Thoughts.

Game 5: vs. Williams
We came out with our zone gellin’, and in the high wind (the game had a decided upwind-downwind dynamic to it) WUFO had difficulty responding. As a team that loves to put it up deep and really play for the jump disc (or take the opportunities to make hucks that are run discs if those are there), relying on their athletes, forcing them to mull around and beat a zone, particularly in windy weather where simply trying to make a play deep is more problematic, was decidedly outside of their comfort zone. We opened up a fairly large lead and never really looked back, eventually shifting out of our primary zone set when we had a comfortable lead and continuing to generate turns by virtue of hard work in our man and secondary zone sets. We won this one 15-6, a great start to the day.

Game 6: vs. Ohio State
A really solid team, overall. We threw our zone with some success in this game as well, though we definitely wound up shifting more towards man as they worked it out (memory’s a little fuzzy here–this is what happens when I put off recaps for a couple weeks due to a start-of-term project). There was a LOT of tension in this game, tempers flared. At one point the game was maybe 11-9, 11-10 us and we thought hard cap was on–we scored the presumed extra point, shook hands, etc, apparently having agreed with OSU’s “coach” on the cap whilst the captains presumed we had a couple extra points to play–lots of dispute and some angry words between players later and we agreed to play to 14. Yours truly kept his composure of course; our very next point I was in on D and we forced a high stall count pass, a swing across the field…the disc carried out of bounds and one of our players caught it on the sideline as an OSU player was sprinting up, and, insisting that he had a legitimate shot at throwing a greatest (more heated exchange, debate on the trajectory of the disc, where it would’ve landed and where he would’ve needed to go, etc), we sent the disc back. I was covering their primary dump, who had been clearing out at a high stall when the aforementioned bailout was thrown. Having followed the disc, I was now behind him relative to the disc’s position on the other sideline, but rather than giving a “hey, I think we were here” bit and re-establishing my position, I figured, eh, I’ll start behind him and sprint past if the throw goes up. Sure enough, disc in, the throw goes up and I get the layout D on the line, getting our heads back in the game and out of the call as we convert the break and capitalize on the next point as well to end with authority, 14-10, rather than simply stemming the tide of an OSU comeback after our early lead.

This was also the game where, when going up for a disc in the endzone, I got hit from behind on my way up (I think Graham was behind me?) and flung upwards into the air. There’s a picture out there somewhere–I was flung upwards and forwards, feet first, essentially going from jumping to make a play to riding down a slide away from the disc as 4ish other guys are making a play some 5 feet away. I came down pretty hard–I hung a lot longer then I’m used to, but fortunately I’m fairly used to landing from great height at this point–and landed pretty squarely on my ass, also catching myself with my left wrist. Had I been flung more forcefully I’m pretty sure I could’ve broken it–instead I wound up merely sore for the rest of the day. Southerns Injury Count: 4

Game 7: Vs. University of North Carolina, Wilmington
If the OSU game was tense, then this game was simultaneously tighter and looser–UNCW gave us a hell of a game, with both teams battling back and forth throughout, but despite their reputation (and the attitude of several of our players in the previous game) we came into this game calmer and more prepared to defuse tension, and so wound up keeping our composure and minimizing the volume of heat exchanged.

Like I said, this was a tight game–we had moved to different fields at this point, and the wind had subsided a bit in addition to now being a crosswind instead of upwind/downwind, so man defense won the day. Our handler D set us apart from UNCW, as the relative ease with which we got our resets contrasted strongly with several of the tense situations we forced them into (and capitalized upon). We battled and were up, 12-11, before UNCW scored to force universe. We marched it up the field before a cross-field strike to Bonesaw in the endzone sealed our win and punched our ticket to the finals (!).

This game’s injury, the fifth and most serious of the weekend, saw me getting taken out by a UNCW player. Dominant cutter-type, pretty athletic build–and apparently pretty heavy, as lil’ ol’ 135-lb me was floored upon impact. I was sprinting for a swing as the disc was in the air. He was apparently just standing there (I didn’t see him at all, I was looking at the disc after all). I called a foul. He (and a couple teammates) protested on a couple counts, at one point trying to tell me that I wasn’t going to be able to make a play on the disc (had the discussion dragged on much longer, I would’ve been 50:50 on dropping a “my top speed is higher” line for the second consecutive spring break), but I stuck to the argument that:
a) a foul is any contact that affects continued play (getting floored would constitute an effect on continued play)
b) if the foul affects the play on the disc, then the disc either goes to the fouled (in a circumstance where the catch would’ve clearly occurred sans foul) or goes back to the thrower (in circumstances where the result is unclear. Rules Blog, go!). Ergo (“Ergo! I don’t know what that means, I go to a state school!” -one/several? UNCW players, as reported by sidelines) foul, disc goes back since they contested.

