First tournament of the year!
So the team theme was "To Infinity and Beyond" focusing mostly on Disney characters! We had an interesting collection of characters who ended up on the U of A fields in Fayetteville Saturday morning. There was a nice layer of snow covering the fields when we got there - which quickly melted by the time rounds started. A good lesson to learn, wake everyone up 45 minutes before you want them to leave....
Our first round was against Hendrix - who ironically enough were also Disney characters. Because we only had 8 players, we switched into our super fancy blue jerseys (who Lynn so kindly spent the week working on) and got ready to play. It was our first game of the year playing together with only 3 girls who had actually played together last year. Pretty incredible. Choosing to focus on really tight open side defense and stifling marks we managed to shut down their offense. Our offense looked pretty sharp, having never played in a tournament before. The cuts were smooth and effective, rookies really stepped up in this game and made great in cuts. Wheeler
and Ruthie began their downfield domination which would carry through the rest of the tournament. We saw some nice bids and some great hucks from our handlers (Kathleen, Fran, and Erica). This game ended pretty quickly with a score of 13-3, Miss Red.
Our second round was against the Fame Monsters (Arkansas home team). The Gaga beasts played very poachy defense and through a lot of zone against us. Having never actually played zone offense, we had a bit of trouble figuring out how to break their cup. They through the trap cup along the sideline and by the second half we had figured out a general idea of how to get the disc moving. The handlers had to stay away from the sideline and move amongst themselves. It was a pretty rough game for us, but the hucks were there. We had a few fights, a few quick slugs to the nose and stomach, but by the second half we had our head on straight and managed to put some marks on the scoreboard. Game ended 6-13, Fame Monsters.
The third round against Endzone Entruders (Mizzou) was our chance for revenge. We came out really strong, focusing on shutting down any open side options. The marks did a very good job shutting down the breakside. Their handlers were not given the opportunity to swing the disc and many of their hucks were unsuccessful. We saw some sweet defensive bids from Ruthie and Wheeler as well as some great denial D from our freshmen! It was a promising game and we took the game 8-3 at hard cap.
Fourth round on Saturday was an eye opener for our rookies. Our last game of the day we faced the SlUperheroes. This team is not nearly as good as they were two years ago - their primarily handlers having graduated I assumed. Nevertheless, with an almost savage tea
m we had trouble keeping up with their offensive deep cuts and getting a lot of their swilly hucks. To switch it up we put Kathleen on their primary handlers and forced straight up for a lot but when you're tired, you're tired and keeping up with deep cuts gets rough. On our offense, we started having Kathleen take the in cuts and looking for the dish which worked brilliantly. A lot of the offensive structure that we had earlier today started to crumble but Wheeler and Kathleen kept the disc moving. Marie and Ruthie did a nice job stepping up into the role of handler and we did manage to score a few more points against Slu by the end of the day.
Overview of Day 1: We accomplished our goal of forcing the right way on the mark, not getting broken, and playing excellent open side defense. On offense, we did a great job keeping the disc moving and timing our cuts. For the most part, we made good decisions about when to swing and when to huck. It was a fun day of ultimate and everyone really learned a lot!
Saturday night: Ruthie slept for 13 hours. And I'm pretty sure we ate more calories than we expended...something pretty hard to do when playing with 8 people.
Day 2 - The climb to the Chumpianship!
While normally, I would be very upset with being in the Chumpianship bracket, it is the first tournament of the year and the only upperclassman playing had been in South Africa for the past semester. I was actually really happy on Sunday!
Game 1: Tulane -So never listen to drunk tournament TDs because they actually have no idea when you are supposed to play. We showed up late for this game which put us behind for the rest of the day. This group of girls were not very experienced and had trouble completing passes. When the wind started picking up, our defensive job got easier. Fran (mostly), Kathleen, and Erica had plenty of opportunities for some downwind hucks. We saw Ruthie and Wheeler put up plenty of throws, some nice bids, and even a few handblocks. Marie had a sweet bid in the endzone and again Rebecca and Sarah seemed to be open in the endzone (a lot). The game ended at cap with a score of 9-3 or something.
Game 2: Mizzou again! Similar story but we learned to start poaching in the lane with the beginnings of a very effective front wall. Upwind, we started having Kathleen and Fran run a very quick dominator until they found someone open downfield. The score was capped again in our favor.
Game 3: THE CHUMPIANSHIP! JBU was again, a very different team. Their star cutter ended up handling for them and they had trouble completing passes. With a game cut short (because we started the day really late...) we saw a lot of great plays. Everyone was really stepping
up and the hucks kept flying. By the end of the day the endzone was looking a lot better and Fran and Kathleen dominated that inside out break all day.
Highlights of the weekend:
~ Wheeler catching the disc on her face (many times!).
~ Wheeler getting a sweet callahan before the sole of her cleat ripped off.
~ Ruthie getting a callahan.
~ Kathleen getting a callahan? I can never remember if she catches her Ds or not.
~ Marie's break (and bid).
~ Rebecca's defense.
~ Sarah scoring a lot.
~ Fran's handblocks then hucking it straight into a girls finger.
~ Erica's sweet deep defense and her lefty hucks to the endzone.
Let's carry this momentum as we get ready for San Marcos this weekend!
