BRIM-STONE!
First tourney of the year is over and the results are encouraging if not totally satisfying. The tournament coincided nicely with a visit from Rachel, who spent the last week in Durham with me. She was a good sport and came out on Saturday to root for us, but she made the right move and stayed away on Sunday, which was frigidly cold.
Hopefully the weather starts warming up soon. Even if it doesn't, Vegas in a week is keeping all of our spirits up. Coming into the weekend, it was definitely on my mind that if we didn't perform it could seriously hurt our seeding at Vegas. Whether that happens or not now is up to the TDs, but I believe that we gave a decent showing.
The real feature of this weekend was the modified rules set, which included more active observers and a yellow/red card system. My experience with the system was generally positive, although I got a sweet layout D called back by an out-of-position observer. In fact, I would say that the observers ruled against us more often than not, but I'm not sure we were in the wrong (maybe I can only remember a couple of particularly important reversals in our two UNC games that I disagreed with). Still, it was nice to have a third party to whom calls could be referred. The time limits kept the game moving. Finally, I only saw one card handed out (yellow, for complaining about a travel non-call), so I can't really comment on that part of the system.
On to the games.
Saturday
Florida State, 10-12
First game was against our pool's bottom seed. And we choked. Or at least stumbled, going down 4-7 at half. We picked it up a bit in the second half to tie it at 10s, but then proceeded to lose our composure and give up the D point and then get broken to lose. Florida State had a couple good players and moved the disc quickly, which prevented our defense from clamping down. Their captain (#15) and their midget handler (#2) probably touched 80+% of their throws and they were able to capitalize on some dumb mistakes to win the game.
This would end up being relatively uneventful as they would proceed to upset every other team except UNC to take 2nd in the pool. Still, I wasn't particularly impressed by their play. I felt that we dug ourselves into a hole and simply couldn't get back out. A couple miscues by the offense led to unforced turnovers and on defense we didn't have the intensity we expected and need in order to compete.
Georgia Tech, 13-11
Tech apparently had a great regionals last year and they played like a good team that hasn't yet found itself in the new season. I don't know how many players they lost to graduation, but they didn't look as polished as I might have expected. Their offense relied almost entirely on quick handler movement and throws to the break side. We gave them a break early, took it back a couple points later and essentially traded to 11-11.
At 11-11, we broke to take the lead and then broke again to win the game. Tommy had one of the sickest grabs I've ever seen in this game where he seemed to hang in the air for about 10 seconds before ripping the disc down. Supposedly, it's on film. I'm interested in checking out the video that UNC is supposedly making of the tournament, if only for this grab.
This game featured an interesting result with the new rules. I made a foul call on a huck from Trahey that was immediately contested. I didn't want to go to the observer because I thought the contact was just on the border of a foul and I expected to get overruled. Was pretty surprised when the Tech player didn't ask him to intervene. Ended up scoring the point anyway to force game point.
Footage of the game from the GT perspective can be found here. Note that Tommy's sick grab is missing.
UNC, 8-13
This was the showcase game and we had an audience of maybe 200 people watching, which was definitely a new and awesome experience. UNC is a good team that has a lot of talent top to bottom. Unfortunately, we played terribly in the first half and went down 2-6 before fighting back to lose half 4-7. In the second half, we fought back to 8-9, but then gave up 4 points to lose 8-13.
I feel like I played well this game, considering I scored 3-4 times and had a great trailing layout D (overruled by the observer). Unfortunately, Trahey's hucks seemed to be off and we made a couple silly mistakes that led to relatively easy scores by the home team. Lucas Darden made a nasty grab over Berendes to win the game, which kind of summarized how the game went for us. Even so, was fun to play in front of the big crowds.
Lots of great pictures of this game can be found here. Courtesy of Alan Hoyle.
Sunday
Yours truly, looking dumb.
Still looking dumb.
