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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Year: Ashley

The news that Ashley is NLLInsider.com’s Girl of the Year isn’t anything new, but we got to thinking that some of you may have missed it. The contest wrapped up at a busy time of the year and even if you did catch it, we figured it wouldn’t suck to hear from her again.

So that’s what we did. We got hold of the Chicago Shamrox dancer again for some Q&A stuff and she was more than willing to provide some more insight and feedback into the process. It’s kinda cool, actually, the way a lot of Chicago sports fans were incorporated in the voting process to help support the National Lacrosse League. Of course, it helps when your connections include high-ranking cheering people from the Bulls, White Sox and Rush. No mention of Cubs fans, though, so it looks like there’s some work to do to find that love on the north side of Chi-town. 

Anyway, here it is. As Paul Harvey might say, the rrrrrest of Ashley’s story: READ MORE »

NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Ashley wins!

It’s over. It’s finally over.

Our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest has reached its championship and you, the voters, for the most part, have picked our winner. And who may that be, you ask? Legit question. The answer, dear reader, is Ashley. Yeppers, it’s Ashley from the Chicago Shamrox who is the winner of our inaugural contest. It was an impressive battle to the end, and Ashley topped New York’s Crystal by a count of 6,155 to 4,138. A total of 10,293 votes were cast and yeah, it raised our eyebrows, too. How so? Look at it this way: All season long, the highest number of voters we had for an ENTIRE contest never exceeded 2,000. For the final night of voting in this here title match, we had about 4,000 votes cast over the course of one night.

The only thing we know for sure is that a bunch — and we mean a BUNCH — of votes came from a few computers, but there’s no rule against that so the title’s all Ashley’s. Big props to Crystal for being such a great sport during the entire tournament. She was in touch regularly with us here and as far as we can tell, was the only contestant all season long to interact with the fans over at WingsZone.com. As for the winner, Ashley’s obviously thrilled and if you wanna read her thoughts on winning — and her Playboy dreams — turn the page.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, title match update! It’s Crystal vs. Ashley

At long last, here we are: The championship matchup of our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest and now we’ve got some new pics for you to stare at.

And who are the finalists? We knew Crystal already was in the final, and her opponent is none other than Chicago’s Ashley, who easily outpaced Philadelphia’s Elizabeth by a vote count of 932-499 for the victory. That’s a pretty impressive vote total, which tells us that even though the playing days are finished for the 2008 season, the fans are still into anything and everything that is National Lacrosse League. That’s the kinda spirit we dig here at NLLInsider.com and on behalf of all the participants through the 2 or 3 months of this contest, thanks for your participation as voters. It’s good to know ya’ll are paying attention to the real issues of the day, and no matter what’s going on around us at work, at home and at play, we’ve got the dedication to get our vote on and exercise one of the actions that’s bedrock to our free part of the country.

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OK, so maybe we’re assigning a bit too much value to this whole ordeal but the fact still remains: We still need your vote to have a winner. So turn the page, do the homework on the new pics we’ve added, and don’t be afraid to push that button. We’ll be back next week to let ya’ll know who won.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, semifinals: It’s Ashley vs. Elizabeth

Who says we’re out of game? Just because the lacrosse players themselves have crowned a champion doesn’t mean we’re finished with the National Lacrosse League season.

That’s because Crystal of the New York Titans is our first official finalist in our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest. She dusted Megan fairly easily in voting this past week for a 311-234 score. And don’t worry, there’ll be no 311 tribute videos at the end of this announcement to honor the winning vote total. Last time I did that, Teddy Jenner didn’t understand it so we’ll keep it simple this time around. As it is, we’re on to the second semfinal, pitting Chicago’s Ashley up against Elizabeth of the Philadelphia Wings.

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So do your homework, turn the page and cast your vote so we find out who’s gonna go up against Crystal for the overall title.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, semifinals: It’s Crystal vs. Megan

Welcome to the final four.

Not THAT final four. It’s THIS final four. The important one! Well, we suppose that all depends on your perspective but in the grand scheme of things what’s more important? Lacrosse or dance team girls? Hmmm … that’s a tough one. Well, not really. But press on we will with the final four contestants of our NLL Girl of the Week contest. With Ashley’s 372-163 win over Sabrina this past week, we are down to the final four contestants. And going up against each other this week in the first semifinal is Crystal of the New York Titans and Megan of the San Jose Stealth.

