A Close Call: A Quick Overview of Otay Ranch vs Mater Dei

@Otay Ranch’s Academic League Team

The Thursday before Spring break, a penultimate Academic League game was played between Otay Ranch and Mater Dei. This match determined whether Otay Ranch could remain undefeated in our official season until the final Olympian match. Otay Ranch started out strong and were doing fairly well until Mater Dei was able to score toss-ups. Once Mater Dei scored a toss-up, they were practically guaranteed to receive all their bonuses.

For context, an Academic League or Quiz Bowl match is played between two teams who receive toss-up questions worth 10 points each. Each toss-up question scored leads to three bonus questions which only the team that answered correctly may buzz-in for. Mater Dei seems to have focused heavily on their bonuses, answering almost every one with high accuracy. However, the Mustangs were triumphant in the end with more knowledge on a variety of topics and question stylings.

The game was by no means an outstanding victory, it was in fact a close-call from both sides. With a score of 370-320, another toss-up answered wrong by Otay or answered correctly by Mater Dei may have made a world of difference. Nonetheless, our game with Mater Dei was definitely one of the most enjoyable and we are honored to have played with such a respectful and wonderful team.

Unfortunately, Mater Dei did not have any JV team, and therefore, no JV attended (apart from Garrett Bice). Our Varsity fought valiantly and with great effort, scoring 15 toss-ups in total. Of course this was not without losses, a quite obvious question on water was lost by Yechan Park along with an equally easy question on Queen Elizabeth I by Yechan Kim, yours truly, who erroneously said “Elizabethan Era.” A couple of other questions were lost by incorrect answers or by Mater Dei’s speed.

Amelia Cortina, our captain Nimai Kasibatla, and Ethan Paris each answered 1 toss-up. Of course, they answered and assisted with a countless multitude of bonuses too. As usual, both Yechans led in terms of score. The gap between them seems to have widened a bit with Yechan Kim scoring 9 toss-ups while Yechan Park scored 3.