Thoughts.

Day 1
Game 1: vs. University of Northern Texas
It was pretty apparent that we’d been playing indoors for a couple months. UNT is a moderately decent team, with decent disc motion, but by and large this team won by chucking it to their big receiver(s, though only one of them did any major damage against us). I’m sure they worked it up a few times, but by and large my recollections of their scores were on hucks to matchups–not open cuts necessarily, just straight-up throwing to the tall guy. And hey, if it works well enough, can you fault them for trying?

At any rate, we had a number of errors emblematic of the indoor-outdoor transition; floaty throws that can work in ideal, still indoor conditions that outdoors are mis-placed and D’d. Several drops. This may just be me, but I felt like we were all kind of getting used to not only playing in conditions again (albeit relatively calm conditions at this point), but also to playing in cleats again. My legs spent the better part of the weekend re-adjusting to cleats, though I suspect there was more to how I felt than that.

We dropped a tight one, lost by a point according to the Vegas Score Reporter (which is woefully lacking in detailed updates, by the way). Not a particularly satisfying result, given the way we played, but we were pretty confident in our potential coming out of the game, having outplayed them in every way but just failing to get an extra break or two to get the W (granted, were we rolling the way we’re capable of, we could’ve suffered a few extra breaks against us and still won).

UPDATE: we actually lost 8-10. At any rate, it was a close game.

Game 2, vs. Whitman

Up from (t)here. We put things together a lot more successfully in this game. In contrast to UNT, which was dominated by a large cutter, Whitman’s main threat was a handler-type, which we’re much more capable of dealing with. We were in control of this game from the get-go and never really let up, winning 12-6 on the increased consistency of our play (Whitman, incidentally, would later go on to play in the Quarterfinals of the championship bracket against those silly boys from Harvard (hi, McCarthy!). Funky format, eh?).

Game 3, vs. Wesleyan

Not a ton worth recapping here, we rolled this game 13-4. Lots of fly plays by lots of fly folk, our defense was pretty suffocating here as we got several D’s short and forced several throwaways/drops as well. Props to some of our rooks for stepping up and playing well this game as we opened up the rotation. I handled a ton in this game, a trend that would continue through the weekend. I also felt REALLY good this game. I don’t know what it is–maybe playing under the lights (this game came 3 rounds after our last, started at 5 PM), as I’ve had good games at Vegas before under the lights. That Vegas sun can be draining. At any rate, I need to figure out how to get to that state consistently, because in this game sprinting pretty literally felt as easy as jogging. Probably the fastest I’ve ever felt on an ultimate field.

Interlude: Night 1

Incidentally, the first day of Vegas also happened to be the first day of my life as a 21-year-old. We hit up the strip in style to celebrate–somehow Cobbles managed to secure a stretch hummer. A “20-person” vehicle, we got by on about $5/person squeezing something like 32 people in. Oh Schmidt, Crew can stand under my umberella, Leah is crazy…lots of fun sing-alongs on the ride. We then hit up the Tropicana to check in on our alums before rolling over to the MGM to hit up the casino. All in all, not a bad way to spend one’s 21st.

Day 2

Game 4: vs. St. Olaf

The golden “O” on their jersey elicited thoughts of Oregon, but they sure didn’t play like ‘em. They had a few successes, mostly running deep against us (probably my two best bids in terms of athleticism were trying to D hucks in this game). I don’t have a ton of highlights in my mind about this game, we played hard and we won by a comfortable margin. Personally, I kept handling this game, trying to improve my positioning…in terms of energy, in contrast to the previous night, today I didn’t feel like I had that extra gear–by no means does this mean that I’m slow, but it does mean that I have to work harder. It’s a lot less taxing to handle than cut, though, so that helped balance it out.

We took this game 13-6.

Game 5: vs. Humboldt

After a bye we played Humboldt. These guys had numbers on their shorts, so you knew they thought themselves legit. And indeed we battled through the first half, more or less trading points ’til half. We had a lot of inefficiency scoring here–we were, as usual, getting the turns, but getting the disc in once we got the turn proved a frustrating task at times as we struggled all weekend to find the balance between taking our shots and playing conservative (it really should’ve tilted more towards the conservative end, given how many of our deep throws–to open cutters as they may have been–wound up poorly executed (again, a sign of our largely indoor experience these past months). We took half and went into our huddle with a sense of fulfillment. We weren’t playing up to potential.

We came out of half and slammed the door. Our O never had to take the field as we shut Humboldt out in the second half. We got our turns–short turns, long turns–and we got the disc and put it in. I think this one wound up something like 12-6 or so?

Game 6: vs UCSUV

or whatever they’re called. The guys in black. Due to a mix-up what we had previously thought was a bye had been changed into a game, so we showed up to this one late and UCSE had informed us that, sad as it may be, the rules had “required” that they assess 3 points. After a bit of bitching and a bit of intervention and apology for confusion from the TD, we started with a clean slate (though still with maybe 1/3 of our roster showing up after the game had started due to the late memo re: game start.

Undaunted by the confusion, we instead came out with a fire lit under our asses, breaking UCSDeeznuts on our first or second D point and maintaining a one or two-point lead through much of the first half. Despite their being a hack-tastic, call-happy team, we kept battling and though UCSN tied it up at points we had been consistently up on them for most of the game. In the end, we wound up losing on universe point in a hard-fought match, with our sidelines as vocal as they’ve ever been and the energy displayed on the field keying perhaps our best game of the tournament as we lost 13-14. Despite the loss we knew we had the stuff to run with this team, and even having given it our all we knew there was still more room for growth and plenty of opportunities in the game to have really taken control. Up from here.

