Lazy sportswriters have relied on finding a team to slap with the Cinderella label as a default storyline for some time now. I am certainly not above being lazy, but UPenn's performance over Memorial Day truly fits the bill and is one of the more remarkable runs in recent memory. In the short time that UPA has been maintaining scores on their score reporter, the only other run that can compete with what UPenn did this year is Northwest's 2007 performance that nearly landed them in the semifinals.
Coming into the tourney as the 20th seed, Venus more than justified the UPA's decision to expand the field to 20 teams this year. What they did this year will undoubtedly inspire future upset-minded teams to do the unthinkable and give fans a lot to chat about.
I emailed Marc 'Doc' Stachowski, the head coach of UPenn Venus, about their run to get a firsthand account of their successful showing at the College Championships. In his third year as head coach, Stachowski was recognized as the Metro East's coach of the year. As a player, Doc has qualified for mixed Nationals five times, twice with Donkey Bomb and is currently on a three-year run with AMP.
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FJR: Before we get to the big run in Columbus, how did you and the team leadership prepare for the College Series?
Stachowski: Sunday at sectionals was the first time all season that our entire team was on the field for a game. Our 5th year player and main handler, Raha Mozaffari, is in dental school and was barely able to make it to any tourneys at all this season. That meant a couple of things: 1. One of our main cutters, Whitney Viets, had to handle all year in Raha's place. 2. As a result of that, and the fact that I couldn't care less about things like RRI, we were a complete unknown even to our regional rivals and maybe even to ourselves.
Regardless, the mantra for our team is always "play our game". We talk a lot about making high percentage plays and factoring risk vs. reward in decision making and our players really bought into those concepts. So heading into regionals, it was all about making sure we were only thinking about the next point, and concentrating on playing our game. The only time we were rattled out of our game was in the semi vs. Maryland where they blew us out 15-4. As lopsided as that sounds, I felt like we were in every point and that most of our turnovers were mental mistakes. Fortunately, we had a great circle after that game and team captain Whitney Viets, who had a huge huge effect on team morale with her speeches, was able to rally the troops and leave everyone feeling confident and upbeat about the following day. "Three more!", was the cheer.
FJR: After a surprising upset win over Maryland (an underrated team who placed 11th at the 2008 College Championships), how did you keep the team motivated going into Nationals?
Stachowski: Prepping for Nationals was... interesting. Chaos, is probably a better word for it. As it turns out, the 2 weeks after regionals were finals weeks for everyone. And then school let out the week before Nationals. So basically, we had 1 or 2 practices between Regionals and Nationals... both of which were thinly attended. Naturally, our team was completely euphoric about our dramatic win vs. Maryland, and to be honest I was a little worried that we'd settle for just having made nationals. I basically told the team that making it wasn't enough: the whole nation thought we were lucky to be there... thought we didn't deserve our spot... nobody was giving us any respect. I told them we needed to go to Columbus and earn our respect one point at a time... with our game... the way we play it... our huge and active sideline... the whole works. If we won some games... so be it... but either way, we'd be able to hold our heads high if we just showed teams we could compete with them.
FJR: What were you and your team's expectations going into Nationals?
Stachowski: I'm a big believer in setting team goals. Our goal for every season I've coached (this was my third year) has been to play our game throughout the series... one point at a time... and ultimately make it to Nationals. So qualifying for Nationals at all would make our season a huge success.
Now that we had actually attained our goal, I had no idea what would happen next. This was the first Nationals appearance for Venus in 13 years. That, combined with the fact that we hadn't faced any other nationals qualifier left me with a lot of uncertainty as to where we'd ultimately place. I was encouraged by the fact that we had beaten Pitt, who had beaten NC a couple of times during the regular season. But beyond that, i had no idea what would happen or how good the competition would be... other than really good.
When the seeds and schedules came out it definitely seemed like we could make a run at pre-quarters if we could pull a couple of upsets... so that became our new goal: "Make pre-quarters!" We would play the 9 (NC) on Friday morning, then the 4 (Ottawa) on Friday afternoon. Then Saturday we had the 16 (Iowa St.) in the morning, and the 5 (Stanford) right after that... with a potential pre-quarters game in the evening. So, we planned to go all out for the two morning games... and if we won, we'd sub deep into our roster for the games against the 4 and the 5 to rest our starters for the potential pre-quarter matchup. That was our overall tourney strategy going in.
FJR: Opening the tourney with a win over UNC was the first surprise of the tourney and obviously huge for your team's confidence. What were the keys to winning against UNC?
Stachowski: Judging from the information we got from fellow ME teams that had faced UNC and/or had seen them play I thought we'd match up pretty well with them. The game plan going in was to poach the lane every time their main thrower Leila Tunnell had the disc, force her to give it to another handler (preferably on force side sideline) and then completely deny a reset back to her. Obviously, you can't keep the disc out of the hands of a player like Tunnell all the time, but I liked the pressure we were applying and the coverage we had downfield. I felt like we did a great job of coming out strong on D and mixing in our break mark/short game with our long shots on O.
