Indiana University Athletics
NCAA Adventures in Austin: Julie DiNallo
5/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 18, 2006
Well it's kind of surreal to even be writing this because just a couple of days ago we were unsure if our season was over or not. After the Big Ten Tournament, Coach Phillips got the team together at a local restaurant in Bloomington to watch the selection show. I have to say, there was nothing more nerve racking than waiting to see your name appear on the screen once the show started. Having to wait for the commentary about each region and then last through commercials and things was killing me. They had already gone through half of the bracket and the suspense was just rising. Then, all of sudden I saw Indiana on the screen and the whole team just erupted. I guess it's just hard to explain the excitement you feel. I know we have worked so hard all season and its actually coming true; we are going to the NCAA Tournament.
Being a freshman, all of this is new to me. Of course, it has been a long time since Indiana has made the tournament so all of this was new to the entire team. We chartered a plane out of Bloomington and arrived in Austin Wednesday night. The city is great and we are supposed to go sight seeing on Friday. I can't wait to go downtown. Our first night in the Austin, we ate at this interesting Mongolian Grill. The drill involved you going through a buffet line and collecting everything from your uncooked meats and vegetables and placing them on your plate. A lot of us had never eaten at a place like this, so we were all unsure how much to fill our plates with food. All of us were starving, so most of us had mounds of food. Once you seasoned everything, you took it to the counter and they cooked it right in front of you. When it was all said and done, the food was great.
After dinner, we called it a night since we had practice the next morning on Texas' field. I have to admit, while I was excited to be here, the plane ride and the travel wore me out and I was ready to hit the sack.
So, we have one more day of practice and fun before we get down to business. Utah better watch out, because we are coming after them with our best shot.