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If we’ve gotta explain the process from here, you’re new to these parts. But we’re gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and just tell ya to turn the page, take a look at the contestants and let you figure it out from there. Go ahead. We trust ya.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, Round 2: It’s Sabrina vs. Ashley

Well, here we are. It’s the final quarterfinal and the results of this week’s vote will finalize the final four of our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest.

What a long, strange trip it’s been, but as we stare into that light at the end of the tunnel, we can smile with satisfaction knowing how much better the world is for our dedication to such important … stuff. Last week, Elizabeth of the Philadelphia Wings ran away with the contest against Caelee of Edmonton. Wasn’t even close, really, with a 312-157 vote count in favor of Elizabeth. Who will challenge Elizabeth in the semifinals is the winner of this week’s matchup, which puts Ashley of the Chicago Shamrox up against Sabrina of the Toronto Rock. Yet again, we’re looking at another classic case of the blonde vs. the brunette, but it’s not like we planned it that way. It’s just a convenient coincidence.

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You know the routine. Check out what we’ve got for ya after the jump, read the words and then proceed to make an intelligent, informed decision. The fate of all that important … stuff … depends on it.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, Round 2: It’s Caelee vs. Elizabeth

So the San Jose Stealth are done, but the Spy Girls are not. That’s thanks to Megan, who got a solid show of support in her second-round matchup this past week.

Megan cruised to an easy 115-70 victory over Toronto’s Chantal to give us the left side of our Final Four bracket in our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest. Her opponent in two weeks? Crystal of the New York Titans. Megan’s now waltzed her way into a pair of comfortable victories to reach the semifinal round, and it’s pretty easy to see why. But, it’s time to move on and this week, we’ve got Edmonton’s Caelee up against Elizabeth of Philadelphia. It’s another blonde vs. brunette, East vs. West matchup, so the rivalry is a natural one.

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So it’s time to get your vote on again, fellow Americans. Do it with pride as you survey all the qualifications of this week’s candidates. Don’t let the mud-slinging campaigns get in your way of making a clear, informed and educated selection. After all, voting is just one of our duties as Americans. Right? Yup … that’s my answer too.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week, Round 2: It’s Megan vs. Chantal

Last week, we told ya that we were taking a break from our first-round matchups to let the NLL Girls of the Week selection process catch up with us. Well, it looks like we’re caught up.

The National Lacrosse League let me know that our forray into the second round was right on schedule because, as it turns out, all the selections for the season are finished. So what’s that mean? It means we’re in the process of creating our Final Four. And with Crystal’s close win over Nikki last week, it looks like the Titans have playoff reps playing lacrosse and cheering for it. Not a bad year for the franchise, eh?

This week’s matchup, our 10th of the season, puts San Jose’s Megan up against Toronto’s Chantal. Backing up just a wee bit, it was tough not to notice the vote total of last week’s matchup, and since it came in at a precious 311, we’ve included a bonus video tribute to one of our favorite bands of all time … something you can see after the jump.

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You know the drill by now. Take a look at the pics provided, cast your vote and make haste. Poll closes at midnight on Sunday.

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NLL Girls

It’s the NLL Girl of the Week Contest, Round 2: Nikki vs. Crystal

We’re at a point in this here contest where we’ve actually caught up with the National Lacrosse League’s Girl of the Week. So what we’re gonna do is take a temprorary timeout from the first-round matches and get some second-round matches outta the way.

Unconventional? You bet, but we’re thinkin’ it’s better to do it this way than wait another two weeks for two more girls to be named. Don’t worry, nerds. We’ve got our brackets all set up so we can keep track of what’s goin’ on and hopefully, we’ll have a bracket posted soon enough so you can track the progress yourself. We were gonna get this second-round posted Tuesday, but then realized that a lot of you Pennsylvania people were gettin’ your vote on in another ballot box, naming Hillary your Girl of the Week in some race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Last week, Toronto’s Sabrina edged Rochester’s Danielle in a fairly close vote. Voter turnout was disappointing, to say the least. We’re gonna blame the weather, ’cause it certainly can’t be apathy. So what do we have this week? Well, we’re reaching way back to Weeks 1 and 4 to pit Chicago’s Nikki against New York’s Crystal.

