Final score: Storm 57 – Sol 70 (L) (2-2)

Attendance | 6430

Anthem Xtra Notes | Innumerable

Anthem High Note | Was there one?

Anthem Overall | Give back the free CD

Fan Noise | Teen Spirit

Signs | Tons

Fan Psyche | Unsettled

Halftime | Storm Quest Tic Tac Toe

There is a weird feeling here tonight. The team is not playing very well. No one seems to want to take a shot, dive after loose balls, or even fight for the ball in a contested rebound. The refs are calling everything against the Storm (it seems that way anyway) and the players, especially Lauren, are very testy. At one point Simone gets pulled from the game and Coach Dunn lets her have it as soon as Simone gets to the bench. Semeka gets some early turnovers and sits most of the game. They are not playing with the poise and determination that won them 2 games.

The night starts on an odd note, literally. The anthem singer, as the Fanstats attest, is all over the map stylistically and rhythmically, inserting odd pauses and more notes than we have ever heard added to this song. During the pregame announcements, Steve Kilbreath, the announcer, says something about when the Storm play the “Orlando… team…” That would be the Orlando Miracle. And, when the Storm are being introduced, the Arenavision pictures don’t match the announced players at the start.

Once the game starts, the Sol jump out to an early lead, but the Storm keep it close. If you didn’t occasionally look at the scoreboard, you would have expected the Sol to be leading by 15 at the half. The Storm look, as I said above, tentative, ragged and a little sloppy. It was almost surprising that the Storm is only down 4 at the break (32 – 36).

The second half starts with the same tone. The Sol go up by 10, the Storm come back. The Sol go up by 8, the Storm come back. But at some point, the fouls, the turnovers and the smooth play of Sandy Brondello (Sol #6) and Sheri Sam (Sol #55) take over and the Sol pull away. There is a sense of inevitability about the Sol win. Too much Sol firepower and not enough Storm response.

There is weirdness around the game as well. In section 110, there is a guy who marches in place during every timeout. He gets up on Arenavision at one point and goes double-time. Maybe this is his exercise regimen. We actually see a soda vendor walking through the stands (selling $3 Cokes, yikes). Is this a new thing? We don’t remember seeing one at a Storm game before. And then there is the timeout Starbucks matching game. It reminds us of the series of commercials that ask the question, “Does it seem like people have just quit trying?” The contestants pretty much stand in the center and point. They don’t realize when the game is finished. Hmmm. And, we notice part way through the first half that the teams started on the “wrong” sides of the court, opposite of every other home game we’ve seen. Weird.

So what’s going on? The Storm were 2–1, coming home after a good road trip to Washington and Indiana. They could have easily won the Washington game, and they did win at Indiana in an exciting fashion. You would expect them to be on an upswing. Instead, they definitely seem down.

Well, so are we. Katrina Hibbert was waived on Tuesday. While it wasn’t completely unexpected, it still bummed us out. We get a chance to talk to her after the game and she says, “Well, it happens.” Yes, this is a professional sport. Trades, waives, and terminated contracts are a normal part of the game. Since the beginning of the preseason, 8 players have been cut from the roster either through trades or terminations and 3 have been added. Our team is being recast by Coach Dunn to make it more competitive and more successful. Hopefully, in the long run, all of this will translate into a consistent winning record and an eventual championship. But, that means that players like Katrina and Robin Threatt-Elliott and Andrea Garner get left behind.

The cuts made during the preseason seemed to have motivated some of the players to play harder, knowing that they were competing for a limited number of spots. From our perspective, since we didn’t get to know many of the new players, there wasn’t much impact in seeing them go. Even when Robin and Andrea were cut, it may have been surprising but understandable given the competition for roster positions. Something about Katrina getting cut feels different, and we think it may have had some effect on the way the team played tonight.

For us, Katrina was a good symbol for the team. She worked very hard and always dealt gracefully with being kept on the bench. She played her role and supported the team when called upon. She was an underdog on an underdog team. And, she is one of the nicest people we’ve met through our short association with this team.

Yes, it happens. She accepts that and says that after going home to Louisiana, she’ll probably play ball in Europe next year and try out for another WNBA team next season. We as fans have to accept it because that’s the way it is. But that still doesn’t mean we aren’t sad to see her go. And, we think her teammates feel the same way.