Opening the second half of the quizzing season at Strasburg

 Whenever the Super Bowl happens, the quizmeet gets pushed up to 2:00 p.m. Whenever the quizmeet gets pushed up to the afternoon, every part of quizzing Sunday gets pushed up to an earlier time. At 9 o'clock, the Stony Brook quiz team met downstairs in the fellowship hall for half a practice. They read through the quizzing material and had 2 practice matches. They saw much improvement Kate and Kaylee quizzed out on both of these practices matches, and both practices matches had 4 of the 5 quizzers buzzing in correctly, which means they were set up for team bonus. Things were looking good. At 10 o'clock, the team went upstairs to the sanctuary for worship. After the worship concluded, the team took their team photo, and they bid Caleb farewell, as he had to leave for choir. Then the remainder of the team went back downstairs to the fellowship hall for the second half of quiz practice. Once again, everybody was at least getting a buzz-in correct, setting up hopes for team bonus. Once practice finished, Becca delivered Marcello's for the quiz team's lunch. After everyone had eaten lunch, Stony Brook quiz coach Graham Holcomb asked rounds of questions, letting the quizzers tell him if they wanted a question from Nehemiah (this week's material), Joshua or Job (review material). At 1 o'clock, the team departed Stony Brook Mennonite Church for Strasburg Mennonite Church. The team arrived just in time for worship.

Right after worship, the Stony Brook quiz team had to head downstairs to the fellowship for their first quizmatch, versus Good Shepherd 2, with Dustin King as the quizmaster. The quizmatch begin with Mark of Good Shepherd 2 buzz-in, but he got it incorrect. The bonus went to Kate, and Kate got the bonus correct. Stony Brook continued extending their lead, with a correct buzz in from Kaylee on question 2 and a right buzz in from Olivia on question 3. Mark of Good Shepherd 2 interrupted that with his own correct buzz in on question 4, but Stony Brook bounced right back with their own buzz in right on question 5, thanks to Olivia. On question 6, Mark buzzed in for a third time, but this one he also got wrong, bringing him up to 2 errors. At this point, the Good Shepherd 2 coach called a time out, probably to warn Mark about erroring out if he got a 3rd error. The Stony Brook coach took this opportunity to tell Kate, who turned both of Mark's bonuses into points, to not worry about team bonus if she quizzed out with buzzing in for team bonus. Even if that meant that the team could not get team bonus (remember, with Caleb absent, all 4 of the remaining quizzers had to get a buzz in correct for team bonus), the quiz out was just as valuable, if not more valuable, as team bonus. After all, Stony Brook was winning 50-10 at that point. Sure enough, on question 8, Mark errored out, and Kate quizzed out on his error out. Mark left his seat for the error out, and Kate left her seat for the quiz out, making this a 3 v. 3 quizmatch. On question 9, Kaylee buzzed in and answered correctly, and on question 10, Good Shepherd 2's Olivia (not Stony Brook's Olivia) answered her own buzz in right. On question 11, Good Shepherd 2's Kaylyn buzzed in and answered incorrectly, and Olivia answered the bonus correctly, giving herself a quiz out. On question 12, Kaylyn tried to buzz in again, and this time, she answered right. The last 3 questions were review, and neither team was ready for review, as questions 13 and 14 went by with nobody even attempting the question. On question 15, Kaylee attempted and got it wrong, but it didn't matter, as Ryan of Good Shepherd 2 couldn't get it right either. Stony Brook won, 90-40!