Unfortunately one of the turning points in the game was a bad injury to one of UNC's main defenders, Kaitlin Baden. There was a long throw and Kaitlin was going stride for stride with Octavia "Opi" Payne on Penn. Both made a bid for the disc but Opi landed on Kaitlin in an awkward tangle and the play resulted in a torn ACL for Kaitlin. Seeing any player go down to that kind of injury is deflating to both teams. Nobody wants to see another player get hurt... and be reminded just how random and easy it is to be injured yourself. Without question and understandably, UNC was affected more. Kaitlin, along with her teammates had been doing a nice job covering Penn's main cutters Opi and Whitney. With her out, I feel like Penn gained a bit
of an edge both on the field and psychologically, and we were able to pull away in the second half.
I have to say a couple of things about UNC: I have to admit i groaned a little when i saw that we'd play them. Not only because they're good, but also because of that bad rap that teams from North Carolina get... "too intense"... "dirty players"... etc. Well i'm here to say that UNC was the MOST spirited team we played at Nationals. Our game was hard fought, physical, and completely fair. There were very few calls and almost all of them were uncontested. There was no "working" the rules, or ticky tack calls on bumps that had nothing to do with the play. Just ultimate being played at a high level with exciting plays everywhere. The coaches, Lindsey Hack and Brian Dobyns are class acts and their team is a reflection of them. Intense? YES! Fair? Definitely. Spirited? Unquestionably.
Also, in a display of courage that says all you need to know about the women that play this game, when I went to the sideline between one of the points in the UNC/Penn game to seek out Kaitlin Baden and offer my sympathies, she looked up from her chair, huge ice pack on her knee, shrugged, smiled gamely and said simply: "It happens." What a baller. Seriously Kaitlin, my hat is off to you. Come back strong!
FJR: After the upset win, UPenn lost to Ottawa, took care of business against Iowa State and then lost by a huge margin against Stanford, giving them a 2-2 record after pool play. UNC still had a chance to knock Venus out of the pre-quarters with a win over Stanford. Can you describe the anxiety of watching the UNC/Stanford game (knowing that UNC winning would drop you out of the pre-quarters)?
Stachowski: At that point in the tournament, our die was already cast. We had already accomplished everything we wanted to do at Nationals: Upset some teams, get some respect, and get everyone on our huge roster [FJR note: 28 players!] into a game. Of course I wanted us to continue on to pre-quarters but I was satisfied that we had done all we could to put ourselves in a good position. The rest was up to Stanford... and they managed to gut out a huge comeback win against a determined UNC team. With the Stanford win guaranteeing our appearance in the pre-quarter game, another goal had been attained. Time to reset it again: "Lets make quarters!"
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The College Championships - Oregon Fugue (Part 3 of 3)
GUEST BLOGGER: Lou Burruss
First of all, I want to congratulate the Burning Skirts on being very deserving champions. They handled every team they faced in Columbus and were never seriously challenged. They did it with poise and class. Nice work, UCSB.
Unlike the Ottawa game, our game against UCSB doesn’t fall into a sequential narrative sequence. It is a jumble of moments and ideas and realizations, so forgive me for jumping all over from here to there.
The biggest thing single factor we faced was fatigue. I went through and added all the scores up for us and the Skirts. By the time we started semis the Skirts had played 109 points of ultimate; we had played 141 points, enough extra for a 17-15 game. I am not making an excuse here. The Skirts took care of business in pool play and quarters in a way we did not. The Skirts rightfully earned the one seed and the easy road by winning their Region, Prez Day and Stanford Invite; we came in third in our Region. You have to play the hand you’re dealt and win with the hand you’re dealt. Also, we’d been the beneficiaries of an exhausted Michigan team that looked nothing like the team that gave Washington a hell of a time Friday afternoon. Anyway, all that said, we were tired and it showed. We had number of unforced execution errors that we had not had in since Friday. We made decision errors that arise from fatigue: rushed hucks, hucks to the wrong part of the field or to bad match ups.
Defensively, the Skirts did a great job of limiting our deep game. Some of that was the fatigue of our cutters, but some of that was just plain good defense. We were really able to work it short on them and nip and tuck for ten yards here and ten yards there. Still, when you are tired, small ball is a bad way to try to play. They also did a really good job of preventing us from scoring easy goals. We gave them a couple easy ones. In a game that was all about pressure (no team lead by more than 2 until 13-10,) easy goals make a huge difference.
I spent about five days after Nationals feeling pretty good about the season and finishing third and all that we accomplished. Then I found a scrap of time between work and the kids and I made the mistake of watching the highlight video on the UPA web site. 11-10! We were at 11-10! Argh! Looking back, I made three mistakes.
Mistake number one: losing the forest for the trees. This is the one I was angriest about because it is the most basic: the strategy that is most likely to score you the point is not the one most likely to score you the most points. At 10-9 or 11-10, with a team I knew was exhausted, I should have taken chances and played deep into the bench on defensive points. This rests the main players three or four points down the stretch. If you trade all the way out to 14-13, then you go back to stacking lines, but your players are that much fresher. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have hit on this in the moment, but I am mad that I didn’t remember the basic adage.