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So take a look to remind yourselves of why you voted for Nikki or Crystal the first time around and then decide who is worthy of your vote this time around. We shouldn’t have to remind you how important your vote is, and that every vote counts! It’s vital to the direction of this country. Right? Depends on who ya ask, we guess.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girls: Danielle vs. Sabrina

OK, so we’re a little late getting the weekly contest out this time around. Get over it. These things happen and that old maxim of being late is better than never being at all is gonna apply here.

So what’s up as we head into Matchup No. 8? Well, not much. We pretty much had our first official rout last week, with Ashley rolling to a 171-20 win over Brooke. Not even close. Of note, too, is the considerable number of voters who took the week off. We had well over 1,400 votes cast in the last two matchups, so come on, voters! What’s going on with that? Don’t even try the sorry excuse of being busy. Then again, there’s been some decent weather as of late so if any excuse is gonna hold weight around here, it’s that ya’ll were outside catching up on yardwork.

So we’ll let it slide this time, but let’s get our game back on for this week, as Rochester’s Danielle takes on Sabrina of Toronto. It’s a good matchup between two teams that are big lacrosse rivals, so why not extend that to the dance teams?

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So get your vote on and get it on today. We’re extending the voting deadline to Sunday at midnight since we’re a little late this week so don’t delay as we come down the home stretch. There’s just a few more first-round matchups before the second round kicks in and we’ll get to revisit some familiar faces.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Sabrina

You gotta say this about dancers and cheerleaders: They’ve got a big smile and plenty of energy no matter what the score is. You know we’re right, because you remember those high school football and basketball games where your team was down 40 points and yet there were the cheerleaders, jumpin’ and screamin’ like your team still had a chance.

Well, we’re not about to write off the Toronto Rock, but truth be told, things haven’t gone too well lately up in the T.O. The offense has struggled, losses are mounting and now your star goalie’s limpin’ around on a bum ankle. But ya know what? The cheering’s not gonna stop. Not by the faithful fans and certainly not by Sabrina, the Rock dancer who was named the National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week. “I love dancing because it’s a great outlet for my energy and emotions,” she said to NLL.com and God knows there’s plenty of energy and emotions to outlet if you’re a fan of the Rock these days. And should she dance too hard and pull a muscle somehow, she’ll know right where to turn: Herself. She’s already got her degree in kinesiology and health studies from McMasters, and she’s currently a student at the University of Toronto where she’s working toward her dream of being an occupational therapist.

She admits she’s an emotional person on her Rock profile page, but since she also admitted to living through the bowl haircut and crooked bangs her father gave her at the age of 4, we figure she’ll come out OK no matter what happens to the Rock this season. One thing’s for sure, you know she’ll be dancin’ and cheering for the Rock as much as anyone for the final two weeks of the regular season.

• Take the NLL Offensive Challenge: WingsZone.com

NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Danielle

Rochester might be a small-market team for the National Lacrosse League, but when it comes to smarts, it’s in the big leagues.

And that’s with no small help from Danielle, the Knightingale named NLL Girl of the Week this week. Danielle, ya see, is not just a dancer. So it goes beyond the fact that she’s a fifth-year member of the squad, showing her dedication to stick with something good when she finds it. She admits she didn’t know anything about lacrosse when she moved to Rochester from the Bronx, but she now counts herself among the diehard fans. So what is it that makes her the smart one of the bunch? Well, pursuit of a PhD in Immunology at the University of Rochester is a good starting point and ending point. How you gonna argue with that?

While most of us are trying to figure out how to open the child-proof cap on a bottle of aspirin, Danielle’s at UR doing research with the ultimate goal of being a Bio Medical researcher. Not bad, eh?

On her NLL profile page, she admits to abstract thoughts in her head, which may explain goalie Pat O’Toole being her favorite NLL player because, as we well know, there’s got to be something abstract going on in the head of any fella who jumps between the pipes to make saves. So that’s gotta explain the connection there, right? Whatever the connection, don’t let it intimidate you.