Highlights:
-Robinho with one of the nastiest layout grabs I’ve seen from him (or anyone) for a goal early on
-Dermo with a huge layout D, following which he was taken out by a UCLV player and got a black eye (best part of which was the player attempting to call a foul on the play, after Dermott had clearly gotten the D well before any contact and if anything, the foul was on him)
-Graham being a dominator cutting, with more than one domination deep.

Lots of great signs from the team in this game, bodes well for the future of the team and of the program.

Interlude: The Dartmouth Women

They were amazing, quite simply. Thanks to the large number of byes in the format we had plenty of chances to watch them–I’m blown away. They are SO good. So many talented players, handlers, cutters, defenders, you name it. Forget how well we did and how promising our season looks–THEY are the real deal. Typically Princess doesn’t put it together ’til just before regionals, but this year they’re already gelling and they’ve still got MONTHS to fine-tune. That’s a real scary thought.

Day 3 (we all crashed hard Saturday night)

Game 7: vs. Colorado

Losing to UCSF dropped us from the championship bracket of 16 to the so-called “ninals” bracket of 8, along with a few teams whose presence outside of the championship bracket was surprising (namely, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, and to a lesser extent, Illinois and UCSD). We squared off with Mamabird to start our day. As was the theme throughout the weekend, we played decently well, getting our turns, but failed to capitalize enough to take control of the game. This was a fairly tight game throughout–I think Colorado went up on us early but we hung tough and got our breaks back. The final score of 10-13 could have easily been 11-12, as the game was capped at 12-10 and an execution error on O led to the turn and the final score. By this point in the tournament I was starting to hurt–I had re-tweaked my ankle in a collision at the end of the UCSOB game yesterday, and was playing with an ankle brace on Sunday–and in this game, I got cleated going for a sky at one point (I got skyed, or rather, out-positioned) in the knee, which had me playing with a Charlie horse for the rest of the day. Rather than talking them up or asking out, I chose to play through it all, figuring that this was as good a time as any to work on my mental toughness and to learn how to play through it, with pretty good success I’d say.

Game 8: vs. Davidson

Not sure what to say about this game. Unlike Colorado, where their success was based in part on their superior athletes (though we still got our share of turns), Davidson did not have anything too impressive or intimidating to them. This game was again hallmarked by offensive troubles, as we gave the other team far more opporunities to score than we should’ve–as a team that likes to chuck it (like many of the teams we faced), we got our chances with the disc but each time they get the disc is another 50-50 shot at a quick score, so offensive efficiency is crucial to keep them in check.

I personally had a great game–I got to cut more often in this game to good effect. Thanks to my having handled all weekend I still had a pretty good bit of gas left in the tank on Sunday despite being beat up. I finally started getting my cutting groove back on O, and defensively I feel as thought I’m making pretty good strides on containing the deep threats and really dictating with my body positioning. Somehow we still wound up losing this game, 9-13, leaving us with a sour taste in our mouth as our ninth game was a no-show.

Game 9: vs. Oregon

Apparently their ego was too bruised from prior losses to finish out the bracket, as they pulled not only out of the 15th place game with us but also out of the game before that with UBC. Unfortunate, as we were really looking forward to a ninth game to get back into a groove and finish on a strong note. Personally I was feeling amped to push myself for one more game and really get to the edge of my physical capabilities for a weekend’s worth of ultimate, but so it goes. My ankle and knee certainly didn’t mind the earlier break.

Overall, a very successful weekend for the program. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance out there, gotten a taste of what this team is REALLY capable of, and that ceiling is still a ways up there–and with that ceiling so far we STILL managed to do as well as we did. Makes a fella really excited to bust his ass over the next few months and take this program to new heights.

Haven’t done this in a while, but general thoughts on the good and the bad, personally:

Good

• Defensive positioning, generally–still need to get better at pouncing after dictating my quarry to cut in, but I was very happy with my defense this weekend.
• Conditioning in a general sense–stayed strong all weekend, despite getting a little banged up. Never had to ask out of a point, though I did generally play fewer points/game than in some tournaments
• Health. The ankle made it ’til the end of day 2, and the knee never acted up on me (the Charlie horsed knee was the left, not my usual right nemesis)

Needs Improvement

• Handler positioning/cutting/mindset. I’m getting a better sense of where I need to be, but I need to develop a stronger drive to get to that position as the disc moves–I find myself following the play too often.
• Cutting sense. Particularly in points where I have to be the man cutting, I need to get a better killer instinct and take over the way I’m capable of. Additionally, a goal of mine going into the weekend (that I didn’t get to work on since I was handling) was to get a better sense of anticipation and timing for my cuts so that I’m getting open at optimal times. Still need more opportunity to do that.
• How my body works. I’m not sure how or what led to me to feel as good as I did in the Wesleyan game, but I need to figure it out and apply it consistently so I can be in top form when I need it most. I can play well enough when I’m not in top form, but there’s another tier I can yet reach.

Related posts:

1. 2/9-11/07: Trouble In Vegas
2. 2/11-2/13: Trouble in Vegas
3. 11-5/6: Brown Huck-a-hunk
4. 11/4-5: Huck-a-Hunk
5. Spring Break, woo!