Mistake number two: Most of the time in good college ultimate, it is very clear who scored and why. It is very clear who is winning and why. You make a mistake, they score. They make a mistake, you score. We had been playing that level of ultimate all weekend and the other teams had abided by it. When we got in to the UCSB game, we (unknowingly) had stepped up a notch in quality of play. As well as we were playing and as well as the Skirts were playing, both teams reached a level where you do everything right and still get scored on. I played on the Sockeye D line for nine years, so to be in a game where you do everything right and get scored on was no big deal to me, but I only realized later how weird and frustrating it was for my team. So my mistake is in not recognizing this (I saw the frustration, just not the cause) and acknowledging it to the team. It was one of those moments that just required us to recognize it and then we’d have been okay with it.
Mistake number three: We didn’t do a great job of matching up defensively. UCSB has some nasty match ups and their offense allows for some real opportunism on the part of its main players (stay and handle, cut deep, run the lane,) which in turn makes matching up a lot trickier because a defender has to be good at guarding all threats. We have a deep, athletic team with a bunch of great defenders, so we didn’t get ruined by matchups; we just missed occasionally. Andrea Romano, Kaela Jorgenson and Carolyn Finney gave us trouble the whole way, but Marie Madaras played great and we never accounted for her.
In the end, the game was decided by two UCSB runs. We played wonderful, gritty ultimate to open the first half and took leads at 5-3 and 6-4. Then UCSB ran off four in a row to take half. We opened the second half with a break and then traded all the way out to 10-11. Then UCSB ran off three in a row. 10-14. Final: 11-15. Damn.
And now, some odds and ends to close up with. This year was really cool for women’s ultimate. I think the top of the division was stronger than it has ever been with six teams having a real shot at the finals (us, UCSB, UW, UW, Stanford and Ottawa.) This is the first year I’ve ever seen the women’s field stronger than the men’s field. I think the men’s division is still deeper, but the top of the women’s division was better this year than the top of the men’s (Florida and Oregon were missed.)
The weather was a huge factor in the success or failure of a lot of teams. Everyone was ready for the heat, but the total lack of wind was incredible. We played one windy half (first half against UCSB and both teams were so good at that point we just ignored it,) but the rest of the weekend was still, dead air. Who did this help? Us, Stanford, UCLA. Who did it hurt? Wisco, Ottawa, USC. It probably hurt the AC teams.
Lastly, I want to complement the UPA on a wonderful event. Hands down the best organized and best run tournament I have been to. (That’s out of ~300 tourneys, 14 College Nationals, 8 Club Nationals and 2 World Clubs.) Every year it gets better and better. This year the big improvements were in the quality of the observers and the schedule. I saw three missed calls all weekend in all games I watched and coached. I still have reservations about a four day Nationals (it is at such a cost to school, work and family,) but once it is underway, it is lovely. Two games a day makes for excellent ultimate, lots of socializing and lots of spectating.
First of all, I want to congratulate the Burning Skirts on being very deserving champions. They handled every team they faced in Columbus and were never seriously challenged. They did it with poise and class. Nice work, UCSB.
Unlike the Ottawa game, our game against UCSB doesn’t fall into a sequential narrative sequence. It is a jumble of moments and ideas and realizations, so forgive me for jumping all over from here to there.
The biggest thing single factor we faced was fatigue. I went through and added all the scores up for us and the Skirts. By the time we started semis the Skirts had played 109 points of ultimate; we had played 141 points, enough extra for a 17-15 game. I am not making an excuse here. The Skirts took care of business in pool play and quarters in a way we did not. The Skirts rightfully earned the one seed and the easy road by winning their Region, Prez Day and Stanford Invite; we came in third in our Region. You have to play the hand you’re dealt and win with the hand you’re dealt. Also, we’d been the beneficiaries of an exhausted Michigan team that looked nothing like the team that gave Washington a hell of a time Friday afternoon. Anyway, all that said, we were tired and it showed. We had number of unforced execution errors that we had not had in since Friday. We made decision errors that arise from fatigue: rushed hucks, hucks to the wrong part of the field or to bad match ups.
Defensively, the Skirts did a great job of limiting our deep game. Some of that was the fatigue of our cutters, but some of that was just plain good defense. We were really able to work it short on them and nip and tuck for ten yards here and ten yards there. Still, when you are tired, small ball is a bad way to try to play. They also did a really good job of preventing us from scoring easy goals. We gave them a couple easy ones. In a game that was all about pressure (no team lead by more than 2 until 13-10,) easy goals make a huge difference.
I spent about five days after Nationals feeling pretty good about the season and finishing third and all that we accomplished. Then I found a scrap of time between work and the kids and I made the mistake of watching the highlight video on the UPA web site. 11-10! We were at 11-10! Argh! Looking back, I made three mistakes.
Mistake number one: losing the forest for the trees. This is the one I was angriest about because it is the most basic: the strategy that is most likely to score you the point is not the one most likely to score you the most points. At 10-9 or 11-10, with a team I knew was exhausted, I should have taken chances and played deep into the bench on defensive points. This rests the main players three or four points down the stretch. If you trade all the way out to 14-13, then you go back to stacking lines, but your players are that much fresher. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have hit on this in the moment, but I am mad that I didn’t remember the basic adage.