Stony Brook vs. Good Shepherd 2

Stony Brook had a round break before they had their 3rd round quizmatch versus Strasburg 3 in the sanctuary, with Todd Hertzler as the quizmaster. Strasburg 3 quizzer Logan began the quizmatch strong with a buzz-in correct. Strasburg 3 quizzer Truman attempted to start off strong himself with a buzz in, but he answered incorrectly. Kate continued her streak of answering bonuses correctly, putting Stony Brook's first points on the board. On question 4, Kaylee buzzed in and answered right, giving Stony Brook the lead 20-10. She tried to get 2 buzz ins correct in a row, but she instead committed an error, which Riley of Strasburg 3 would answer correctly, tying up the score at 20 points. For the next 3 out of 4 questions, Truman of Strasburg 3 buzzed in and answered them all right, quizzing out by question 8. His quiz out was only interrupted by his own teammate Logan, who errored, which Lauren picked up the bonus, giving Stony Brook more points. Truman would error again on question 9, but this bonus Lauren could not get. At this time, the Strasburg 3 coach called a time out to pull Logan, who was close to erroring out, to put in Grace. The Stony Brook quiz coach took this timeout to remind them team that, while losing by 25 points, this quizmatch was not a runaway, so the quiz team should still go in full throttle. With 2 Strasburg 3 quizzers out and 2 Strasburg 3 subs in, Strasburg 3 slowed down, and Stony Brook sped up. On questions 10 & 11, Stony Brook got 2 buzz-ins correct, one from Kate and one from Olivia. On question 12, Riley of Strasburg 3 attempted her first buzz in, which she got incorrect, and Kaylee also got the bonus wrong. More importantly, Riley's error brought Strasburg 3 to 4 errors. One more error, and they start losing points. The Strasburg 3 coach called timeout to remind the team of this, and the Stony Brook coach again reminded that the team bonus was not needed for a win (the team was 1 Lauren away from team bonus), so everyone should attempt to get to get ahead (Stony Brook was losing by 5 points at this point) and stay ahead in front of Strasburg 3. On question 13, however, Strasburg 3 quizzers Zach buzzed in and answered correctly. Now this changed everything. Not only did Strasburg 3 have a 15-point lead, they also were 1 correct buzz in away from team bonus, with 3 quizzers eligible to get it. Graham called a timeout to inform the quiz team of this, but he also let them know he could take the lead and the win by simply answering the last 2 question right. On question 14, Olivia buzzed in and answered correctly! Stony Brook went from 15 points behind Strasburg 3 to 5 points behind Strasburg 3. It looked like the last question would determine the quizmatch. On question 15, quizmaster Todd asked, "The feet of the priests were dipped in what?" and Strasburg 3 quizzer Riley buzzed in. She buzzed in and answered, "The waters... the brink of the waters..." and then ran out of time. Todd marked Riley wrong, causing her team to lose 5 points. The score was tied at 60, but Stony Brook had the opportunity to grab the win. Todd gave the bonus to Kaylee.  Kaylee answered, "The waters of the Jordan...the brink of the waters of the Jordan," to which Todd marked her right! Ston Brook won, 70-60.

Stony Brook vs. Strasburg 3

The quiz team had a 2 round break before their last quizmatch of the afternoon, versus Strasburg 1, back in the sanctuary with quizmaster Todd Hertzler. The whole quiz team knew they were going up against a 2nd place team, so they knew were going to have a rough match ahead of them. Graham encouraged them to just try their best, score as many points as possible, and whatever God gives and whatever God takes away, the quiz team will bless God's name. Sure enough, it was a tough match. For the first 9 questions, Strasburg 1 buzzed in on all of them. From that, both Zoe and Wesley quizzed out. Now during this time, Strasburg 3 did error on 2 of the questions, but Stony Brook could not pick up the bonuses. Stony Brook got its first points on question 10 with a correct buzz in from Olivia, but Strasburg 1 responded with their own buzz in answered right. Kaylee tried insert herself on question 12, but she answered incorrectly. Ashley on Strasburg 1's side answered the bonus correctly, making herself the third Strasburg 1 quizzer to quiz out for the match. On question 13, Olivia buzzed in and answered right, giving the team 20 points. On question 14, Maddie of Strasburg 1 buzzed in and answered correctly, giving Strasburg 1 team bonus. On question 15, Olivia buzzed in and got it right, quizzing out. Stony Brook lost 35-135, but the silver living was Olivia manging to quiz out in the last third of the quizmatch, especially after being unable to quiz out the last match.

After 5 quizmeets and 14 quizmatches, Stony Brook has a record of 6-8, scoring a grand total of 1,035 points, averaging 74 points per match. Congratulations, Stony Brook, for scoring over 1,000 points, and in 5 weeks, too! It also great to see all the Stony Brook quizzers present score at least once during the quizmeet, so all of them increased their personal record for points in a season. Nehemiah was rough with all its lists, but Jonah should be nicer, so next week should not be as tough. Stony Brook could even have another quizmatch with a score in the triple digits.