Roxanne Chalifoux’s celebration of the team's NCAA Tournament win is a triumphant contrast to the tearful photos of the Villanova band member that went viral during the previous NCAA Tournament.
Last year, TV cameras captured tears streaming down Chalifoux's face as she played her piccolo after the team lost by only 3 points to North Carolina State in the third round of the 2015 tournament.
The viral images landed Chalifoux on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon and earned her Taylor Swift tickets,
The Associated Press reported.
In addition to the publicity,
a Kickstarter project even turned Chalifoux's sad image into a bobblehead.
“I hate seeing the team when they’re sad, and I was sad because I leaving the band. It was just a really emotional moment … that someone happily caught on camera, I guess,” Chalifoux
explained to ABC News last year.
This year, however, Chalifoux, who graduated in May with a biology major, got redemption in a tweet.
Her tweet celebrated this year’s victory against North Carolina, and joked about her retirement as “piccolo girl.”
Monday’s victory was Villanova’s first national title in 31 years, and Chalifoux flew to Houston to watch the game,
USA Today reported.
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