Mistake number two: Most of the time in good college ultimate, it is very clear who scored and why. It is very clear who is winning and why. You make a mistake, they score. They make a mistake, you score. We had been playing that level of ultimate all weekend and the other teams had abided by it. When we got in to the UCSB game, we (unknowingly) had stepped up a notch in quality of play. As well as we were playing and as well as the Skirts were playing, both teams reached a level where you do everything right and still get scored on. I played on the Sockeye D line for nine years, so to be in a game where you do everything right and get scored on was no big deal to me, but I only realized later how weird and frustrating it was for my team. So my mistake is in not recognizing this (I saw the frustration, just not the cause) and acknowledging it to the team. It was one of those moments that just required us to recognize it and then we’d have been okay with it.
Mistake number three: We didn’t do a great job of matching up defensively. UCSB has some nasty match ups and their offense allows for some real opportunism on the part of its main players (stay and handle, cut deep, run the lane,) which in turn makes matching up a lot trickier because a defender has to be good at guarding all threats. We have a deep, athletic team with a bunch of great defenders, so we didn’t get ruined by matchups; we just missed occasionally. Andrea Romano, Kaela Jorgenson and Carolyn Finney gave us trouble the whole way, but Marie Madaras played great and we never accounted for her.
In the end, the game was decided by two UCSB runs. We played wonderful, gritty ultimate to open the first half and took leads at 5-3 and 6-4. Then UCSB ran off four in a row to take half. We opened the second half with a break and then traded all the way out to 10-11. Then UCSB ran off three in a row. 10-14. Final: 11-15. Damn.
And now, some odds and ends to close up with. This year was really cool for women’s ultimate. I think the top of the division was stronger than it has ever been with six teams having a real shot at the finals (us, UCSB, UW, UW, Stanford and Ottawa.) This is the first year I’ve ever seen the women’s field stronger than the men’s field. I think the men’s division is still deeper, but the top of the women’s division was better this year than the top of the men’s (Florida and Oregon were missed.)
The weather was a huge factor in the success or failure of a lot of teams. Everyone was ready for the heat, but the total lack of wind was incredible. We played one windy half (first half against UCSB and both teams were so good at that point we just ignored it,) but the rest of the weekend was still, dead air. Who did this help? Us, Stanford, UCLA. Who did it hurt? Wisco, Ottawa, USC. It probably hurt the AC teams.
Lastly, I want to complement the UPA on a wonderful event. Hands down the best organized and best run tournament I have been to. (That’s out of ~300 tourneys, 14 College Nationals, 8 Club Nationals and 2 World Clubs.) Every year it gets better and better. This year the big improvements were in the quality of the observers and the schedule. I saw three missed calls all weekend in all games I watched and coached. I still have reservations about a four day Nationals (it is at such a cost to school, work and family,) but once it is underway, it is lovely. Two games a day makes for excellent ultimate, lots of socializing and lots of spectating.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The College Championships - Oregon Fugue (part 2 of 3)
GUEST BLOGGER: Lou Burruss
Sunday morning saw us arrive at the fields two and a half hours early for our quarterfinal match-up with Ottawa. Fugue 2009 is hands down the faffing-est team I have ever been on and we really need the two and half hours to get ourselves to the fields and cleated up and so forth. As we went through our warm up, I could feel the pressure and focus building. We were relaxed and chatty and jokey like usual, but underneath was a sense of determination. By contrast, Ottawa was walking to the field 30 minutes before game time. I don’t know what happened, but the rest of the weekend they looked like a regular team in their warm ups and cool downs. Maybe they got Corvallised (not scheduling for the 20 minute walk from the parking lot to the fields) or maybe they went to the wrong field, who knows. In any case, they didn’t get in a very good warm up and it showed. I also don’t think they were ready for us defensively, either. It took them into the second half to sort their match ups out to the point where they were able to exert a lot of defensive pressure. Anyway, on to the game itself; it played out in four parts.
Part one was the entire first half. We picked up right where we had left off Saturday evening: playing great defense and punishing the other team’s mistakes. We focused pretty intensely on Ottawa’s big three: Anne Mercier, Alex Benedict and Danielle Fortin. We were fortunate to have the right combination of size, physicality and speed to matchup on those three. We played almost exclusively force flick or force backhand and challenged our defenders on the Big Three to contain the breaks as best they could. As I mentioned before, it took them a while to figure out match ups and we capitalized on this early by really opening the game up and hitting on a number of deep looks. Halftime saw us up 8-4.
Coming out of half, we traded points all the way out to 12-8. This part of the game was very well played on both sides. Ottawa’s defense picked up and we were forced to work the disc a little more, but they still weren’t generating a lot of pressure around the disc. Neither were we, though, so both teams were scoring fairly easily. Around 11-7, I called a time out and said, “Hey, let’s put this away. Let’s bank one on defense.” Two points later we got a great opportunity. We got a beautiful poach block right on their brick, but three throws later, we rushed a forehand into a little window and missed. The Lady Geegees took it 70 and scored. What would have been 13-8 (and game over) was 12-9 and another opportunity for Ottawa.