I don’t know if we scored or not, but I didn’t play the rest of the game (I did finish the point though). I was worried for a while that I might have dislocated or subluxated my shoulder. At any rate, I was icing after the game’s end and still icing as we began our game against Tufts in the finals. Southerns Injury Count: 5

Game 8: vs Tufts
Of course. Of course we travel all the way to Statesboro, GA, and play not one, but both of our regional rivals also at the same tourney. The Northeast is back on the rise, if the presence of two NE teams in the finals is any indication.

We went down early. It was pretty apparent from the get-go that both teams were fairly tired from their earlier games. Tufts has a good system, but they definitely still had some work to do when we saw them. We had a lot of miscue/misexecution turns that they capitalized on early, but they had their fair share of throwaways too–several of which were predicated in the late-game by their poor resets (combined with the way we play dump defense, they really didn’t have much there). I was watching from the side all first half as we went down (score was…8-5? going into half? 7-4 or something perhaps?), but after a brief chitchat with the tourney’s trainer (“Yeah, it’s a muscular thing. If you had a dislocation you wouldn’t let me come close to doing this with your arm. It’s tough with the way you throw the frisbee, but if you can deal with the pain you’re OK to play”) I jumped back in. I can’t authoritatively say that I helped–I promptly threw away two backhands thanks to my shoulder (localized to the deltoid, I had trouble with placement and touch on the long backhands) and a third turn besides, but I CAN authoritatively say that I threw the winning goal, a short scoober to a wide-open Carson in the endzone.

All in all, a very good tournament for us. We kept our focus high throughout, kept our energy up, and overcame several challenges on Sunday, most notably dealing with the tension between us and OSU and being down to Tufts in the finals. A great way to cap off our spring break, and a nice dose of confidence heading into the spring season.

You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win ‘em all. This was one of those times. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Day 1 was pretty straightforward for us, with several games that were not terribly challenging and our hardest game coming from Northwestern, which we still won 13-9.

More on each game:
Game 1: vs Rutgers
Ariel (hi, Ariel! Thanks for introducing yourself at Folly. You may be the only reader I have outside of people I already knew) was really Rutgers’ only threat to do anything dangerous with the disc, and we did a good job of putting enough pressures on the handlers and downfield that he wasn’t able to hurt us to any large degree. We had a fairly open rotation at this point in the day as I recall. We went into the weekend wanting to play a full weekend of ultimate, never mailing it in against any team, and we did so successfully all day Saturday, playing two complete halves against Rutgers for a 13-5 win.

Personal note on this game: maybe late in the first half, I got kneed in the calf playing defense. I know, right? Kneed in the calf, what/how the hell? I turned more quickly than the cutter as he changed direction (I was behind him) and he kneed me.
Southerns Injury Count: 1

Game 2: vs Northwestern
We played NUT twice around this time last year at Ultimax, narrowly winning our first meeting and comfortably winning our second. This year we were better prepared for them, jumping out to a lead fairly early on with a few breaks and a rock-solid O-line in the first half (i think we went into half up 7-3 or so). Second half, we stumbled almost immediately out of the gate, as our O-line was broken straight away and gave up another break right afterwards, letting NUT creep back into the game and making the second half a bit more passionate as NUT tried to get themselves amped up enough to get back in it. We kept our composure, however, and our D-line (my D-line) got the breaks back as we went 6-6 in the second half to close out a 13-9 win.

This game, I was covering a particularly body-ful NUT cutter. I play pretty good body defense these days, getting in the way of the deep cut, but this guy instead of running around me, or trying to set me up somehow, would invariably move out into a cutting lane before stepping into me, often with an arm pushoff, and heading in. I kept warning him about the foul possibility there, and when I finally did call it he flipped out, giving me sass about “[I] was moving so it’s a foul on [me].” I countered with the fact that a) his pushoffs were taking away my capability to make a play and b) his elbow caught me in the throat on the foul call in question and we agreed to disagree. (Southerns Injury Count: 2) He came and spoke to me after the point and we reached an understanding that was much better than the somewhat contentious exchange we had on-field, so that was a good way to settle things before stepping back on the field against one another and a really great move on his part to come talk to me after the point.

