"You have so much coolness, they are doing studies on how to prevent global warming around you." -Splat
1. Archie
2. Slush
3. Imli
4. Agave
5. Carolyn
6. Tidal
7. Cosmo
8. Cuervo
9. Beesly
10. Chip
11. Gryllz
12. Joule
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The End
A week has passed since our season ended at Regionals and my battle wounds haven't healed yet. The scrapes on my knees and bruises on my elbows will fade soon but the heartache will take some time. The weekend wasn't magical, but the season was. On Saturday morning, we didn't play like a team that deserved to go to Nationals. It got better, but not by much. We had some shining moments, like a big comeback against UCLA to take the game to double game point, a 13-0 run against Midas, and a smaller comeback against SDSU, but we didn't have a single really solid game that made me feel like we truly deserved it. I felt the altitude in my legs and couldn't perform at my potential at the end of the day. Against both Colorado College and Colorado State, I felt like more of a non-factor as a cutter than I had for the past two years. I did expect more from myself then than I even had, but I felt way stronger against even the best teams in the country like Oregon and UCSB.
There are way too many "what if's" running through my head that could have taken us to Nationals. What if Ferris played in the Series? What is we didn't lose Ashley at Sectionals? What if we beat UCLA on universe in pool play and went into the game to go after a bye like they did? What if Regionals were held in So Cal and we were the ones with home field advantage instead of playing Colorado State twice with their pumped up sidelines and drunk fans? I can't help thinking that if any of those things had gone our way, I would be writing about whether cows are happier in California or Wisconsin instead of my broken heart. It feels like a lot didn't go our way, but for every one of our misfortunes, we probably had something else work out for us. What if Carolyn didn't find the time between all the studying for med school to play with us? What if we had to compete in the Northwest? What if our rookie class wasn't so ballin' that half of them were good enough to sub in even in close games?
Losing something so important in my life is painful. I miss feeling like part of something special, sharing a goal, and working towards it with my 20 best friends, but it wouldn't hurt so much to lose that feeling if it wasn't so great while it lasted.
There are way too many "what if's" running through my head that could have taken us to Nationals. What if Ferris played in the Series? What is we didn't lose Ashley at Sectionals? What if we beat UCLA on universe in pool play and went into the game to go after a bye like they did? What if Regionals were held in So Cal and we were the ones with home field advantage instead of playing Colorado State twice with their pumped up sidelines and drunk fans? I can't help thinking that if any of those things had gone our way, I would be writing about whether cows are happier in California or Wisconsin instead of my broken heart. It feels like a lot didn't go our way, but for every one of our misfortunes, we probably had something else work out for us. What if Carolyn didn't find the time between all the studying for med school to play with us? What if we had to compete in the Northwest? What if our rookie class wasn't so ballin' that half of them were good enough to sub in even in close games?
Losing something so important in my life is painful. I miss feeling like part of something special, sharing a goal, and working towards it with my 20 best friends, but it wouldn't hurt so much to lose that feeling if it wasn't so great while it lasted.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Pre-Regionals
Regionals are this weekend in Fort Collins, CO. We lost another one of our best players at Sectionals when Ashley tore like every ligament in her knee in our pool play game against Claremont. Even without Ashley, we beat UCLA and earned ourselves the fourth seed at Regionals. With that win and our win against Cal at the Stanford Invite, we've shown that we can be a great team when we want to be. We'll have to do it again when it counts to go to the big show. It's time to shine!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Stanford Open
I’ve been meaning to write about the all the tournaments we’ve played in this season, but since I’m so behind and it’s more fun to write about winning, I’m going to start with the Stanford Open and write about Sectionals next. The tournament began for us well before we arrived at the fields on Saturday morning because all week we had been discussing with each other and reflecting on our own about we needed to do to bounce back from Pres Day and poor play across the board. Unlike almost every tournament we ever play in, we all knew that we had a realistic shot at winning the Stanford Open if we played up to our abilities.
