The weather looked good the next morning, it was pretty sunny. Had our first match against Texas (don't think I've ever played them before). We came out SUPER strong. I think the score was 3-1 us at one point. However, they quickly regrouped and matched it. We weren't prepared for that, and they shut us out and took half. We pretty much forgot how to play ultimate. We got beat on the open side again and again and again. They would just put it down the sideline again and again into the endzone. When I was on the line, I suggested forcing middle to stop their offense from just going down the sideline. But we decided to keep the force one way, and really use the opportunity to work on our open side D (we still need to work on it). And I think they started throwing zone on us, and it was shutting us down quite a bit. And it was simple things that we couldn't do, like throwing and catching. We had a ridiculous amounts of drops. So it seemed like the offense was working, we just needed to learn how to catch. Final score was 4-13.
Next up, we moved onto Muir fields. They were nice, plush fields as I described them. Matched up against Claremont, we played against them at Santa Barbara Invite. In that game, we came out strong, but lost it later in the game. I think we're a pretty good match-up against this team, so we were ready to bring it out strong again. I think we started off okay, but Claremont took the lead after a bit. They have a huge cup. #10 has a huge mark on the cup, and when they trap the thrower on the sideline, the cup shifts the mark over to the back to stop the dump throw. And #40 is a big receiver (I think I heard she usually handles?), but she is good at reading the disc and plays a great deep deep when those throws do get out of the cup. I got hand blocked and foot blocked within the span of a few minutes by #10. First was a huck, but I guess that was pretty telegraphed. And I got the disc again after a turn, decided to break her mark (and the cup) with my low release backhand, but she put her foot in the way. I had a few flick hucks down the sideline when trapped, but not all of them were completed. But when they were, we totally had the cup beat. This was a very tiring game--long points. We hit soft-cap, and Claremont was still in the lead. But we gave it our all, and came out on top on double game point (7-6). Definetly a great game.
After that, we were up against UCSB. Strong team this year. They have a super quick offense, and they are super fast. They get a D, and they just roll and scored. Not much to say, but they are ready to win that Nationals title this year. They are good. Final score was 3-11. One score that I remember was I hit Kelley on the dump, sprinted past my mark and went up the line. Got the disc, and was waiting for someone to cut deep for me. Corrina saw me cut up the line with the disc and changed her cut to the back cone, and I just put it. Right along the sideline, and she just ran it down, and scored.
Last game, against Berkeley. Also a pretty strong team this year. It seemed like their plan for their offense was to break the mark and have a open throw deep. So we really worked on our marks, and they still had break mark throws, but they were a lot less and much harder throws. After they had a considerable lead on us, they started resting some of their players like Cree and Anchi. That made the game a bit easier for us, and we were able to score a few. Final score 8-11.
After a long day of great games, headed home, my parents ordered Chinese. And we met up with some of the Dogs and went to grab froyo.
Next day was not quite as nice. Gloom was coming out. Had our first game against Colorado. And then against USC. Another point I remember against USC was being forced middle on the sideline, and I had a pretty big mark, so I had a hard time getting it past her. And it happened like twice. So on the third time, I realized that I was going to have a hard time throwing past this mark, so I sprinted to the disc and put up a huge backhand rip before the mark was completely on. It drifted perfectly over the sideline and stayed in, and Colleen got it right by the endzone line, and had a great throw to Barbara for the score.
We had one more game on Sunday against Neela and Cornell. I think this was also a pretty good match-up. They had a poachy defense, and very activate calls for the mark. They called strike often and it stopped some of my open side throws, but at the same time, it did open up other options. One of the times, Kelley cut up line, and completely faked out her defender, wide open. I was ready to throw it for the score, but I guess someone called strike, and the mark shifted over and my throw was a little too low. Another time right on the endzone line, Rad cut up line for me, also burned her defender, but the mark shifted over, and completely cut it off, but it opened up the whole break side to me. So I put it towards the middle of the stack, and we scored. This was a really fun game. Final score 8-10. I felt like the game was closer than the score shows.
We then went to Souplantation for dinner, I ate enough to feed a small country. And we headed up to LA cuz the tournament was moved due to the rain. We crashed in Claremont's dorm lounge along with Colorado, Oregon and Carleton. On Monday we had another game against Claremont because Long Beach and Sonoma forfeited their games. The fields were crazy soaked with puddles. And it was brutal, wet and windy. We lost that game 4-13. It was pretty hard to throw and catch in that game. But yeah, we just weren't ready to play in those conditions. I can't wait to play them again at Stanford Qualifiers.
The drive back up was brutal because the weather closed off the 5. It took around 8 hours? But we had a lot of fun with fast faces.
This is long, and I'm completely over it. Haha. Back to studying.
