Oh Happy Day!

Today at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the Mystics gave Julie Plank the best gift that any team can give a first-time head coach -- a big old "W."

The Mystics made themselves, their rookie head coach -- and their fans -- very happy by winning their regular season opener on the road against the Connecticut Sun, 82-70. Though Connecticut scored the first 2 points of the game, that was the Sun's only lead, as the Mystics then went on a 17-0 run and never trailed again. The Mystics took a 12-point lead into the locker room at halftime, 40-28. The Sun regrouped in the third quarter, closing the gap to single digits, but unlike Mystics teams of old, they didn't fold, and the Mystics put the game away in the final period. One regular season game; one win. Congratulations to the team, to Coach Plank . . . and let's not forget another rookie who had a lot to do with this being a happy day, GM Angela Taylor!

And while we're on the subject of rookies . . . Wow, what a debut by rookie Marissa Coleman! Coming off the bench, Riss helped spark that big early run by hitting her first three (regular season) shots as a pro -- all from behind the 3 point line! She finished with a team-high 16 points, ending the day 4 of 4 from beyond the arc. Even if we weren't already fans of Marissa, we'd have to say she had a pretty sensational first game . . . for a rookie.

One thing that really jumps out at us from today's boxscore is how this was a team win, not a solo performance. The ACC -- and others -- really rocked today. Mo Currie had 14 points; Lindsey Harding, in her first game with the Mystics, had 12 (plus 7 assists!); and Nakia Sanford, who was perfect from the floor (5 of 5) finished with 11. All in all, a very exciting and promising start for the new Mystics. We can't wait to see them in person tomorrow!

And, with their home opener against Atlanta less than 24 hours away, the Mystics are taking a bus back to DC as we write this. We hope they have some good champagne chillin' on board to celebrate Coach Plank's first win. We're going to go pop some ourselves. Congratulations again to Coach Plank and to the entire Mystics team!

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The one less-than-happy thing about today's game was that many Mystics fans were reduced to watching boxscore updates. We knew the WNBA was not allowing Live Access, but the audio feed also turned out to be unavailable. Very disappointing. But we've been told the webcast of the game will be available later today -- how much later, we don't know -- on WNBA.com.