Bye: Got lunch, watched the Discomfort Trolley. Man those guys develop. Some great freshmen waiting in the wings…

Game 3: vs LSU
We played these guys at CCC, and they were about as impressive then. We went into this game really focused on improving with every point we played, and our commitment to playing hard defense really showed in this game. Layouts all over, several layout D’s, and a point block by yours truly. (According to Dermo, later: “I was covering that guy for the second time, and after he got it the first time I was like, ‘this time I’m DEFINITELY going to get a layout D on you on the in cut.’ And then you went and point blocked the handler and beat me to it. Thanks a ton! Now I’ve got to get a layout D in the next game, I haven’t gotten one yet today!”) Incidentally, I also layout D’d Dermo’s guy at a later point.

This was the game, I think, where I had a layout D attempt that missed (you ever get those, where you’re right on top of a guy, but the disc is placed juuuust so so that you can’t get the D without laying out entirely around the guy? That’s what this was like), and as I got up after the bid, Chase was running past following his man and his knee caught me square in the back of the head. Southerns Injury Count: 3

Game 4: vs. Ohio
Another game we went into with keen focus and came out of as 13-4 victors. We really opened things up in the later stages of this game as I recall. I don’t remember a ton of specifics about this game (I’m getting some cognitive confusion here with Ohio st, whom I have very clear recollections of and who we played on Sunday). At this point in the day we threw a bit more zone (also in the LSU game) with very good success. Having a consistent group of people who play zone D together really enhances the chemistry and effectiveness of a teamwork D like that.

One part hat tourney, three parts scrimmaging/B-team tourney. Lots of wind, which was better than windless and gnat-filled.

Beach Houses. Beach. Ahhh, Beach. Sun, lots of sun. Lots of sunburning.

A wonderful week.

Ultimate-related components:

Hat Tourney
A pretty good time, though the wind really hosed the level of play. It’s a lot tougher to be a ballin’, play-makin bomb-thrower when the wind means that precision throws are tough and completions depend as much on the capability of the cutter as that of the thrower (in contrast to calmer conditions, where I could place throws such that the receiver’s ability is relatively less important).

Of course, I’m no Alex Crew, whose (mostly) unstoppable flick, upwind or downwind, carried his team into the finals and ultimately to victory. A “5″ on the 1-5 scale, indeed. Did I mention that he’s single?

Follywood Proper
B-teams had two squads, each playing a couple games a day I think. They didn’t place terribly well, but they made a shitton of progress in just a short while. Especially fun to watch friends of mine who’d never played ultimate before come on spring break and go from recreational tosser to on-field baller.

A-team, we(as well as the women) had a few scrimmages. We wound up playing Arkansas, Carleton GOP, and Oklahoma…we beat GOP pretty handily, were tight with Arkansas (I *think* we may have opened up a bit more of a lead late that game, but I can’t recall if we actually won or not), and dropped one to Oklahoma in some pretty windy weather as our glaring lack of outdoor experience manifested in numerous short turns. A good swift kick in the nuts to us, we spent a fair bit of time afterwards getting back to basics, working on throwing, doing some general zone work with specific situations, and dialing back in our dump-swing.

We spent the first weekend playing at Southerns, in Statesboro, GA, the intervening week chilling in beach houses/playing (“exhibition games” was the term I heard used) teams in the Charleston area, and the final weekend playing at Ultimax. Short recaps below:

Southerns
We got off to a bit of a slow start. We had a couple easy wins against College of
Charleston and Yale in pool play to start, but then we ran up against Wake Forest and dropped a game to them after being up something like 8-4 or 5 at half. Wake proved to be a very streaky, emotional team, and while we took advantage when they were down, we couldn’t keep the pressure up and let them creep back into it and fire themselves up as they rolled over us 15-12. After that we played a pickup team (!) of Georgia Southern and Florida B players. At this point we were apparently not capable of playing with any intensity as we dropped this game to drop out of the winner’s bracket on Sunday. We resolved to continue to work and make progress throughout spring break (we had already resolved to do so, but now did so with gusto) and also agreed that we needed to get lunch, after 1 player out of 21 had eaten over the course of our 4 games.

Day 2, we rolled with some pretty convincing wins over Georgia Southern and Viginia Tech, carried that same momentum into our game against Duke, and beat them pretty handily (we were in control the whole game), and finally rolled up against Richmond in the Chumpionship finals. We played hard, and really (I think) out-played Richmond, but unfortunately they were coming off a 2-hour bye-by-forfeit while we had rushed over from our Duke game, and they were able to make the plays on O and D that we couldn’t. We wound up losing by 2 or 3 cap time. A disappointing end, but we were definitely happy with the progress we’d made. Our O had definitely begun to run more smoothly, a trend that would continue throughout the week.

Charleston
Amazing, quite simply. We had two beach houses that were literally right on the beach–from either house you could look out the window and see the beach and ocean, unobstructed. Beautiful.

