Final score: Storm 75 – Monarchs 66 (W) (1-1)

Attendance | 4590

Anthem Xtra Notes | Medium

Anthem High Note | Yes, but creepy

Anthem Style | Weird

Fan Noise | Kenny G concert

Signs | A few

Fan Psyche | Optimistic

Halftime | Was there one?

What a difference six days makes. This is a different team compared to the one that lost to the Fire on May 10th at Hec Ed. They are aggressive offensively and defensively. They are relaxed, smooth and confident. Whatever Coach has been feeding these players, it is working.

The crowd is fairly sparse, but 3 or 4 times what the crowd at Hec Ed was. The woman who sings the anthem has an odd pronunciation and rhythm. It is a little creepy. She does hit the high note though. During the player introductions, Edna receives a huge reception and gives us a wave. Many have questioned the Katy / Edna trade - she was our top scorer after all. For now, we Trust In Coach.

The team remains standing until the first bucket again. As if it is a sign that indeed things have changed dramatically, they have to stand for less than a minute. Simone hits the first bucket of the game and we are off to the races. The coach wants scoring, she gets scoring.

During a timeout, we learn about some nicknames (via one of those Arenavision quizzes). Juana Brown is Bird (which doesn’t make sense until we see her on defense – those arms are a flappin’), Michelle Edwards is Ice (to Edna’s Fire from last year), Katrina Hibbert is Frog (ribbett hibbert, get it? – but we knew that), and Lauren Jackson is Loz (and Lozza, LJ, Jacko – we will NEVER call her Jacko).

At the end of the first half, the Storm leads 34 to 24. One thing we notice about Semeka – she is the energizer and very active – she is also a little turnover-prone. It looks like if she can keep the ball under control, she is going to be a lethal threat. She is fearless and throws herself into the game. To be perfectly honest, she is bringing more excitement to the game right now than Lauren is (this is not meant as a knock against Lauren). Semeka is plain fun to watch.

During the second half, as the Storm maintain their lead and fight off the Monarchs, two things of note happened. The first is a little funny. Lauren has the ball in the post and is fighting her way past Kara Wolters (Monarchs #52) and smacks Kara in the face with an elbow. Kara gets called for the foul and stands there dumbfounded, holding her chin. We could see that it was an offensive foul even up where we sit. How do you foul someone with your chin anyway?

The second thing that happens is more disturbing. Last year, there was a group of fans who would chant “Ednaaa” in support of her when she did something good. Now they were doing it to throw her off, during free throws, etc. Now we know that this kind of thing rarely has an effect, but it came off as being poor sportsmanship nonetheless.

Anyway, towards the end of the game, we notice that Juana Brown is sitting on the end of the bench in crutches with her right foot and ankle wrapped up. Not a good sign.

The Storm beat the Yoland Griffith-less Monarchs and we are 1-1 in the preseason. Even though Griffith was absent, the rest of the team was playing well and gave the Storm all they could take. It was a satisfying win.