We were expecting a somewhat bigger crowd than normal. After all, it was Trinity College that was coming down — a team that has won 10 consecutive national championships and was two wins away from completing a winning streak of 200 matches (they completed it the next day by beating Cornell).

And a crowd it was. I have never seen the Peter Lyman courts that packed with such enthusiastic fans. At the time, me and Will Newnham were playing on courts next to each other, around 200 fans were screaming at the top of their lungs; something no one on the team had experienced before. When Will won a point on his court and the crowd went crazy, I could not hear anything other than the crowd cheering on my court — not the ball hitting the wall, let alone my own voice.

One thing we did not understand was the fact that two basketball games were played simultaneously during our match. As a team, we thought that was a bit weird. To maximize the number of spectators for both events, the school should schedule them at different times. After all, it was pretty obvious that both of these events would attract a big crowd.

Nonetheless, we want to thank everyone who came to the Trinity match. Although we lost, the match helped us realize that we are not that far off from the top. As the nationals are coming up, we hope to use this momentum and challenge all the top-teams in two weeks.

To keep up the spirit until nationals, the team has decided not to shave their beards before then. It could get messy…

Hope to see you at the Penn match on Saturday!