The Stony Brook quiz team had a very busy Sunday for their season opener!
At 10:00 a.m., the Stony Brook quiz team worshipped together at Stony Brook Mennonite Church. Halfway through the worship service, the congregation blessed/commissioned/dedicated the quizzers to the Lord by the COVID-friendly version of "laying of hands" (extending their arms towards the quizzers) and praying over them. The quiz team then gave the church a special treat by reading the Scripture of the sermon right out of their quiz book. Their quiz coach then preached on part of the quizzing material. Now the quizzers didn't have to worry about being tempted to read their quiz book instead of listening to the sermon 😉! After the worship service concluded, the quizzers did not leave empty-handed because they each received their secret sponsor gift.
The quizzers arrived for quiz practice at 2:00 p.m. at their quiz coach's home. As they arrived, their coach received an important text message from the Bible quizzing coordinator. Due to sickness, quizzing was short staffed. Quizzing had to remove a room and staff and add an extra round. Instead of having back-to-back matches, the Stony Brook quiz team now had a match in the new last round. While it would not affect the quiz team immediately, they would be staying later than normal. This was the 3rd practice, with the 8th, 9th and 10th practice quiz match. At first, it did not go so hot. While Kate managed to quiz out by question 5, by question 8, there were 6 errors, of which 4 of the bonuses were dropped (incorrect). By the last practice match, however, the team got hot. The first 6 questions were correct buzz-ins, there were only 3 errors the whole match, and the rest of the match were correct buzz-ins. True, that last practice match was going over missed questions over the past 2 Friday practices, but it demonstrated that the quizzers had learned from their mistakes. It would come in handy. Quizzing practice went so smoothly, the quiz team had dinner early, consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, salad and garlic knots, made by Carrie, sponsored by Dwayne and Teri. With an early dinner, the quizzers got some free time to relax. They played some Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch, seeing if they could beat their coach's high score. At 5 o'clock, they departed for Petra church for their quiz meet.
The quiz team reached Petra church at 6 o'clock. After everybody went for a bathroom break, the quiz team found a nook, where the quiz coach did a round of questions with the quizzers over the missed questions from that afternoon and last Friday. The quizzers were ready as they would ever be! The quiz team entered the sanctuary as the worship music began for a time of worship. When worship ended, the quizzing coordinator went through some announcements. During the announcements, he announced all the churches and all the team. As he went down the S part of the list, he announced, "We have 1 new church: Stony Brook!" The team received quite a hearty applause! Due to social distancing during the pandemic, the only ones attending the quiz matches were the quizzers, coaches, staff and immediate family. Therefore, the rest of teams had to wait for their matches in the sanctuary or the lobby. The Stony Brook quiz team retreated back to their nook to wait for their matches.
Before they knew it, it was 7:40 p.m., and Stony Brook made their way to room 301 for their first quiz match, versus Hinkletown 6. The whole match between Hinkletown 6 and Stony Brook was neck and neck. Whenever Hinkletown 6 would answer a question correctly and get ahead, Stony Brook would catch up by answering a question correctly. Whenever Stony Brook would take the lead by answering a question correctly, Hinkletown 6 would follow up by answering a question correctly, and tie up the score again. After the first 2 questions, the score was tied at 10. After 4 questions, the score was tied at 20. After 6 questions, the score was tied at 30. Trevor from Hinkletown 6 would answer question 6 correctly and quiz out, giving Hinkletown 6 a 15 point lead. Stony Brook would take the lead back by answering back-to-back questions correctly, but then Hinkletown 6 would take lead back with their own back-to-back correct answers. Caleb would help turn Hinkletown 6's odd 15 point lead into a tie again with his quiz out on question 13, but Jordan from Hinkletown 6 would quiz out himself, giving Hinkletown 6 their 15 point lead back. A win was out of the question, but a tie would be possible with Kate, who was 1 correct answer away from a quiz out. Knowing this, her quiz coach called out the words of encouragement his coach once gave him: "Kate, this next question is yours!" Those words of encouragement is just wait Kate needed. Kate buzzed in, answered correctly and quizzed out. The quiz match ended in a tie, with a final score of 80-80. The quiz team retreated back to their nook in the foyer to reflect on their first quiz match.
Before they knew it, an hour had passed, and the Stony Brook quiz team made their way to the "oasis" (the Petra youth group room) for their second quiz match, versus Strasburg 3. Strasburg 3 consisted of a team of veterans, and it showed. Strasburg 3 buzzed in on all the first 13 questions, only answering incorrectly twice the whole time. Fortunately, the Stony Brook team only managed to get 1 of those 2 bonuses correct. To make matter worse, those 11 of 13 buzz ins gave Strasburg 3 team bonus and 3 quiz outs. After two-thirds the way through the quiz match, their coach called a time out. He reminded them that standings go by points, not by win-loss record, so don't get to hung up on losing, but focus on racking up some point. That pep talk may have taken a few questions to kick in, but it worked! On the last 2 questions, Olivia buzzed in and answered the questions correctly. Stony Brook would lose 25-145, but Olivia would add 20 points to her individual score, and Kate would add 10 points to her individual score, and Stony Brook would add 25 points to its score.
After their first quizmeet, Stony Brook has a record of 0-1-1, and a total of 105 points, which averages 52.5 per match. Stay tuned to pabiblequizzing.org to see where that lands Stony Brook in the standings!