We aimed to leave in the late morning to avoid LA traffic, but we hit traffic when we got to San Clemente. We found out later that the freeway was closed for a couple hours because of a grenade on the side of the freeway. Once we got past the grenade traffic and stopped at Taco Bell, it was smooth sailing to Turlock. Our hotel rooms were huge and since B-Team lost so many girls in the last couple weeks leading up to the tournament, we had way too many rooms and didn’t even need all the floor space. Even some rookies got to sleep in beds. We’re spoiling them too much.
In the morning, we decided to follow a Puget Sound van to the fields instead of figuring out how to get there ourselves. It was a poor decision. We found ourselves in a five car caravan on First Rd. instead of First Ave. in the wrong city and had to make several U-turns, but we eventually made it to the fields. We laughed at how we would be playing on an open field surrounded by farms, and that was before we heard the rooster cock-a-doodle-doo-ing all day. It was supposed to rain on Saturday, but we didn’t feel a drop all day. As it turns out, a 70% chance of rain means there is a 30% chance it won’t rain. It was still pretty windy and it was hard to keep track of which direction the wind was blowing in because it constantly was inconstant. Upwind and downwind directions changed all day and the wind picked up more in the afternoon.
We played Santa Cruz first, coming out with a lot of fire. We went up 4-0 before they started scoring. We looked and felt good, but it was the same case in our first game against Davis at Pres Day that we let up in after a good start and ended up losing. Despite a lull in the end of the game, we were able to hold on to our lead and won 11-8.
Next, we played Arizona. The first few points were long and ugly, but we established a small lead over them. Their biggest threat was LP, who touched the disc a lot and had good hucks that she’d used against us in Santa Barbra. We tried to prevent this by having our farthest defender on their ho-stack poach deep, so we’d have two girls to their one whenever they took a deep shot. It was effective when they were stagnant, but they were able to complete some deep throws after they moved the disc around a little and we were disorganized. Hard cap went off when we were up 8-7, but they scored downwind and took it to universe, just as they had in Santa Barbara. On universe, we had no trouble working the disc up the open side and I believe Ashley threw Ultra the score to win the game 9-8.
After spending our bye eating circus animal crackers and applying Kung Fu Panda temporary tattoos, we warmed up again for a game against Whitman, who won DIII Nationals last year. It was an especially fun game because two of their best players went to high school with me, including one that played basketball with Bonds and me and is one of our good friends. Between the two teams, there may have been times when we had six Paly players on the field at once. The wind had picked up and we threw our zone defense of them. Joule got a couple of big hand blocks including at least one on their goal line. Again, we started with a lead and the game was never close. We won 10-7.
Our last game against Pacific Lutheran was our easiest of the day and secured the first seed coming out of our pool. We won it 11-5.
There were some close games in our pool but not a single upset. In the other pool, the first seed was Davis and they lost all four of their pool play games. A three-way tie between NC State, Sonoma State, and Claremont was settled by point differential and NC State took the top spot. The top teams from the lower pools were San Diego State, Oregon State, and Cal Poly-SLO, with San Diego State looking especially dominant.
After our game, we watched Berserk play Stanford-B and helped them out since they didn’t have any coaches with them for the weekend. Stanford-B won and coincidentally, that meant we would face them in the pre-quarters on Sunday morning.
Even though we didn’t allow Stanford-B to score until the second half, the game was just ugly. Points were way long than they needed to be because our offense was messy so we had far too many turns. Our defense was fine and we won 13-3, but it was a game that we shouldn’t have been scored on in because every one of their points came after at least two or three turnovers on our side. Like we had done when we lost to other inferior teams, we played down to their level. That game cast doubts for me about whether we’d be able to make a run for the Championship because I knew we wouldn’t have a shot if we continued to play like we did when we came out.