As much as she enjoys the challenge of the abstract world and doing the kind of work that, you know, saves lives, she lets us know on her Knightingale page that she’s not above finding some mindless laughs while watching re-runs of The Cosby Show. And that brings up a fantastic debate. After all these years since the show’s end, what still makes us laugh the most? Bill Cosby’s sweaters or Theo Huxtable’s homemade shirt?

• Don’t forget to vote for Ashley or Brooke: NLLInsider.com

NLL Girls

NLL Girls: Ashley vs. Brooke

Just when we thought you geeks couldn’t do any better, you go out and prove us wrong. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing for you, or us.

Two weeks ago, ya’ll nearly broke the voting machine with 1,423 votes in our National Lacrosse League Girls of the Week Matchup No. 5. So whaddya do for Matchup No. 6? You go out and cast even MORE votes. Just a few more votes, but still, the 1,449 votes cast that sent Caelee to a 753-696 win over Erin is an impressive total. So, we can’t figure out if you guys have earned our respect or mockery, but it’s probably pretty close to the same thing anyway.

This week, we’ve got Ashley of the Chicago Shamrox going up against Brooke of the San Jose Stealth. Will Ashley have as much game as the Shammies have had recently? Or will Brooke come out of nowhere (you know a ”stealth” joke had to be in here somewhere) and move on to the second round? Cast your vote today, ’cause we’re shuttin’ down this poll Friday at midnight. 

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Now as we go on to No. 7, we’ve got to note that we’re gonna have an odd number of matchups for the season. With three weeks left in the NLL’s regular season, we’ll have one more bracket pairing to fill out, leaving the final NLL Girl of the Week as the lucky recipient of an automatic bye into the second round.

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NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Brooke

The Jersey girl is now a Valley girl. Well, not quite. But when she makes the move from East Coast to West coast, we’re gonna call it close enough.

Brooke is a Spy Girl for the San Jose Stealth and she’s this week’s NLL Girl of the Week. She says she moved out West for a change in scenery and with the beaches, she got it. As for lacrosse, well, she’s no stranger to the game. She says the game was more popular than football at her New Jersey high school and that’s helped refine her appreciation of the game, not to mention her days as a goalie in youth soccer that’s helped build her fondness for Stealth goalie Anthony Cosmo.

As for dancing, she’s got it goin’ on. She landed a scholarshop to the NJ Center of Dance before moving on to Virginia Commonwealth University, where an injury forced her off the floor. She transferred to San Jose State and after finishing there, she figured she’d give the Spy a shot. So far, so good for this first-year team member.

So be sure to check out Brooke on her NLL profile page and her San Jose Stealth page and while you’re at it, please note that we behaved and bit our tongue to avoid pickin’ on the Jersey girl. Jersey jokes are just too easy these days!

• Vote today for Caelee or Erin: NLLInsider.com
• Bad news for Stealth, Wiles: NLLInsider.com

NLL Girls

NLL Girls: Caelee vs. Erin

Stand up and give yourselves a hand. All you voters should be proud of yourselves, including the computer geeks who cleared their cookies so they could cast more than one vote in NLL Girl of the Week Matchup 5 that put Anne up against Elizabeth.

How dare we toss out such an accusation? Well, when we see that 1,423 votes were cast, it makes us wonder. And after we crunch a few numbers, we see that the 1,423 votes were not only five times more than the previous best turnout, it’s more votes than the previous four weeks combined! You’re a bunch of sickos! Either way, the efforts of the dorks sent Philadelphia’s Elizabeth past Calgary’s Anne by a vote count of 766-657. Very well, done, dorks. Very well done.

It gives us all plenty of voting momentum as we head into Matchup 6 that puts Caelee of Edmonton up against Erin of Buffalo.

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But before you read on and decide who gets your vote this week, we’re gonna do you a solid and provide you a quick way to refresh your memories. Just so you get an idea of who is left in this incredibly righteous tournament we’ve created, go back to Matchup No. 1 to see how Chicago’s Nikki beat Rochester’s Alanna; or Matchup No. 2 to see how Crystal edged Leisel; or Matchup No. 3 to recap Megan’s win over Angela; or Matchup No. 4 to see how Chantal topped Natalie.

