March 29, 2014

Excited to be back at Stanford

Here is Chiney's espnW blog about the excitement of a Sweet 16 at Stanford.

March 14, 2014

Get ready for 'N-E-R-D-S'

Here is Chiney's espnW blog, in which she celebrates the culture of Stanford.

A hungry team can be dangerous

Here is Chiney's espnW blog, in which she says that the loss to USC in the Pac-12 tournament was disappointing but that only makes Stanford more inspired for the NCAA tournament.

March 5, 2014

Seniors' Memorable Moments

From Alex:

I am dedicating my blog to our four wonderful seniors. I decided to ask them about their most memorable moments at Stanford.

Mikaela’s most memorable moment came in her freshman year at Stanford. While the NCAA tournament is always a great time for our team, that season’s elite eight was especially exciting. With only 4.4 seconds left on the shot clock, Jeannette Pohlen ran the ball from one end of the court to the other, scoring a layup and sending us to the Final Four.

Sara James told me that her favorite memory also happened her freshman year. It was December 30, 2011, a day I’m sure many Stanford fans remember. It was the day we beat UConn 71-59, breaking their 90-game winning streak. It was a great opportunity to defend Maples.

Chiney’s best memory so far at Stanford is a little more recent. We’ve all seen Chiney make amazing plays on the court, but her most memorable moment surrounds something unrelated to basketball—Nneka’s graduation. Chiney describes Nneka’s graduation as a beautiful moment for her family. In that moment she realized that never would she have imagined growing up that she would be playing the sport she loves at the best university. It was a surreal moment for her.

Toni’s favorite memory from Stanford happened just a couple months ago when she planned the Cal and Stanford We Are Pride event. She worked tirelessly for months to create a program about LGBT inclusion in sports. Being able to bring rival schools together was life changing for her. Witnessing Cal and Stanford athletes go from strangers to best friends in their photo project left her and the other organizers speechless. The event exceeded her wildest expectations and allowed her to put her passion into action to give back to the community.

We’re really going to miss our seniors. It’s been an exciting three years with these seniors and I’m sure that they will be a part of some of my most memorable moments at Stanford. I can’t wait to see what amazing things they do next.

March 3, 2014

A Tribute to the Seniors

Hey Stanford fans!

I thought that in light of the senior night festivities this week that I would write my blog in honor of the four lovely ladies who I can’t believe will be graduating soon. I feel so lucky and honored to have spent 3 years with them, and these will be some of the things that I miss the most:

SEJ: I cannot imagine how the team, the locker room, road trips, and life in general is going to be next year without her. She brings such a positive and fun presence to everything that we do as a team.

She is also one of my best friends and is the older sister I never had. Any time that I have been down or had a tough day, Sej has listened to me, talked me through it, and is always there to have my back.

Our team’s love for Sej is obvious in the sheer amount of nicknames we have given her including: Sejba, Sej-er-ama, Sejjie, and my own personal nickname for her, Stella. She in turn calls me Bridget. (It’s a long explanation behind those two names)

I also have to acknowledge how much her legendary singing will be missed when she is gone. She is known by some people as the next Mariah Carey, and she will always sing the entire song even if she has to mumble her way through any tricky lines. Our team’s favorite song for her to sing at the moment is “Do What U Want” by Lady Gaga.

We have shared many funny moments together, some of which include many people mistaking us for each other. Apparently, many people think that we look alike and are the same person, especially when we both wear our hair in a braid. It always makes us laugh, and we just go with it and pretend to be each other.

I’m going to miss her so much, and her humor and personality will be irreplaceable.

Mik: Our team calls her our 35 year old fifth year because she has been here so long! And thank goodness she has because I can’t imagine how life is going to be at Stanford without her here.

Mik is such a goofy and fun person to be around, and ever since my very first summer as a freshman, when she invited herself over to my dorm to watch Pretty Little Liars marathons with me while she worked on her complicated math and engineering psets, I knew that she was going to be a great friend.

We have spent many hours watching Grand Slam tennis championships together, each of us cheering on our favorite players. My favorite player is Rafael Nadal, while hers is Roger Federer, and we have had many friendly arguments over who is actually the best player ever.

Though we will never agree on that topic, we do share our taste in music. We both love Queen, Elton John, and Billy Joel. It’s always fun when we blast “Vienna” or “Benny and the Jets” in the locker and have a mini karaoke session.

I am going to miss her goofy and hilarious personality so much.

Chiney: There are so many things that I am going to miss about Chiney that I cannot possibly list them all here.

All of you know how valuable she is to our team on the court, but off the court, her bubbly and fun personality is going to be missed by us even more. It never fails to make me smile when I see say or do something that makes the whole team laugh.

One of my absolute favorite memories of Chiney is when she put together a barbeque for our team, and we were all hanging out by the pool. Chiney was walking around the edge of the pool and singing along to whatever song we had playing when she turned too early and stepped right into the water and fell in! We all immediately stopped what we were doing, and she came up laughing hard. Of course the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing either for some time. (I can’t stop laughing as I’m typing this just remembering it)

Chiney is one of the most loyal and caring friends I will ever have, and I am going to miss her so much.

Toni: I am so lucky to have gotten to play and become friends with Toni because she is the kind of person that genuinely cares about you and sincerely wants the best for you.

She is such a great role model to me, and she has shown me that it is completely acceptable to just be yourself. She exemplifies what it is to go to Stanford.

I love going to football games and looking out at the band and trying to pick out Toni among them. My favorite memory of her with the band was when she styled her hair into a giant purple Mohawk; needless to say it took a lot of hairspray and gel, but it looked awesome.

Our team loves Toni so much, and we know that it has been very hard for her not being able to play this year. However, you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at her because she continues to cheer for us, keeps us laughing and positive, consistently comes to practice every day, and always has a smile on her face.

Every time I look at Toni and see her dedication and love for our team, I am inspired to play harder and give my best effort in everything I do. I am so lucky to have met Toni and have her as a friend because you will not find a more creative, caring, and generous person out there, and I am going to miss her so much.

Until next time,
Bonnie