Fortunately, we were able to pick it up in our next game against Humboldt. We were able to establish flow and looked like a whole new team. Unlike Saturday, there was no real wind, so taking deep shots was an option we brought into play. We played hard throughout the game, promising each other that we would save our usual lull for the shower after our games, and won 12-6. After we won our quarterfinals game, we found out from the TD that none of the other three semifinalist teams wanted to go to the Invite, so our place was secure. From then on, we were just playing for free shorts and glory.
Our semifinals matchup was against Sonoma State. We’d seen them on Monday at Pres Day and beat them 13-2, but they had been playing without their dominant cutter, Maggie Ruden, who had hurt her shoulder that weekend. They proved that they were better than the team we obliterated at Pres Day. We already knew Brinn Langdale was their big handler who held their offense together, but Ruden made lots of big plays as well, including a couple of lay out D’s. It was a much tougher game than the first time we saw them and we won 13-7.
On the other side of the bracket, NC State beat Claremont. After a week of trying to fathom why NC State decided to fly across the country to play in a qualifier in Stevinson, I talked to a couple of players on the team about it. They told me that they thought the tournament was at Stanford and wanted to see some west coast teams. That answer still wasn’t good enough for me but I let it go.
Our finals game may have been the best game we’d played up to that point. It wasn’t flawless, but we played like we really wanted it. Our defense forced their best player to get frustrated and throw at least five bad hammers on a high stall count. I only remember one that was caught. Like almost every game we played that weekend, the finals game was capped. We held onto a moderate lead all game and won 12-8.
We aimed to leave in the late morning to avoid LA traffic, but we hit traffic when we got to San Clemente. We found out later that the freeway was closed for a couple hours because of a grenade on the side of the freeway. Once we got past the grenade traffic and stopped at Taco Bell, it was smooth sailing to Turlock. Our hotel rooms were huge and since B-Team lost so many girls in the last couple weeks leading up to the tournament, we had way too many rooms and didn’t even need all the floor space. Even some rookies got to sleep in beds. We’re spoiling them too much.
In the morning, we decided to follow a Puget Sound van to the fields instead of figuring out how to get there ourselves. It was a poor decision. We found ourselves in a five car caravan on First Rd. instead of First Ave. in the wrong city and had to make several U-turns, but we eventually made it to the fields. We laughed at how we would be playing on an open field surrounded by farms, and that was before we heard the rooster cock-a-doodle-doo-ing all day. It was supposed to rain on Saturday, but we didn’t feel a drop all day. As it turns out, a 70% chance of rain means there is a 30% chance it won’t rain. It was still pretty windy and it was hard to keep track of which direction the wind was blowing in because it constantly was inconstant. Upwind and downwind directions changed all day and the wind picked up more in the afternoon.
We played Santa Cruz first, coming out with a lot of fire. We went up 4-0 before they started scoring. We looked and felt good, but it was the same case in our first game against Davis at Pres Day that we let up in after a good start and ended up losing. Despite a lull in the end of the game, we were able to hold on to our lead and won 11-8.
Next, we played Arizona. The first few points were long and ugly, but we established a small lead over them. Their biggest threat was LP, who touched the disc a lot and had good hucks that she’d used against us in Santa Barbra. We tried to prevent this by having our farthest defender on their ho-stack poach deep, so we’d have two girls to their one whenever they took a deep shot. It was effective when they were stagnant, but they were able to complete some deep throws after they moved the disc around a little and we were disorganized. Hard cap went off when we were up 8-7, but they scored downwind and took it to universe, just as they had in Santa Barbara. On universe, we had no trouble working the disc up the open side and I believe Ashley threw Ultra the score to win the game 9-8.
After spending our bye eating circus animal crackers and applying Kung Fu Panda temporary tattoos, we warmed up again for a game against Whitman, who won DIII Nationals last year. It was an especially fun game because two of their best players went to high school with me, including one that played basketball with Bonds and me and is one of our good friends. Between the two teams, there may have been times when we had six Paly players on the field at once. The wind had picked up and we threw our zone defense of them. Joule got a couple of big hand blocks including at least one on their goal line. Again, we started with a lead and the game was never close. We won 10-7.
