Nationals recap – Day One
First day of the tourney saw us up bright and early for our first game at 8:30 am. We were in a pool with Hammerhead (Ottawa’s top mixed touring team, seeded 6th), Mauvaise Herbes Ulimate Club (or simply MHUC, from Quebec city, seeded 11th), and Les Polatouches (‘The Flying Squirrels’, from Sherbrooke, Quebec, seeded 14th). Our schedule was MHUC, Polatouches, a bye, than Hammerhead. An early warmup, and we were right into it.
Game one: too early to get upset? The start of the game saw us take an early lead and get on serve, but not much else. MHUC kept it close with decent play (and a whole lotta calls, some sketchy), while we just didn’t seem to have anything special to offer. Cuts weren’t reliably open, throws were off, defence was at times uninspired. We limped to half with a thin lead. After half MHUC seemed a bit resurgent and finally took the lead – just barely – up on serve. We traded several points – and finally the hard cap went on, just before a point we scored to tie it at 11s. Next point wins! We got the D, but turned it back. MHUC worked it up, sent a pass up the line into the endzone… and scored. Ugh. We just lost to the 11th ranked team (checking the results, this appears to be the upset of the tournament in terms of both initial seedings and final rankings. Ouch.). Nonetheless, not too much time to get down on ourselves. Next game would start right away.
Game two: confidence building. While MHUC and Polatouches had come in the #4 and #5 seeds from Quebec, there was clearly a large gap between the two teams in talent and spirit, Polatouches were clearly a ‘fun’ team, highly spirited but not the greatest athletes. The game was a lot more fun, both because there were far fewer calls and spirit was far better, and because we were winning. While we never delivered the knockout punch we could have (and should have) been able to deliver, the game was never really in question. I nearly got a Callahan early on, but couldn’t get a handle on the disc as I laid out in front of the intended receiver (damn sunscreen! I would later resort to using a lot of chalk the rest of the tourney). We scored on one pass afterward, but still one of the things that haunts me afterwards. I did later score on a short cut from a handler position and kinda spiked the disc – I immediately regretted it as Polatouches just weren’t the kind of team to spike on. We finished up 10-5, and then played some team games that were pretty fun. Polatouches wished us luck and continued on. They would lose all their games on Thursday, but still finished ahead of their seed at 12th. Good guys, the Polatouches.
Game three: Game of the day. Our 1-1 record was looking not too inspiring at this point and I was apprehensive about the next game. Another loss would make things difficult. We had already lost to the 11th seed, and our win over the 14th seed, was not impressive. Now we were playing the 6th seed – on paper, we are in trouble. Fortunately, games are not played on paper.
Following the bye in which we checked out the merch tent and the Winnipeg Flood master’s game, we got back into a warmup and prepared for Hammerhead. This was a big game – a must-win. Anything other than a win would make things very difficult – perhaps even deny us the quarterfinals then and there. We were made aware of the imporntance of the game, and got underway. First point we threw on a ‘zone to half’, which ended up getting the turn before we switched out of zone. I went long for a pass that floated – I read it OK, but got slammed into by the defender coming up behind me as I went up for the disc. Foul! Contested… back to thrower, but we scored a few throws later. Next play, we threw on another zone, and the player who fouled me previously threw a low pass through the cup that whisked off the ground. A challenge by one of our players… and he let the turnover stand. Perhaps feeling guilty for the contest on the previous play? Whatever it was, we were up 2-0. We got another break for a score, 3-0. Then 4-0. They finally scored after we got 4 or 5, but we continued the run thereafter. Big plays by O and D. We were looking better than we had all season. 8-1 at half. The usual drow the puppy speech. We were looking for blood and for the points differential to lock up first place. I think a figure of a 10-point win is tossed out sometime at or after half. No mercy.
Second half Hammerhead is out stronger, but we are hanging with them. 9-1. One of their players makes a spectacular layout D for a Callahan. Could be a rallying point… It’s not. We keep rolling. They get a few points in. We get more. I even score a couple… one on a nice cross-field swing when I was massively poached, another on a layout in the endzone, the latter for a 14-4 lead and game point. We once again send down the zone that had confounded them, and it pays off… with a Callahan of our own. Beautiful exclamation point on a convincing and very satisfying win. 15-4, and first in our pool. Who would have though after our first game. Now we were thinking of ourselves as contenders. Still three days to play, but we were looking forward to it.
