Day Ten - Giving Canada a Run for Their Money

After our tough loss to Japan, we began playoffs as the 10th seed and played #7 New Zealand. New Zealand came at us hard and made sure our win was not an easy one. It was a good game, but unfortunately I did not hear a single "That's so random", and no was named Jamie (pronounce that correctly in your head). 

Our win matched us up against Canada yesterday (Thursday), who was seeded as the #2 seed due to their exciting win over Australia earlier this week. 

I will start off by saying the first half was incredible. They scored three quick goals on us, but we didn't let down. With about a minute left in the half, we had brought it to 5-4, before they scored a last-second goal to end the half at 6-4.  

We were pumped. We were matching up against the number 2 team in the world. They were only 2 goals up, which in lacrosse is nothing.  Australia, too, had been two goals ahead of Canada for most of the game before Canada tied it up and scored the winning goal with 10 seconds left. I was confident that would be our story as well. My team was confident that could be our story. That untangled Israel could displace the #2 team and make a bid for the final four, if not the championships. 

As it turns out, Canada was terrified of that very story being written. They were NOT having it. They had beat Australia for the first time in their history, they were the home team, and were not going to just give away their glory. 

Canada came out hard in the second half, and while both teams had a ten minute half time to rest, they also had he whole day off Wednesday. This was day five in a row for us of games, with two hard games in a row in the previous two days.  We were tired, and they were fired. 

The second half was not what we envisioned, and even worse, the score did not truly reflect the level of play and effort produced on that field. Every girl on the team left all she could out there and we truly made Canada work for it. We didn't win, but I think we finally got to show what we're really made of. 

After the game, we stuck around to watch #3 Australia vs. #11 Scotland (who managed to beat #6 Japan - this has been a strange tournament).  To say the least, that game was far less interesting than the one we just played, with a halftime score of about 16-1 (Australia).  Seeing how this would end, we left at halftime, and returned to the dorms to get cleaned up and throw an impromptu - Bat Mitzvah!

We surprised teammate Lauren Dykstra with her very own bat mitzvah, complete with prayer, poems, gifts, and dancing. While Lauren was probably mostly confused as to why Trainer Mike was insistent on randomly wrapping her leg for the night, only to show up to our meeting room to all of us waiting for her, clapping and shouting Mazel Tov, she quickly fell into role as the Bat Mitzvah.  Gifts were presented, and we spent much of the evening singing songs (or listening to resident vocalist Nikki, or volunteer front woman Davia) and really enjoying being together.  It was so much to have a little party, especially a Jewish one, to make it clear why we're all really here - because we're Jewish, we're Israeli, and we are representing our culture, people, and heritage (apparently in every way possible!). 

After the enjoyment of the Bat Mitzvah, we received a bit of news to bring us back down to Earth -

Despite all of the support we have received, articles written about us and our Shabbat policy (the article  from the Toronto Star - major newspaper in Toronto - was on the front page), no compromise, accommodation, or alternative solution of any kind was reached with the FIL, and today will officially be our last game of the tournament, despite final ranking games taking place tomorrow, on Saturday.   Our objective, as always, will be to win, but we know that we will be forfeiting our our position tomorrow, and if that's the 5th-6th place game, we will be officially recorded as 6th, regardless of how that game may have played out. 

Today we play Scotland, and, after beating them last week and all that has happened this week, we know they are going to come after us with all they've got and demand retribution.

But we've got something more - we are standing up for something,  not  just for a belief, but for an entire country and the culture of its people, which rises so much further above any lacrosse game we have played or will ever play in the future.

Above all, we are proud of what we've accomplished in this World Cup, we appreciate all of the support from friends, family, and even the strangers who have written, emailed, or posted about us, and we hope that going forward, the strides we have made this year will pave the way for years to come.  

Yalla Israel, Beyachad