Valentine's Day Quizzing at Petra

 While the quizzing schedule was back on track, quizzing was far from back for normal...well, at least for this year. Because the postponed week landed on what was scheduled on an off week, the next quiz meet would be on the following Sunday. The quizzers would only have a week to prepare. While a single week to prepare is closer to a typical, traditional year for veteran quizzers, for rookie quizzers, who are use to quizmeets every other week a single week to prepare is a brand new experience. For Stony Brook, a team of rookie quizzers, it was a brand new experience for everybody. Furthermore, with quiz practice on Friday nights, the quizzers would only have a single day to fix what they needed to fix.

Of course, the Stony Brook quiz team came together on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. to practice. Caleb had to step out at 2:30 p.m. for choir practice, so we started with a practice match instead of our usual reading, just so Caleb could at least get a practice match in before leaving. That practice match did not go well. In the first third of match, there was 3 errors, and a 4th question absolutely nobody knew. At that point, I, as their coach, decided we needed to stop the practices matches and read. Caleb started off the reading, so he could do his part right before leaving. He read his part and exited. The rest of the quiz team wrapped up reading, and then they went back to practices matches. These practice matches went a whole lot better. Even moving quizzing out to 4 question quiz outs because Caleb was out, the rest of quizzers could still quiz out easily. They were ready. The quiz team wrapped up practice by going over lists, like the current week's longest list of the 13 evils that come from within and defile a man, and review lists like the 12 disciples. While the quiz team waited for dinner to cook, they took a break by playing Mario Chase, a minigame on the Wii U game Nintendo Land. Everybody got the opportunity to play as "it" on the Wii U game pad, running away from the players playing with the Wiimote. It was a lot of fun. Around 4:15 p.m., dinner was ready, and the quiz team sat down to eat some lasagna made by Karen Hershey. Caleb rejoined the team at 4:30 p.m. for dinner. Once everybody finished eating, the quizzers loaded into the Metzler van to leave. After a quick pit stop at Stony Brook Mennonite Church to take our team photo, we drove off to Petra Church for our quiz meet.

The Stony Brook team photo

The Stony Brook quiz team arrived at Petra Church, so the team went into their nook to do a few rounds of questions. As their coach, I did not want to overdo it, so the team headed into the sanctuary to wait for worship.  After a few worship songs and announcements, Stony Brook had to exit the sanctuary immediately, for the team had the first match of the first round.

Waiting for worship

For the first match, Stony Brook faced off against Petra 9, a team at the time last place in our league. Despite Petra 9 dominating buzzing in for every question the first half of match, they errored on a quarter on them, and Stony Brook got all the bonuses correct, keeping the match close. Stony Brook had a bit of a score when Petra 9 answered 3 questions correctly in a row, including one of their quizzers quizzing out, putting Petra 9 a solid 35 points in the lead. Stony Brook would answer with their own streak of 3 correct answers, helping the team catch up, yet they still fell short 5 points due to the Petra 9 quizzer quizzing out back on question 7. It didn't help when a Petra 9 quizzers buizzed in and answered correctly on question 13, putting Petra 9 ahead 15 points. On question 14, Petra 9 buzzed in and errored, but Stony Brook could not pick up the bonus and answered it incorrectly. On question 15, Olivia buzzed in, answered correctly and quizzed out, tying the match! Yes, the final score was 75-75. The highlight of the match was Olivia getting her second quiz out of the year.

After an hour of wait time, Stony Brook had their second match of the night, this time facing off against Hinkletown 4, the 3rd Hinkletown team for the year. Now Hinkletown 4 had Rebekah Showalter and Hannah Martin, 2 perfect quizzers, meaning they had quizzed out every match this year so far. At the same time, however, I noticed how the rest of the quizzers on Hinkletown 4 hadn't done much. Before the quizmatch started, I, as their quiz coach, reminded the quizzers that the beginning of the quiz match may become the Hannah and Rebekah show, but Stony Brook could sweep in at the end and take the match. Man, I hate it when I'm right. For the first 9 questions, Rebekah and Hannah buzzed in on 8 of them, answering three-quarters correctly and erroring on the other quarter, which Stony Brook picked up all the bonuses correctly. Then, after both Hannah and Rebekah quizzed out, a 3rd Hinkletown 4 quizzer by the name of Elisabeth buzzed in and answered correctly, extending their lead even further. Two-thirds the way through the match, and Hinkletown 4 had the lead 80-30. During a timeout, I, their quiz coach, reminded the quizzers that Rebekah and Hannah quizzed out, and now Stony Brook could take control of the match. Stony Brook definitely did try. On question 11, Kate buzzed in and errored. Fortunately, Elisabeth could not answer the bonus correctly. On question 12, Olivia buzzed in and answered correctly, her first action of the quizmatch. Unfortunately, she followed up on question 13 with and error, but fortunately, Elisabeth got the bonus incorrect again. With 2 questions left, Stony Brook was behind 40-80. As their quiz coach, I was unsure if I should leave in the 4 quizzers of the starting lineup, who each had 1 question correct, so they had the opportunity to quiz out, or to pull a quizzer out for our substitute Caleb to increase our chance for team bonus. As their coach, I was indecisive on what to do. Then Hinkletown 4 called their final timeout. I took it as a sign. Since Kaylee and Olivia already had a buzz in, I made a coach's decision to pull Olivia and put in Caleb. Now with Caleb, Kate and Lauren all in, if 2 of the 3 of them buzzed in and answered correctly, Stony Brook would get team bonus! On question 14, Caleb buzzed in and answered correctly. Now it came down to either Kate or Lauren buzzing in and answering correctly for team bonus. On question 15, Kate buzzed in and answered correctly, giving Stony Brook team bonus! If you're keeping score, yes, Stony Brook tied again, this time with a score of 80-80.

At the halfway point of the quizzing season, Stony Brook has a record of 1-2-3. Yes, Stony Brook has 1 win, 2 losses and 3 ties! More importantly, since standings go by points, Stony Brook now has a grand total of 420 points, bumping their point average up to 70 points/match. Hopefully, the increase in total points and point average will result in the team moving up the rankings.