We blinked. Trading back and forth is a staple of elite men’s ultimate and I have been involved in many, many of these battles over the years with Sockeye. I love the slow build up of pressure and the constant, “We did it, now you do it!” It was very cool to be involved in a game of that caliber at the college level. Anyway, we blinked. Two points in a row, we made careless errors and they scored. Yikes. 12-11.
I thought about calling our last time out, but wanted to save it if we really needed it. Ottawa was playing crazy defense at this point, shutting down the deep game and locking down our handlers. In that circumstance, there is nothing to do but to step up and make plays. Again and again, we made tough catches, robbed defenders of blocks and threw timely breaks. We inched down the field ten yards at a time finally scoring on a high-backhand around the mark. 13-11. Ottawa scores to make it 13-12. We shake loose on a big backhand 14-12. Then Ottawa blinks. A beautiful forty yard forehand gets dropped (dropped!) in the endzone and we go seventy to win, closing with a Sherwood to Sharman backhand.
Final 15-12. UCSB, here we come!
Sunday morning saw us arrive at the fields two and a half hours early for our quarterfinal match-up with Ottawa. Fugue 2009 is hands down the faffing-est team I have ever been on and we really need the two and half hours to get ourselves to the fields and cleated up and so forth. As we went through our warm up, I could feel the pressure and focus building. We were relaxed and chatty and jokey like usual, but underneath was a sense of determination. By contrast, Ottawa was walking to the field 30 minutes before game time. I don’t know what happened, but the rest of the weekend they looked like a regular team in their warm ups and cool downs. Maybe they got Corvallised (not scheduling for the 20 minute walk from the parking lot to the fields) or maybe they went to the wrong field, who knows. In any case, they didn’t get in a very good warm up and it showed. I also don’t think they were ready for us defensively, either. It took them into the second half to sort their match ups out to the point where they were able to exert a lot of defensive pressure. Anyway, on to the game itself; it played out in four parts.
Part one was the entire first half. We picked up right where we had left off Saturday evening: playing great defense and punishing the other team’s mistakes. We focused pretty intensely on Ottawa’s big three: Anne Mercier, Alex Benedict and Danielle Fortin. We were fortunate to have the right combination of size, physicality and speed to matchup on those three. We played almost exclusively force flick or force backhand and challenged our defenders on the Big Three to contain the breaks as best they could. As I mentioned before, it took them a while to figure out match ups and we capitalized on this early by really opening the game up and hitting on a number of deep looks. Halftime saw us up 8-4.
Coming out of half, we traded points all the way out to 12-8. This part of the game was very well played on both sides. Ottawa’s defense picked up and we were forced to work the disc a little more, but they still weren’t generating a lot of pressure around the disc. Neither were we, though, so both teams were scoring fairly easily. Around 11-7, I called a time out and said, “Hey, let’s put this away. Let’s bank one on defense.” Two points later we got a great opportunity. We got a beautiful poach block right on their brick, but three throws later, we rushed a forehand into a little window and missed. The Lady Geegees took it 70 and scored. What would have been 13-8 (and game over) was 12-9 and another opportunity for Ottawa.
We blinked. Trading back and forth is a staple of elite men’s ultimate and I have been involved in many, many of these battles over the years with Sockeye. I love the slow build up of pressure and the constant, “We did it, now you do it!” It was very cool to be involved in a game of that caliber at the college level. Anyway, we blinked. Two points in a row, we made careless errors and they scored. Yikes. 12-11.
I thought about calling our last time out, but wanted to save it if we really needed it. Ottawa was playing crazy defense at this point, shutting down the deep game and locking down our handlers. In that circumstance, there is nothing to do but to step up and make plays. Again and again, we made tough catches, robbed defenders of blocks and threw timely breaks. We inched down the field ten yards at a time finally scoring on a high-backhand around the mark. 13-11. Ottawa scores to make it 13-12. We shake loose on a big backhand 14-12. Then Ottawa blinks. A beautiful forty yard forehand gets dropped (dropped!) in the endzone and we go seventy to win, closing with a Sherwood to Sharman backhand.
Final 15-12. UCSB, here we come!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The College Championships - Oregon Fugue (part 1 of 3)
This post is brought to you by Lou Burruss, coach of Oregon Fugue and one of the great minds in Ultimate. His passion for the game is plain to see, and since I first met him at the 2008 Stanford Invite, he has motivated me to become a better coach and to contribute more to the sport on the writing end. Fugue's emergence from a solid regional team in 2007 to an appearance at Nationals in 2008 to this year's elite status owes a lot to the presence of Lou on the sidelines.
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GUEST BLOGGER: Lou Burruss
I want start with thanks. First and foremost I want to thank Fugue for taking me on a great ride; it was a wonderful, wonderful season. Thanks, Tobey and Megan for showing up in Columbus, carrying water and wrestling with the tent. Thanks, Guns for momming the team to victory. Thanks Luke, for filming all of our games! Thanks, Gator, for two games of SuperFan-dom. Thank you, U of O Senate, for bankrolling our trip to Columbus. And a huge thanks to all the parents who came to support their daughters and the team. Now to the tourney itself…
It’s hard not to feel disappointed. I know not to measure a season by the outcome of one game, but I can’t help myself. I know we had a shot to win it all, that we were playing well enough to win it all, so to lose, sucks. That said, I also know that as time stretches out, the scope of our accomplishment the last several years will slowly overtake the sting of losing. In 2007, we finished 7th at Regionals. To come so far in such a short span of time has been exhilarating and difficult.
