Northwestern University Athletics
"Take in the Moment" - By Sydney Supple
5/24/2022 4:01:00 PM | Softball
"Take in the moment", are the words I kept telling myself as I looked out onto the sold-out crowd at the J this weekend. I looked to my right and then to my left, cherishing who was standing next to me. I will be honest it has taken me a few days to write this one, simply because every time I tried over the past 48 hours since the game ended, I had tears pooling in my eyes.
My emotions have been running high for how honored I feel to be on this team, with these people, and for a program that has had my heart since age 13. Our Cat family includes more than just the coaches and players, but also our hype squad and other honorary members such as Scott A & W, Jane, Carrie, Casey, Zach, Filler, Leenie, and all the others who have been showing up and believing in us since September. Only those within our circle know the work, time, blood, sweat, and tears we put in to stand on our home field hosting Regionals. I can still remember hearing reporters say the same storyline after every one of our non-conference wins at the beginning of the season– talking about what a surprise it was. Well, are you surprised now? Because we have been believing in ourselves since game one of the season and the rest of the country is just now taking notice. To be where we are today, we learned that all it took was for us and the people in our Cat family to believe in ourselves.
Hosting regionals this past weekend was electric, from the adrenaline rush that was alive throughout everyone in the stadium, our bats being on fire, and twenty-one people putting their hearts and souls into every pitch. Every person played an integral role in all three wins because players' numbers were called for different situations. They were ready and shined bright under the lights. All weekend long we were prepared for whichever of the three teams we could have potentially faced and knew the fight we had to give to win each inning. As a team, we won every hustle play the game challenged us with and for every punch the other team threw we responded with an even bigger one back because The J is our field, and we were bound and determined to protect it. On Friday we celebrated our first win for a few minutes with our family and then we went back to the video room to study our opponent for Saturday. Then on Saturday, it was another short celebration of Kate & Caryl's 700th win (GOAT ?? x 2), but shortly after Kate looked at us and said "no one goes to bed happy", we understood the focus and hunger we needed for one more win.
On Sunday I can truly say that is the most packed crowd I have ever seen at The J. Another sold-out crowd with people lined along the outfield fence sitting cross-legged because there were no more seats left in the bleachers. All I have to say to that is, THANK YOU CATS FANS, your love and support were felt by us players and meant the world. From the first inning on you could sense that our team was on a mission with getting a run on the board right away, then continuing to tack on more runs throughout the game, and finally…. Angela Zedak said "let's win this thing early" and hit a ROOFTOP bomb to bring us over the run-rule limit. I will always cherish the feeling of running into a group hug with my team after winning Regionals knowing we were a step closer to our goal. The love we all share for this game and for wanting to have more games to play with one another is so genuine and real. I can not wait to take the field this weekend in Tempe for Super Regionals and fight with my girls for a ticket to OKC. This journey is one I never want to end.
Thank you to everyone who came out to The J this weekend, we did it together Cats!
Sincerely,
Sydney #26