Our last game against Pacific Lutheran was our easiest of the day and secured the first seed coming out of our pool. We won it 11-5.
There were some close games in our pool but not a single upset. In the other pool, the first seed was Davis and they lost all four of their pool play games. A three-way tie between NC State, Sonoma State, and Claremont was settled by point differential and NC State took the top spot. The top teams from the lower pools were San Diego State, Oregon State, and Cal Poly-SLO, with San Diego State looking especially dominant.
After our game, we watched Berserk play Stanford-B and helped them out since they didn’t have any coaches with them for the weekend. Stanford-B won and coincidentally, that meant we would face them in the pre-quarters on Sunday morning.
Even though we didn’t allow Stanford-B to score until the second half, the game was just ugly. Points were way long than they needed to be because our offense was messy so we had far too many turns. Our defense was fine and we won 13-3, but it was a game that we shouldn’t have been scored on in because every one of their points came after at least two or three turnovers on our side. Like we had done when we lost to other inferior teams, we played down to their level. That game cast doubts for me about whether we’d be able to make a run for the Championship because I knew we wouldn’t have a shot if we continued to play like we did when we came out.
Fortunately, we were able to pick it up in our next game against Humboldt. We were able to establish flow and looked like a whole new team. Unlike Saturday, there was no real wind, so taking deep shots was an option we brought into play. We played hard throughout the game, promising each other that we would save our usual lull for the shower after our games, and won 12-6. After we won our quarterfinals game, we found out from the TD that none of the other three semifinalist teams wanted to go to the Invite, so our place was secure. From then on, we were just playing for free shorts and glory.
Our semifinals matchup was against Sonoma State. We’d seen them on Monday at Pres Day and beat them 13-2, but they had been playing without their dominant cutter, Maggie Ruden, who had hurt her shoulder that weekend. They proved that they were better than the team we obliterated at Pres Day. We already knew Brinn Langdale was their big handler who held their offense together, but Ruden made lots of big plays as well, including a couple of lay out D’s. It was a much tougher game than the first time we saw them and we won 13-7.
On the other side of the bracket, NC State beat Claremont. After a week of trying to fathom why NC State decided to fly across the country to play in a qualifier in Stevinson, I talked to a couple of players on the team about it. They told me that they thought the tournament was at Stanford and wanted to see some west coast teams. That answer still wasn’t good enough for me but I let it go.
Our finals game may have been the best game we’d played up to that point. It wasn’t flawless, but we played like we really wanted it. Our defense forced their best player to get frustrated and throw at least five bad hammers on a high stall count. I only remember one that was caught. Like almost every game we played that weekend, the finals game was capped. We held onto a moderate lead all game and won 12-8.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Nationals Bid Allocation
Out of 20 overall bids for each the women’s and open college divisions, each region gets two automatically, which adds up to 16 automatic bids overall. All of the remaining four bids are strength bids. The first two are called regional strength bids and go to the top two regions, which are determined by taking the rankings of the top eight teams in the region and dividing that value by eight. Only teams that play at least 10 regular season games at UPA sanctioned events are ranked. The last two bids are team strength bids. They are given to regions based on how strong the next best team in the region beyond the number of bids the region has been assigned already. So the six regions that didn’t receive a regional strength bid will compare their third highest ranked teams to the fourth highest ranked teams from the two regions that did receive a regional strength bid. A region can only receive one of each type of strength bid for a maximum of four bids to Nationals. Rankings will be updated over the course of the season and bids will be awarded after the regular season, which ends on March 28th, but before the College Series. It’s too early in the season to make any real predictions, especially since the rankings aren’t up yet, but after Pres Day, it looks likely that the Northwest and Southwest will each have four bids on the women’s side.