The week opened with a hat tourney–there were maybe 6 schools staying in Charleston that weekend, so the teams had a decent mix. I wound up playing on team “Mongoose,” which (out of 9 men) had 6 players named Matt. It’s always great to know the TD and find you’ve been a victim of their whims. And by great, I mean it was so-so. Of the Matts (of the team), I was definitely the most capable–I was also definitely the most sore/achy from the preceding weekend. I played a fair bit, handled mostly. I was disappointed with one particular Matt on my team, however, who despite having a 10-20% success rate (success meaning the throw went the way he wanted it, to say nothing of his decision making) on his hucks saw it fit to keep putting them up there after I’d just looked off the same guy deep to dump it to him. Kept me from doing a lot of the playmaking I wanted to. My team didn’t do so well as a result, though we weren’t terrible.

The rest of the week, I spent on the sidelines. I overdid it a bit in the hat tourney–our last game in the chumpionship bracket I refused to sub myself out (or more like, my team refused to sub themselves in) and I wound up throwing my body around a fair bit. I spent the rest of the week icing my knee and taking ibuprofen to get the swelling down. While I stood and cheered/helped from the sidelines, we got a lot of scrimmaging in, worked on our defense and transition O and D, and “exhibitioned” and beat GOP (Carleton’s less-intense ultimate team) and College of Charleston (with a limited roster due to injury) on Tuesday, and Georgia Tech (handily) and Cornell (a bit less handily, but still in control) on Thursday. Wednesday was an off day for us, and we spent part of it doing yoga and working on throwing in the wind on the beach–the throwing work in particular made a significant difference through the rest of the week, as we definitely needed to make adjustements after a winter of little throwing for some of us and only indoor throwing for the rest of us.

Friday was a get-away day, and my car (I wound up driving maybe 1000 miles over the course of spring break; we covered 2800 or so total with three drivers) spent much of the day wandering the streets of Charleston. Beautiful. I’m sure we’ll be back there next year.

Ultimax
Saturday and Sunday saw us at Ultimax in Greensboro, NC. This is where it all came together.

Strangely, the tournament format had a “power pool” with the top five seeds at the tournament in it–one of the top five seeds, by the way, was Duke, whom we’d trounced the weekend before. We were the 7 seed, and out to prove ourselves better than that.

Started off Saturday strong, hosing Drexel without much trouble (they loved to work the around break, but sadly didn’t have the personnel to consistently execute on it) to open, and rolling over Penn without a ton of difficulty–they were just coming off a tight win over Northwestern, 16-14 (games were to 15), and we had more energy to run them into the ground with.

After that we played Northwestern. Looking at the score reporter, apparently our pool was played out-of-order–we should’ve played Penn first and Drexel second. The general consensus was that the TD was “not with it.” Anyhow, we opened up an early lead on NUT, but they closed late in the first half. Second half we wound up basically trading points–we had difficulty stopping NUT’s loose, but effective, deep game on defense, but they were equally incapable of stopping our flow. The game proved pretty frustrating for our D, but we won 15-13 thanks to a consistent O.

I was back to playing on Saturday with a healthy ibuprofen regimen, and was I ever glad to be back on the field! I played mostly O-line, for whatever reason, which worked out really well since my knee was not 100% and I could dictate my own pace more often.

We rounded out Saturday with a crossover game against Penn State, whom we rolled without too much trouble.

Sunday saw us beginning the winner’s bracket as the #6 seed after our crossover win, and we opened up with a fairly crisp game against William and Mary, as we cruised to a 13-6 victory (games on Sunday were to 13 so teams could get on the road home sooner). We then ran up against Northwestern again after they upset Duke first-round (by the way, the so-called “power pool” worked out to a five-way tie, each team going 2-2 and reseeding being based on point diffy). The game was a lot tighter than the 13-7 final score would indicate–the long and short of it, though, is that our O was pretty much unstoppable (Watson and I as 3-4, every single O point, nonetheless managed to always get open) and our D put a lot of pressure on their handlers to force turns and capitalized to convert.

After putting Northwestern down again, we came up against Delaware, and had a very strange game. It was a strange game in that, while we were subjectively out-playing them, forcing lots of high-stall turns, pressuring their handlers, etc, we were utterly unable to convert for the break. Del applied strong pressure to our resets, and the lack of experience of a number of our D-line cutters showed itself in a startling lack of flow. We had the disc on the endline to break more than once and turned it there more than once. we did get one or two breaks, as I recall, but while our O had some easy points (for example, the three points I threw backhand break hucks for the score in) we also had enough miscommunication and the occasional mis-executed huck to let them creep into the lead. We wound up losing 13-10 feeling like we had handed them the game. Delaware went on to beat UMichigan in the finals 13-7.