The Crown have battled for the last three months.
They’ve navigated a flurry of roster moves, they’ve endured dry spells and they’ve established themselves as one the UPSHOT League’s premier teams.
Now they have one last thing to battle for – the league’s first-ever championship.
“Everything we’re doing from this point on is about one game and one goal,” said head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom.
With the regular season wrapping up last weekend, the Crown utilized this time to make final preparations for the winner-take-all matchup against the Waves on Saturday.
“We’re looking at being healthy, making sure all the nagging injuries and little things are taken care of,” said Stafford-Odom on the focus of this week’s practices. “But for the most part just efficiency. Everything we are doing we are trying to be precise with it. There is definitely a strive for perfection. Sharpening what we have, tweaking a few things and being a little more intentional about our movement.”
The Crown finished the regular season in second place – ending up two games behind the Waves – but enter the title matchup as the league’s hottest squad. After a bumpy 1-6 start, Charlotte righted the ship to go 22-5 the rest of the way – including finishing with 16 wins over the last 18 games of the season.
That momentum will be put to the test as the Crown march into the Sunshine State to face the Waves on their own home court – although Stafford-Odom sees her roster as battle tested for just this situation.
“It’s about how we come out and act in the atmosphere that I’m assuming will be pretty hostile,” said Stafford-Odom. “But the great part is at the beginning of the season, the way our schedule was set up, we became accustomed to becoming the road team and the road warriors eventually. Hopefully the atmosphere doesn’t faze us but it inspires us.”
Jacksonville was a juggernaut for much of the regular season, running with largely the same group of players throughout – a much different tale than the Crown, whose roster has undergone multiple overhauls.
“We’re facing a Jacksonville team that has been winning all season,” said Stafford-Odom. “They’re accustomed to one another, they’ve had the advantage of establishing chemistry longer than everyone else. So Jess [head coach Jessica Bogia] is going to do everything she can in her power as the head coach to make them play at their highest performance level.”
The Crown went 4-6 in their 10 regular-season matchups with the Waves – 2-3 at home and 2-3 on the road – but picked up victories in three of the final four meetings.
Those outcomes don’t mean much when it comes to a one-game series, though.
“We can’t really rely on what has been done in the past between these two teams because everyone’s gotten a little bit better,” said Stafford-Odom. “Everyone’s made adjustments.”
With the past behind them, the Crown have their sights set on one game and one goal – to bring a championship home to the Queen City.
“I’m waiting to burst with excitement and pride,” said Stafford-Odom. “We want to make everyone proud of the Crown. We’ve done that but we don’t want to stop. There’s one game and one goal left. We have one thing left to do, and we aspire to do that.”