Rankings can be found here. The web page says rankings were supposed to begin last week, but the rankings up are from last year.
The official explanation of what I described above can be found here.
Rankings can be found here. The web page says rankings were supposed to begin last week, but the rankings up are from last year.
The official explanation of what I described above can be found here.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Things I might write about after Pres Day
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Coolest Psychos Winter 2010
1. Ultra
2. Archie
3. Penny
4. Slush
5. Dada
6. DK
7. Tidal
8. Carolyn
9. Ashley
10. Mahi
11. Imli
12. Agave
13. Kacto
14. Cosmo
15. Dwade
16. Godiva
17. Cuervo
18. Beesly
19. Ziggy
20. Austen
21. Ferris
22. Bonds
23. Loryn
24. Gryllz
25. Joule
2. Archie
3. Penny
4. Slush
5. Dada
6. DK
7. Tidal
8. Carolyn
9. Ashley
10. Mahi
11. Imli
12. Agave
13. Kacto
14. Cosmo
15. Dwade
16. Godiva
17. Cuervo
18. Beesly
19. Ziggy
20. Austen
21. Ferris
22. Bonds
23. Loryn
24. Gryllz
25. Joule
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Psycho Season Recap (Part 3 of 3)
After our Centex debacle, we were pleased to still be seeded fourth at Sectionals. It was on our home turf and ten bids to Regionals were up for grabs, so there wasn’t a lot on the line. We were playing for a good seed at Regionals and our pride. We kicked off the tournament with a game against Claremont, who beat us in Austin but was playing without Junior Worlds handler Erika Baken. Claremont had big threats in Carny and Bayliss, who are both smart players that have an advantage in size, but we played confidently and won 11-7. Our next game was against San Diego State, competing in their first College Series. Their style of play was more aggressive than ours but we displayed superior composure and took an easy 13-1 victory. Afterward, we played Occidental and were able to outrun them for an 11-3 win. Nicole Copti made some good plays, but they came in without many subs and they were clearly tired. Our last game of the day was against UCLA, the top seed in our pool. The wind had picked up and the field was rotated 90 degrees from the other fields we had been playing on, creating a clear upwind and downwind. We started off well, going up 3-2, but struggled offensively for the rest of the game. Both teams suffered from many uncharacteristic turnovers, most of which the wind played a part in, but UCLA was able to score upwind when we failed to and we fell 5-7 in hard cap. We took on Long Beach State in the last round of pool play on Sunday. Since we were tied for second in our pool, only the winner of this game would move into the championship bracket. The loser would lose their shot at a top four finish. Guano faced off against her younger sister, Igloo, and showed her that she still had a few things to learn. Long Beach State kept us on our toes, but we hammered out a 9-7 win and moved on to a semifinals game against future College Champions, UCSB. Like our game against UCLA, we scored first, but after trading the first few points, it was all downhill. UCSB was in much better shape than we were, one of several reasons why we just couldn’t hang with them. Ferris hurt her shoulder on a bid in the endzone and spent the second half with the trainer. We lost 7-15 and dropped down into the third place bracket for a rematch against Claremont, this time playing with Baken. They shocked us by taking the lead in the beginning of the game, and forced to claw our way back into it. We came back from a sizable deficit to tie the game as the end approached. An impressive lay out block in the endzone by from Ferris kept us in the game when it looked dicey, but on double game point, Claremont won on a deep shot. The final score was 13-14. When we were standing on the line before game point, we heard UCLA explode in celebration for their upset win over UCSB, which give them the So Cal Section title. I was really happy for them, but it was hard to show it after our game since I was upset with our loss. We played Long Beach again for fifth in a game no one really cared about. My knee had been progressively hurting more and more since halftime of the Claremont game, so I sat out for this game. Score Reporter says we won 15-10. Finishing fifth in Sectionals when we knew we needed to get fourth at Regionals was a blow to our confidence, but somehow it earned us the Sports Club of the Week award. That’s how well they understand what’s going on with us.