There was a span at Nationals where we played some of the best ultimate I’ve been a part of: focused, disciplined and inspired. That run began Saturday morning with Dartmouth and carried us through the play-in game and quarters into the Semis.
The hardest work has been the mental adjustment to playing top-shelf ultimate. It is incredibly mentally trying to play great ultimate point after point, game after game. This is the challenge that Fugue accepted and met. Most of the season was easy. Prez Day: finals. Stanford Invite: finals. We worked hard, but we weren’t ever challenged mentally. Regionals: Lose twice, once to the UW and once to Stanford. Manage to gut out a win over UBC in the game to go. We talk a lot about playing tough and playing hard and that we actually have to play to win, that we’re not good enough to show up and win without trying. The last two weeks of practice before Nationals, rather than being the pleasant tune-up and taper you’d expect, were the hardest two weeks of the year. Physically, do we get anything out of them? No, it’s too late. Mentally, though, we raise the bar on effort and toughness. Still, we go to Nationals with a lot of questions about how good we really are.
Friday was perfunctory. We just went and did it, but without much passion. Lucky for us, our first game was against USC. USC looked just like we did a year ago in Boulder when we stumbled to a 2-4 record. Like us, they had challenged the top teams in some games. Like us, they’d failed to win any of those games. Like us, they’d backed into Nationals with the last bid. Like us, none of their players had been to College Nationals before. Like us, they thought their season ended at Regionals. Like us, they looked uncertain and like us, they played far worse than they could have and should have.
USC was one of the teams most affected by the weather. Lots of teams were affected by the heat, but USC was a victim of something more sinister: no wind. Not a puff. For a team that plays exclusively zone, a windless weekend is going to be rough.
The game was even early, then we straightened a couple loose ends and steadily pulled away, finishing 15-8.
Our next game was against Wisconsin. They’d beaten us in pre-quarters in Boulder, which was still stinging all of us. They’d also (justifiably) gotten a lot of hype as a contender and we wanted a shot at them. They played well, Georgia played phenomenal and we gave away a few too many plays. 10-15 Wisco. Damn. We didn’t say much after the game, just a reminder that our goal for the first half of the tourney was to make quarters.
Wisconsin would go on to be another victim of the doldrums. You never want to play a team from the Central on a windy day, but it wasn’t windy Sunday morning. Stanford and their Emily-Jenny-Elaine chip-and-putt is frustratingly difficult to stop in still air.
Saturday morning was a new day and we were a new team. This day would begin as lovely a streak as I’ve ever been a part of. We started with Dartmouth, a team that surprised everyone to finish 3-4 (and probably would’ve been the feel-good story of the tourney if it weren’t for UPenn.) They came out playing well on offense with Rohre Titcomb providing the poise and Molly Roy providing the legs with one up-the-line cut after another. I’m 90% sure we were tied at sixes. I’m 100% sure it was close late in the first half. We made a couple defensive adjustments, mainly a switch to The-Best-Defense-Ever, but also some match-up changes. This worked. They struggled to move the disc upfield and our depth let us cash in on their mistakes. Final score: 15-8.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup loomed: Colorado. This match-up had been looming since I looked at the schedule. Colorado and Oregon have had a love affair for a couple years now. Last May, we stayed at one of their houses in Boulder (thanks, yo!) and a couple Fuguers lived in Boulder over the summer. Courtney even came to my house for a barbeque! Plus, Tina and I have had a sneaky rivalry since Carleton and JoJah battled three Nationals in a row: 93-94-95 with the 94 match up leading to a Semis berth. This was a team that had knocked off UCLA twice at Regionals. Twice!
We came in flying. After two points we started playing The-Best-Defense-Ever and walked away from them. It was a bummer of a game for Colorado. A loss in this game is survivable, but it has to be a well-played loss if you are going to take any confidence into the pre-quarters. Tina was bummed about how they’d played and all of their players were looking pretty glum as they walked off to play UCLA. Final: 15-6.
Last game of the day with quarters on the line: Michigan. We came into this game playing our best ultimate of the season, confident in our path and physically rested. Our infrastructure was magnificent: tent, cooler for water, cooler for towels and ice, sandwiches and crazy helpers. Guns mommed everyone into eating enough food. Megan and Tobey had water for the players on the line point after point. It was awesome.
Michigan had just come from a devastating loss to UCLA in pool play. Michigan had their chances late, but UCLA pulled away down the stretch to win 14-10. Walking from losing in pool play to the play-in game sucks. It is one of the hardest tasks in ultimate. Welcome to the dirt road. This is where the weather made Michigan its next victim. They had to play a 10-14 heartbreaker and then walk. We played 15-6 and waited. Remember, Michigan played that UCLA game during Round 4 (3:15-5:30.) You think it was hot?
We played an almost flawless first half, which took 28 minutes and ended in 8-2. We played great defense (but not TGDE because I didn’t want to give Ebae a chance to throw her backhand.) They rallied a little in the second half and made a run, but we were able to answer each time they tried to make a move. Final: 15-7. Quarters, here we come!
