we lost 5-2. It's the first time I've lost to state in a
tournament in 5 yrs. But, hey, they deserved it, they kicked our butts.
Matt has really done a great job coaching and they have come a long way.
So my hat is off to the Pack.
A few of us stayed around to watch Florida play Raleigh in the finals, but
when UF got up 7-2 on the strength of some sweet 2 ptrs (Brian Martin has
a CANNON), we left. I again backed jeremy down in a junior bacon eating
contest at Wendy's and the trip home way was underway. It was pretty
good, Mike drove like a champ, and we got back to CH safely. I'm sure I
left out lots of great stuff, but this is long and boring enough as it is.
So i'll stop. thanks again, Mike Daly, and UT water polo for a fun
weekend.
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