Okay y’all, buckle up. This week ranking the MIAA field hockey teams? Pure chaos. Had to brew an extra strong cup of coffee just to process it.
The Usual Grind Started Normally
Opened up my spreadsheet, same routine. Pulled last week’s rankings – that was my baseline. Started plugging in all the scores from Tuesday and Thursday games first. Checked my usual sources, team websites, local sports recaps, everything. Typed ’em in slow, double-checking each one. Win here, loss there, seemed mostly predictable.
Then… Wham! Saturday rolled around. Was casually scrolling through scores over lunch, sandwich in one hand. Spit out my coffee. Not kidding. Read that score again. Did a team ranked way down beat one of my top 5 contenders? Yeah, they absolutely did. And it wasn’t some fluky 1-0 squeaker either. Major upset.
My mind was blown. Grabbed my notebook, flipped to a fresh page, scribbling like crazy. Crossed out the old numbers next to those two teams. Drew giant question marks. How big was this? Had to reassess everything.
Digging Deeper Into the Wreckage
Couldn’t just stop at that one shocker. Had to slam the data:
- Looked at head-to-head: Did this loss completely flip a key matchup from earlier?
- Scanned margins: Were other top teams barely scraping wins? Maybe they’d been looking shaky.
- Stared at streaks: Was the losing team on a sudden slide? Was the winning team suddenly unstoppable?
- Checked injuries: Scoured local forums – had someone crucial been missing? Made a huge diff.
Realized that one upset wasn’t alone. Found another couple of games where mid-pack teams smashed opponents they had no business smashing based on the last seven weeks. Patterns! That’s what pushed it from “weird week” to “major shakeup”.
Slamming the New Order Together
Okay, deep breath. Time to actually move the teams. Felt wrong moving that top contender down so far after one loss… but the margin + who beat them + how other contenders performed? Had to drop ’em hard. Sent them tumbling down 4 spots. Hurt to do it. Upped that underdog giant-killer way higher than I ever thought they’d be this season.
The other surprises meant shuffling the whole middle tier. Pushed two teams that grabbed unexpected, decisive wins up several slots. Demoted teams that limped past weaker opponents or, worse, lost to them. The bottom… honestly, the bottom stayed kinda messy.
Stepped back. Looked at the new top 10. Barely resembled last week’s. Was it right? Based on this week’s pure chaos, yeah. Hit publish. Took another sip of (now cold) coffee. Never count any team out, folks. Week 8 proved that loud and clear.