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GUEST BLOGGER: Lou Burruss
I want start with thanks. First and foremost I want to thank Fugue for taking me on a great ride; it was a wonderful, wonderful season. Thanks, Tobey and Megan for showing up in Columbus, carrying water and wrestling with the tent. Thanks, Guns for momming the team to victory. Thanks Luke, for filming all of our games! Thanks, Gator, for two games of SuperFan-dom. Thank you, U of O Senate, for bankrolling our trip to Columbus. And a huge thanks to all the parents who came to support their daughters and the team. Now to the tourney itself…
It’s hard not to feel disappointed. I know not to measure a season by the outcome of one game, but I can’t help myself. I know we had a shot to win it all, that we were playing well enough to win it all, so to lose, sucks. That said, I also know that as time stretches out, the scope of our accomplishment the last several years will slowly overtake the sting of losing. In 2007, we finished 7th at Regionals. To come so far in such a short span of time has been exhilarating and difficult.
There was a span at Nationals where we played some of the best ultimate I’ve been a part of: focused, disciplined and inspired. That run began Saturday morning with Dartmouth and carried us through the play-in game and quarters into the Semis.
The hardest work has been the mental adjustment to playing top-shelf ultimate. It is incredibly mentally trying to play great ultimate point after point, game after game. This is the challenge that Fugue accepted and met. Most of the season was easy. Prez Day: finals. Stanford Invite: finals. We worked hard, but we weren’t ever challenged mentally. Regionals: Lose twice, once to the UW and once to Stanford. Manage to gut out a win over UBC in the game to go. We talk a lot about playing tough and playing hard and that we actually have to play to win, that we’re not good enough to show up and win without trying. The last two weeks of practice before Nationals, rather than being the pleasant tune-up and taper you’d expect, were the hardest two weeks of the year. Physically, do we get anything out of them? No, it’s too late. Mentally, though, we raise the bar on effort and toughness. Still, we go to Nationals with a lot of questions about how good we really are.
Friday was perfunctory. We just went and did it, but without much passion. Lucky for us, our first game was against USC. USC looked just like we did a year ago in Boulder when we stumbled to a 2-4 record. Like us, they had challenged the top teams in some games. Like us, they’d failed to win any of those games. Like us, they’d backed into Nationals with the last bid. Like us, none of their players had been to College Nationals before. Like us, they thought their season ended at Regionals. Like us, they looked uncertain and like us, they played far worse than they could have and should have.
USC was one of the teams most affected by the weather. Lots of teams were affected by the heat, but USC was a victim of something more sinister: no wind. Not a puff. For a team that plays exclusively zone, a windless weekend is going to be rough.
The game was even early, then we straightened a couple loose ends and steadily pulled away, finishing 15-8.
Our next game was against Wisconsin. They’d beaten us in pre-quarters in Boulder, which was still stinging all of us. They’d also (justifiably) gotten a lot of hype as a contender and we wanted a shot at them. They played well, Georgia played phenomenal and we gave away a few too many plays. 10-15 Wisco. Damn. We didn’t say much after the game, just a reminder that our goal for the first half of the tourney was to make quarters.
Wisconsin would go on to be another victim of the doldrums. You never want to play a team from the Central on a windy day, but it wasn’t windy Sunday morning. Stanford and their Emily-Jenny-Elaine chip-and-putt is frustratingly difficult to stop in still air.
Saturday morning was a new day and we were a new team. This day would begin as lovely a streak as I’ve ever been a part of. We started with Dartmouth, a team that surprised everyone to finish 3-4 (and probably would’ve been the feel-good story of the tourney if it weren’t for UPenn.) They came out playing well on offense with Rohre Titcomb providing the poise and Molly Roy providing the legs with one up-the-line cut after another. I’m 90% sure we were tied at sixes. I’m 100% sure it was close late in the first half. We made a couple defensive adjustments, mainly a switch to The-Best-Defense-Ever, but also some match-up changes. This worked. They struggled to move the disc upfield and our depth let us cash in on their mistakes. Final score: 15-8.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup loomed: Colorado. This match-up had been looming since I looked at the schedule. Colorado and Oregon have had a love affair for a couple years now. Last May, we stayed at one of their houses in Boulder (thanks, yo!) and a couple Fuguers lived in Boulder over the summer. Courtney even came to my house for a barbeque! Plus, Tina and I have had a sneaky rivalry since Carleton and JoJah battled three Nationals in a row: 93-94-95 with the 94 match up leading to a Semis berth. This was a team that had knocked off UCLA twice at Regionals. Twice!
We came in flying. After two points we started playing The-Best-Defense-Ever and walked away from them. It was a bummer of a game for Colorado. A loss in this game is survivable, but it has to be a well-played loss if you are going to take any confidence into the pre-quarters. Tina was bummed about how they’d played and all of their players were looking pretty glum as they walked off to play UCLA. Final: 15-6.
Last game of the day with quarters on the line: Michigan. We came into this game playing our best ultimate of the season, confident in our path and physically rested. Our infrastructure was magnificent: tent, cooler for water, cooler for towels and ice, sandwiches and crazy helpers. Guns mommed everyone into eating enough food. Megan and Tobey had water for the players on the line point after point. It was awesome.