After having gone 1-2 on the first day, we needed to win in order to make the championship bracket and we were scheduled to play Maryland, the 3 seed. Crazy stuff had happened in the pool on Saturday and FSU was undefeated, Maryland had romped on UNC, but managed to lose to everyone else. All that mattered for us was that it was win or go home.
Maryland, 13-6
I don't know what was different about Sunday (except for the freezing weather and lack of sun), but we began to play like a real team. Maryland looked a little flustered at times, but we managed to play tight defense against a fairly athletic Maryland team and our offense only had to play like six points, getting broken only once when we were already ahead by four.
I got to line up against Freddy Tsai, Eagle and Reuben, which was fun. I felt like I was in bizarro land because every other game we've played (with the exception of the Princeton CUFF game) has B-des assigning matchups based off intimate knowledge of the other team, but I knew enough of the guys on Maryland that I got the job for the first couple points.
Our transition zone looked pretty solid in this game, which gave us a lot more confidence in running it against VaTech and UNC later in the day. My hucks were on point as well. In particular, I put up a break backhand to Berendes who skied pretty much the entire Maryland team to put in the score.
I talked to a couple of the Maryland guys later. Eagle had been in Italy and apparently hung out with Mutton. Sounds like he's having a pretty sweet time in Espana. Maryland sounded pretty confident about their position in the Metro East. I think Pitt is the front-runner, but Maryland and Delaware are probably 1-2 for the second bid.
Virginia Tech, 13-9
Don't know how they upset eventual tourney winner Virginia, but VaTech managed to go 3-1 in the other pool including a come-from-behind victory against Clemson. They played a 50-50 offense that relied on hucks. We broke the first point and took a small lead, then gave it back and went to half on serve. After half, we began to shut down their hucking game and our transition zone began to fluster their mid-cutters. Went on a nice run and ended the game on defense (two in a row!).
This was one of those games where the outcome seemed pre-determined. This was unfortunate in the first half where we weren't working as hard as we needed to and was great in the second half when VaTech started to fold and couldn't muster the same intensity we began to display.
UNC, 11-13
Both the pool play 3 seeds had upset the 2 seeds, restoring seeding to the bracket and setting up rematches of the 1-2 from pool play on either side of the bracket. We got a second shot at UNC and it was a great game that was probably a better showcase of the sport than our Saturday game.
Where Saturday's game was sloppy with a handful of long, turn-filled points, this game was crisp and quick. Lots of hucks, some sweet skies. Great bids (particularly by Hagan who had an absolutely filthy layout on a UNC deep shot where he was trailing his defender by at least five feet.
Tommy went off in this game, tearing down six goals in the game. Also, had a nasty toe-drag on a low huck from yours truly. Unfortunately, we managed to stumble at 11s, giving up the D point and then turning it on a bladed huck from Schwartz to Berendes. After the turnover, UNC gets the disc on the goal line and calls a time out.
I set up on the dump, Guenther on the mark and B-des covering Lucas iso-ed in the endzone. Guenther point-blocks the throw and B-des lays out for the tip and the disc is still caught for the goal. Fishsticks.
Felt pretty decent in this game. I've been playing a lot of handler for the D-line and I'm beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with my I-O flick break and my backhand around break. Got called out by the head observer on RSD (#19! Woot Woot!) as an example of someone who moves IMMEDIATELY after I throw. Made me happy considering I've worked on that aspect of my game a lot in the last year. If I can get my marked hucks down cleaner, I feel that I can make a real difference as a D-line handler. If not, I can always run my ass off cutting downfield.
Overall:
3-3, T-3rd
Decent weekend that serves as a good start to the spring season. We leave for Vegas on Thursday (Super Woot! Woot!) where I'll get to see C-K, Bill, Kalgin, Ian, Tim and a ton of others. My shins were pretty sore after playing on the hard turf and I was sick after the cold weekend, but I should be locked and loaded for next weekend.
Pictures by Doug Wilson.
