11-5/6: Brown Huck-a-hunk
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Loading ...Pretty good weekend. Lot of play, lot of good games, high-quality (or at least, not low-quality) competition to work on our game on. We went 3-0 on day 1, highlighted by a victory over Harvard in which they score the last point after hard cap to lose by a point (really weird way to end a game), 12-11. Day 2 saw a pretty good steamrolling of Tufts, and then an epic semis game with UMass Zoodisc where we were down 9-4 at one point before going on a 7-2 run to tie things up for universe before they scored again. A bit disappointing to have lost, but really not a disappointing game at all in my mind–we were down early and seemingly out, but we stuck to our guns (or perhaps more accurately, found our guns and started using them) and really swung momentum in our favor. It’s exactly the sort of mentality we need to keep in that sort of situation.
As an aside, I’ve been reading Buster Olney’s Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, and part of what was discussed as an attribute of the late 90′s Yankee dynasty was their utter, unrelenting confidence, the sense that, no matter the circumstance or opponent, if the Yankees were in a position to come back and win it, they would find a way to do it. The sort of chemistry and sense of team they had obviously played a role in their success; and it’s that sort of feeling that I think we’re capable of having on Dartmouth’s team as well. We just have to play hard, keep our heads up, and play our own game, and there’ll be few things that’ll keep us down.
Personally, I felt great over the course of the weekend. Came out flat in our first game against Roger Williams, a trait I think is common for Dartmouth in general, but after getting sufficient warm-up, proper adrenaline flow, and realizing that part of the soreness came from running up and down a slanted field, I played pretty well. Finally feeling like I’m getting a feel for Cabo, getting better about switching as a wing (after getting beaten several times in the first game), and running forces as the mark, which is good. Still lots of improvement to be had, but I wasn’t ineffective, generally speaking.
Only had one D on the weekend, I think, but it was a pretty sweet one by most recounts. I was a bit worried I was beaten on the play but I didn’t give up and wound up getting the D, which was sweet. Otherwise on defense, I had a pretty solid mark, didn’t get broken that I can remember, and though I did get beaten a couple times in man generally I held my own. I do need to work on my positioning though, particularly when I’m tired and can’t move quite as quickly as I’d like (though this’ll also go away with better conditioning; I’m real excited to train this winter).
Offensively, well, I had one turn on the weekend, and really it could almost count as a D as I mis-played the situation and wound up skying my teammate. Still don’t know why I didn’t just play conservative and look to get the mack, but we were playing Brown B so it wasn’t as crucial that we value the disc in that situation I suppose. Other than that, well, on Saturday, all of my touches (aside from the one turn) were either assists or scores, and on Sunday I only had a couple non-scoring touches (I caught a score or two), so I had pretty solid ratios despite a low touch count (such is the fate of D-line cutters). I do need to work on my cutting a bit though; several instances where I didn’t get the O going as a first cut or wasn’t doing great generating flow occured that I can remember, though I generally cleared out pretty quickly. I guess working on the cutting, and also just running all-out, too, as that made a big difference in a couple points where I was all fired up.
All in all, pretty good weekend, personally and from a team standpoint. I know some people weren’t happy with their play, but I think ideally we can focus on the positives, that we played well as a team and stepped it up when it counted, rather than get bogged down in the negative of a particular throw or missed catch.
Good
Improvement
Decision-making (in a limited role)
Fired-up play
Mark
Sky-ing in a couple instances
Needs Improvement
Cutting (as always)
D positioning, particularly when tired
Not skying own teammates
Conditioning