Michigan had just come from a devastating loss to UCLA in pool play. Michigan had their chances late, but UCLA pulled away down the stretch to win 14-10. Walking from losing in pool play to the play-in game sucks. It is one of the hardest tasks in ultimate. Welcome to the dirt road. This is where the weather made Michigan its next victim. They had to play a 10-14 heartbreaker and then walk. We played 15-6 and waited. Remember, Michigan played that UCLA game during Round 4 (3:15-5:30.) You think it was hot?
We played an almost flawless first half, which took 28 minutes and ended in 8-2. We played great defense (but not TGDE because I didn’t want to give Ebae a chance to throw her backhand.) They rallied a little in the second half and made a run, but we were able to answer each time they tried to make a move. Final: 15-7. Quarters, here we come!
Apologies...
First, apologies as I've been busy with life matters. I've been getting sucked into the club season (I am playing with LA Metro this year), and frankly, I am also trying to overcome exhaustion from the long college season.
On a side note, I dislocated my shoulder last week at a summer league game right after Cal States. I took a crash course in how to type with my toes and remarkably, with my left hand and both feet, I am up to about 90 wpm. Once my right arm is back in commission, I might be able to set records and fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a court stenographer. That's only partly true; I wanted to be a regular on 'Night Court'. Details.
Over the next few days, I will be posting a series of accounts on this year's Nationals. I promise!
On a side note, I dislocated my shoulder last week at a summer league game right after Cal States. I took a crash course in how to type with my toes and remarkably, with my left hand and both feet, I am up to about 90 wpm. Once my right arm is back in commission, I might be able to set records and fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a court stenographer. That's only partly true; I wanted to be a regular on 'Night Court'. Details.
Over the next few days, I will be posting a series of accounts on this year's Nationals. I promise!
Monday, June 1, 2009
The College Championships - Initial Thoughts
Over the next two or three weeks, I'm going to be rolling out a series of posts on Nationals. I had planned on writing from Columbus, but we stayed at the Red Roof Inn where you had to pay for Wi-Fi service. I've been called a cheap bastard by many folks and poor fool by many others. I'll pay for the service once I've either made my first feature film or convince this blog's readership to pay for the extra coverage. Those of you who think I write way too much can pay me to hire an editor to pare down my posts.
The Big Stories
1) UPenn's Cinderella Run - I'm sure that the UPenn folks don't see themselves as a Cinderella, but coming in as the 20th seed and pushing Element with a tight match in the quarterfinals far exceeded the expectations of anyone following the women's division. More details should be coming soon from Marc 'Doc' Stachowski, the head coach of Venus.
2) UCSB wins it all - The best team won it all this year. Ending the Northwest's reign, the Burning Skirts came into the season as the favorite and had a remarkable run to the title. I think this was the most impressive season since Stanford's 2006 championship run.
3) Callahan voting - After last year's Nationals, I detailed a few thoughts on why I thought the Callahan voting was flawed. I remain convinced that the voting process is flawed. That said, Georgia Bosscher is certainly deserving of the award and congratulations are in order. I simply don't understand how Andrea Romano didn't finish in the top five, and no UCSB player finished in the top five in the three years their team has appeared in the finals. It doesn't add up.
4) The Northwest's dominance - With three teams in the semis, all doubt about which region was the strongest this season was eliminated. It'll be interesting to see what happens after the restructuring process takes effect, but it's a shame that Cal, UBC and Western Washington will have missed being potential beneficiaries of the new system.
I'll examine this more closely in a future post, but I think next year could be the year that the national balance of power shifts. The Southwest and Metro East will give the Northwest a run for the unofficial title of the strongest and deepest region.
The Big Stories
1) UPenn's Cinderella Run - I'm sure that the UPenn folks don't see themselves as a Cinderella, but coming in as the 20th seed and pushing Element with a tight match in the quarterfinals far exceeded the expectations of anyone following the women's division. More details should be coming soon from Marc 'Doc' Stachowski, the head coach of Venus.
2) UCSB wins it all - The best team won it all this year. Ending the Northwest's reign, the Burning Skirts came into the season as the favorite and had a remarkable run to the title. I think this was the most impressive season since Stanford's 2006 championship run.
3) Callahan voting - After last year's Nationals, I detailed a few thoughts on why I thought the Callahan voting was flawed. I remain convinced that the voting process is flawed. That said, Georgia Bosscher is certainly deserving of the award and congratulations are in order. I simply don't understand how Andrea Romano didn't finish in the top five, and no UCSB player finished in the top five in the three years their team has appeared in the finals. It doesn't add up.
4) The Northwest's dominance - With three teams in the semis, all doubt about which region was the strongest this season was eliminated. It'll be interesting to see what happens after the restructuring process takes effect, but it's a shame that Cal, UBC and Western Washington will have missed being potential beneficiaries of the new system.
I'll examine this more closely in a future post, but I think next year could be the year that the national balance of power shifts. The Southwest and Metro East will give the Northwest a run for the unofficial title of the strongest and deepest region.
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