We spent the week before Regionals pumping each other up with “Eye of the Psycho” necklaces, motivational emails, and nearly a mullet haircut. Regionals were in Colorado and we knew it would be cold. Most of us fitted ourselves out with clothes that would keep us warm, knowing that living in San Diego hasn’t prepares us well for the cold. In the morning on Saturday, we found out that our pool had some minor changes, and instead of playing Midas first, we would play Cal Poly SLO. It was an easy game and we were able to get away with some sloppy play and still cruise to a 17-5 victory. I had a lot of trouble dealing with my cold, stiff hands and had more drops in the first half than I would have liked to have all day, but I was able to cut it out later on. Once we were warmed up, big plays came out of young and older players alike. Playing in what she knew could be the last tournament of her college career, Meeko was a huge mark. She caused several turnovers through handblocks and eliciting bad throws by shutting down the thrower’s options. Meeko was stunning on offense as well, keeping her composure as a thrower despite breezy conditions, and punching in score after score. This is most likely the reason why she wasn’t heckled nearly enough for wearing a glove. This game gave us a chance to adjust to the cold Colorado weather and get warmed up to play UCSB. I knew my knee was a time bomb and I anticipated would give me trouble at the end of the day, hopefully only on Sunday, but I started feeling the pain during our first game. Knowing it would only get worse, I spent an outrageous amount of time rolling out my IT band throughout the day and took a bunch of Ibuprofen. UCSB is clearly the top team in the Southwest region and had a virtual lock to go to Nationals, despite their shocking second place finish at Sectionals. Our next game was our third matchup with them of the season, so we had a good idea of what would be required of us to contend with them, but weren’t going down without a fight. We began the game up 2-0, but UCSB was unfazed and tied the game up at two points apiece. During the next point, UCSB was nearing the endzone when they threw a high swing pass and Guano jumped up for a D. She got tangled up in the UCSB player and fell to the ground in pain. The trainers evaluated her and diagnosed a bad knee sprain with a possible partial LCL tear. Guano would not return for the rest of the weekend, an enormous loss for us since we relied a great deal on her to handle in the unfavorable weather. Later, her doctors diagnosed her with a torn ACL, a huge setback for someone with such an active lifestyle, but she pushed herself in the following months with her physical therapy and was able to recover remarkably fast. As the game carried on, UCSB ran us to the ground with their superior fitness level, making deep cut after deep cut and moving the disc around with ease. As they tired our starters out, they were able to substitute additional strong players and proved that they were the deeper team. The final score was 7-16, which placed us second in our pool of three. We spent our bye scouting the game between USC and Claremont, knowing that we would face the loser of this game in the first round of bracket play. Claremont strategically rested their strongest players during this game and sacrificed a big loss to USC in a game they decided they didn’t have a shot at winning in order to be at their best when they faced us. This tactic proved to be beneficiary, since our game was indeed hard fought and came down to the wire. Kacto was a force to be reckoned with on defense, letting nothing get past her and never looking tired. Sir Robin had spectacular puts all day and Meeko’s long pulls gave us solid field position time after time. In the end, we got our revenge on Claremont. This 12-10 win placed us in the second place bracket, and was their last game of the day. In one of the semifinals games on Saturday, Colorado surprised UCLA with a one-point win and secured their bid to Nationals, which unfortunately meant that we would be matched up against top-seeded UCLA on Sunday instead of Colorado as we expected. Our teams seemed well matched as we traded points in the beginning of the game, but UCLA pulled away with five straight points and took half 8-4. We surged back to bring the score to 10-11, but UCLA found a weak link in our man-on-man defense and scored on a pass to the open side in the back corner of the endzone on game point and won 12-10. This loss moved us down into the fourth place bracket, which meant that one more loss would eliminate us from Nationals. Long Beach State was the next hurdle we needed to surmount on the track we hoped would lead us to Nationals. Tambler let me sit out this