Game one: too early to get upset? The start of the game saw us take an early lead and get on serve, but not much else. MHUC kept it close with decent play (and a whole lotta calls, some sketchy), while we just didn’t seem to have anything special to offer. Cuts weren’t reliably open, throws were off, defence was at times uninspired. We limped to half with a thin lead. After half MHUC seemed a bit resurgent and finally took the lead – just barely – up on serve. We traded several points – and finally the hard cap went on, just before a point we scored to tie it at 11s. Next point wins! We got the D, but turned it back. MHUC worked it up, sent a pass up the line into the endzone… and scored. Ugh. We just lost to the 11th ranked team (checking the results, this appears to be the upset of the tournament in terms of both initial seedings and final rankings. Ouch.). Nonetheless, not too much time to get down on ourselves. Next game would start right away.
Game two: confidence building. While MHUC and Polatouches had come in the #4 and #5 seeds from Quebec, there was clearly a large gap between the two teams in talent and spirit, Polatouches were clearly a ‘fun’ team, highly spirited but not the greatest athletes. The game was a lot more fun, both because there were far fewer calls and spirit was far better, and because we were winning. While we never delivered the knockout punch we could have (and should have) been able to deliver, the game was never really in question. I nearly got a Callahan early on, but couldn’t get a handle on the disc as I laid out in front of the intended receiver (damn sunscreen! I would later resort to using a lot of chalk the rest of the tourney). We scored on one pass afterward, but still one of the things that haunts me afterwards. I did later score on a short cut from a handler position and kinda spiked the disc – I immediately regretted it as Polatouches just weren’t the kind of team to spike on. We finished up 10-5, and then played some team games that were pretty fun. Polatouches wished us luck and continued on. They would lose all their games on Thursday, but still finished ahead of their seed at 12th. Good guys, the Polatouches.
Game three: Game of the day. Our 1-1 record was looking not too inspiring at this point and I was apprehensive about the next game. Another loss would make things difficult. We had already lost to the 11th seed, and our win over the 14th seed, was not impressive. Now we were playing the 6th seed – on paper, we are in trouble. Fortunately, games are not played on paper.
Following the bye in which we checked out the merch tent and the Winnipeg Flood master’s game, we got back into a warmup and prepared for Hammerhead. This was a big game – a must-win. Anything other than a win would make things very difficult – perhaps even deny us the quarterfinals then and there. We were made aware of the imporntance of the game, and got underway. First point we threw on a ‘zone to half’, which ended up getting the turn before we switched out of zone. I went long for a pass that floated – I read it OK, but got slammed into by the defender coming up behind me as I went up for the disc. Foul! Contested… back to thrower, but we scored a few throws later. Next play, we threw on another zone, and the player who fouled me previously threw a low pass through the cup that whisked off the ground. A challenge by one of our players… and he let the turnover stand. Perhaps feeling guilty for the contest on the previous play? Whatever it was, we were up 2-0. We got another break for a score, 3-0. Then 4-0. They finally scored after we got 4 or 5, but we continued the run thereafter. Big plays by O and D. We were looking better than we had all season. 8-1 at half. The usual drow the puppy speech. We were looking for blood and for the points differential to lock up first place. I think a figure of a 10-point win is tossed out sometime at or after half. No mercy.
Second half Hammerhead is out stronger, but we are hanging with them. 9-1. One of their players makes a spectacular layout D for a Callahan. Could be a rallying point… It’s not. We keep rolling. They get a few points in. We get more. I even score a couple… one on a nice cross-field swing when I was massively poached, another on a layout in the endzone, the latter for a 14-4 lead and game point. We once again send down the zone that had confounded them, and it pays off… with a Callahan of our own. Beautiful exclamation point on a convincing and very satisfying win. 15-4, and first in our pool. Who would have though after our first game. Now we were thinking of ourselves as contenders. Still three days to play, but we were looking forward to it.
posted by Druski at 11:46 p.m.
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