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NLL Girls

Dance Team Pick’ems: Week 14

Edmonton Crush

Another crazy week for the NLL Dance Team Pick’ems. Who would have thought Rochester was going to lose to Chicago? Or that Philadelphia was going to fall to New York the way they did. The Loses meant some tough 2-4, 1-5 weeks for many of pick’em participants during Week 13. One dancer who benefited? Kim, from Chicago, who’s home team love paid dividends with 5-1 record last week.  Only three games this week, all on Saturday, but there are some important playoff-affecting matchups in tow.

On to this week’s picks: READ MORE »

NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Ashley

Ashley’s got the dancing part down, this much we know. Look at her National Lacrosse League profile page and it’s apparent she knows where the exclamation point key is, too.

Occupation? Dancer with the Chicago Hot Rox!!!!!
Music? … I love country!!!!!!!
Favorite team? Chicago Shamrox!!!!!!!

Are you sensing the same energy we are? Makes us wonder just how she reacted to being named this week’s NLL Girl of the Week!!!!!!!! The Lombard, Illinois, native is a student at some college and loves dancing and cheering so much, she’s a teacher of it. She tells us she’s the busiest person we’d ever meet, not that we’d ever be so lucky. But if her dream job ever comes to fruition, we all just might get a closer look at her some day. What makes us so confident of that? On her Shamrox profile page, she lets us know that her dream job is to be a Playboy bunny.

Chase that dream, Ashley!!!!!! Chase that dream!!!!! No doubt you’ll find plenty of support from around here!!!!!!!

• Get your vote on … Anne or Elizabeth? NLLInsider.com
• Take the “NLL Offensive Challenge:” WingsZone.com

NLL Girls

NLL Girls: Anne vs. Elizabeth

East Coast vs. West Coast. Blonde vs. Brunette. Yeah, it’s not exactly Brown v. the Board of Education, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important, right?

Well, no one ever accused me of having my priorities in order, but I do know this: We love our NLL Girls. And this week, we have the classic blonde vs. brunette matchup with Anne from Calgary going up against Elizabeth of Philadelphia. Last week, a whopping 77 percent of you loved Chantal more than you did Natalie, giving the Toronto Rock dancer the biggest margin of victory yet since we started our little weekly gawk-fest.

Is Anne the kindergarten teacher gonna get the love this week? Or is it gonna be Elizabeth, an Angel in Philadelphia? Take a look at the pictures provided and if that’s not enough, you better scramble and get a new calendar because both the Calgary and Philadelphia dance teams have calendars available that feature their girls.

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Vote today because, as usual, we’re closing the voting booth Friday at midnight.

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NLL Girls

NLL Dance Team Pick’ems: Week 13

Allstar Dance

Here in the states, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament kicked off today, and suddenly everyone in the U.S. is a pick’ems expert. But here at the Insider, we know that our dance team pick’em participants already have a leg up on the competition thanks to their hard work this season. All-Star break was well deserved, but we’re already back into to Week 13 on the league. Our selection committee performed relatively well last week, with the only major disaster in the pick’es coming in Edmonton’s loss to San Jose. Of course our pick’em member Caelee went right with the home team, and walked out with 4-1 record last week.

On to this week’s picks: READ MORE »

NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Erin

And here we thought the only good thing about Buffalo is that the bars are open until 4 a.m.

Check out the newest installment of the NLL Girl of the Week. She’s a fifth-year member of the Buffalo Bandettes and she doesn’t just dance. She actually helps with the choreography. The thing is, she gets a lot of help from Ted Jenner on the routines and costumes that the Bandettes use, too. But Jenner being the humble guy that he is, he didn’t really want us to mention that in this week’s story. That’s why you won’t find it on the official NLL press release, but we can’t just let a good deed like this go unsaid.

Back to Erin; she’s a smarty, too. The Bandettes co-captain holds a degree in dance from SUNY Buffalo along with an associate’s degree in business administration. It’s a dream of hers to drop the knowledge from both to open her own dance studio. But when she’s not dancing, she spends time volunteering in the Buffalo community, which included time at the airport greeting visitors and answering questions.

Our question: Does she wear that Bandettes uniform at the airport to greet people? If so, book my flight.

Vote in our NLL Girl of the Week Tournament: NLLInsider.com