game to save me for our upcoming important games since I was hurting a lot. What was a sunny morning turned into a gloomy, windy afternoon. Once again, sloppy play drew out the game longer than it had to be, but we pulled it together in the end and took a relatively easy victory. In our ensuing game, we faced off against Claremont for the fifth time of the season. We had each beat the other twice, but both teams were thinking more about earning a spot in the “game to go” than their pride, as the winner of this game would have to win just one more game to make it to Nationals. The wind had picked up between games and played a huge role. We broke out our four-man cup and had great success with it. Joule’s mark frustrated even the most seasoned handlers by trapping them on the sideline and not allowing them to swing the disc back across the field. Ferris threw some incredibly accurate hucks to Joule in the gusty wind and repeatedly shut down Claremont’s strongest cutter on defense. We won the game 9-4, but long points with numerous turnovers our legs down before our last and most important game. Everything we’d worked for this season came down to our final game against USC, who had just lost to UCLA by a larger margin than we had earlier that day. The rain began to fall ominously as USC jumped out ahead, scoring the first couple points and making us look confused and tired. We wouldn’t give up that easy though. We scored a couple points, but never cut too far into USC’s lead. Each team played a zone defense that cut off most upfield throws, but USC was able to rely on the athleticism of Lindsey Cross and a few other key players when they did get a longer throw off. Loryn was instrumental in working the disc around through USC’s zone and Ferris made crazy grabs all over the field and in both endzones, helping us produce a slight comeback, but it wasn’t enough. USC ended the game with a score to the front, left side of the endzone and their sidelines erupted onto the field as we walked off drenched and crushed.
Despite the devastation of having our goal within grasp and then seeing it fall away, we did accomplish a great deal over the season. Only a year after our suspension, we made a run at Nationals, which few outsiders expected from us. Next year, we should have a few less doubters, but also higher expectations of ourselves.
We spent the week before Regionals pumping each other up with “Eye of the Psycho” necklaces, motivational emails, and nearly a mullet haircut. Regionals were in Colorado and we knew it would be cold. Most of us fitted ourselves out with clothes that would keep us warm, knowing that living in San Diego hasn’t prepares us well for the cold. In the morning on Saturday, we found out that our pool had some minor changes, and instead of playing Midas first, we would play Cal Poly SLO. It was an easy game and we were able to get away with some sloppy play and still cruise to a 17-5 victory. I had a lot of trouble dealing with my cold, stiff hands and had more drops in the first half than I would have liked to have all day, but I was able to cut it out later on. Once we were warmed up, big plays came out of young and older players alike. Playing in what she knew could be the last tournament of her college career, Meeko was a huge mark. She caused several turnovers through handblocks and eliciting bad throws by shutting down the thrower’s options. Meeko was stunning on offense as well, keeping her composure as a thrower despite breezy conditions, and punching in score after score. This is most likely the reason why she wasn’t heckled nearly enough for wearing a glove. This game gave us a chance to adjust to the cold Colorado weather and get warmed up to play UCSB. I knew my knee was a time bomb and I anticipated would give me trouble at the end of the day, hopefully only on Sunday, but I started feeling the pain during our first game. Knowing it would only get worse, I spent an outrageous amount of time rolling out my IT band throughout the day and took a bunch of Ibuprofen. UCSB is clearly the top team in the Southwest region and had a virtual lock to go to Nationals, despite their shocking second place finish at Sectionals. Our next game was our third matchup with them of the season, so we had a good idea of what would be required of us to contend with them, but weren’t going down without a fight. We began the game up 2-0, but UCSB was unfazed and tied the game up at two points apiece. During the next point, UCSB was nearing the endzone when they threw a high swing pass and Guano jumped up for a D. She got tangled up in the UCSB player and fell to the ground in pain. The trainers evaluated her and diagnosed a bad knee sprain with a possible partial LCL tear. Guano would not return for the rest of the weekend, an enormous loss for us since we relied a great deal on her to handle in the unfavorable weather. Later, her doctors diagnosed her with a torn ACL, a huge setback for someone with such an active lifestyle, but she pushed herself in the following months with her physical therapy and was able to recover remarkably fast. As the game carried on, UCSB ran us to the ground with their superior fitness level, making deep cut after deep cut and moving the disc around with ease. As they tired our starters out, they were able to substitute additional strong players and proved that they were the deeper team. The final score was 7-16, which placed us second in our pool of three. We spent our bye scouting the game between USC and Claremont, knowing that we would face the loser of this game in the first round of bracket play. Claremont strategically rested their strongest players during this game and sacrificed a big loss to USC in a game they decided they didn’t have a shot at winning in order to be at their best when they faced us. This tactic proved to be beneficiary, since our game was indeed hard fought and came down to the wire. Kacto was a force to be reckoned with on defense, letting nothing get past her and never looking tired. Sir Robin had spectacular puts all day and Meeko’s long pulls gave us solid field position time after time. In the end, we got our revenge on Claremont. This 12-10 win placed us in the second place bracket, and was their last game of the day. In one of the semifinals games on Saturday, Colorado surprised UCLA with a one-point win and secured their bid to Nationals, which unfortunately meant that we would be matched up against top-seeded UCLA on Sunday instead of Colorado as we expected. Our teams seemed well matched as we traded points in the beginning of the game, but UCLA pulled away with five straight points and took half 8-4. We surged back to bring the score to 10-11, but UCLA found a weak link in our man-on-man defense and scored on a pass to the open side in the back corner of the endzone on game point and won 12-10. This loss moved us down into the fourth place bracket, which meant that one more loss would eliminate us from Nationals. Long Beach State was the next hurdle we needed to surmount on the track we hoped would lead us to Nationals. Tambler let me sit out this game to save me for our upcoming important games since I was hurting a lot. What was a sunny morning turned into a gloomy, windy afternoon. Once again, sloppy play drew out the game longer than it had to be, but we pulled it together in the end and took a relatively easy victory. In our ensuing game, we faced off against Claremont for the fifth time of the season. We had each beat the other twice, but both teams were thinking more about earning a spot in the “game to go” than their pride, as the winner of this game would have to win just one more game to make it to Nationals. The wind had picked up between games and played a huge role. We broke out our four-man cup and had great success with it. Joule’s mark frustrated even the most seasoned handlers by trapping them on the sideline and not allowing them to swing the disc back across the field. Ferris threw some incredibly accurate hucks to Joule in the gusty wind and repeatedly shut down Claremont’s strongest cutter on defense. We won the game 9-4, but long points with numerous turnovers our legs down before our last and most important game. Everything we’d worked for this season came down to our final game against USC, who had just lost to UCLA by a larger margin than we had earlier that day. The rain began to fall ominously as USC jumped out ahead, scoring the first couple points and making us look confused and tired. We wouldn’t give up that easy though. We scored a couple points, but never cut too far into USC’s lead. Each team played a zone defense that cut off most upfield throws, but USC was able to rely on the athleticism of Lindsey Cross and a few other key players when they did get a longer throw off. Loryn was instrumental in working the disc around through USC’s zone and Ferris made crazy grabs all over the field and in both endzones, helping us produce a slight comeback, but it wasn’t enough. USC ended the game with a score to the front, left side of the endzone and their sidelines erupted onto the field as we walked off drenched and crushed.
Despite the devastation of having our goal within grasp and then seeing it fall away, we did accomplish a great deal over the season. Only a year after our suspension, we made a run at Nationals, which few outsiders expected from us. Next year, we should have a few less doubters, but also higher expectations of ourselves.
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