Centex is the last pre-series tournament for us and most of our region. This is the last chance we have to boost our rankings and get a strength bid. Last week we were BARELY hanging on to a region strength bid but it could all change come next Wednesday. I went into this weekend knowing that this tournament determined our bids for nationals. Every point was so important.
UNC
I don’t know what it is about UNC. This is a horrible comparison but if you know what I’m talking about you will totally get it. It’s like that level of angry birds that you play over and over and over and just can’t ever get that third star. The one that you never want to play again because you are tired of it but can’t stop because you know you can do better.
We play very different styles of ultimate. They are successful at what they do but UNC is not a team I watch and think, “I want to play like that.”
We started out relatively strong more or less trading points finally taking half 8-7. We went into cap tied at 11′s, going upwind on D. I wasn’t worried. We always win universe. The game was in the bag. I don’t remember details of the last point. We had our chances, there were a few turns, but we just couldn’t convert. I do remember watching their player catch it in the endzone and being completely surprised. That doesn’t happen. We don’t lose on universe.
It was one of the harder losses for me. Just one point. I dropped a swing pass literally on the endzone line and they got an easy break. Just one point. There are 20+ other points in the game, but that one little mistake could have been the difference. The summer after losing regionals ’09 I spent a lot of time working on specific skills, often thinking “What if I had been able to do just this one extra thing at regionals? Would it have made the difference?” Just one point.
I had a few other less-than-veteran moves during the game but more or less got it out of the way for the rest of the tournament.
12-11 UNC wins.
Oregon
We basically handed Oregon the game. Some of my teammates are upset about the way it went down but I’m going to agree with my coaches on their decision. It didn’t turn out the way we hoped, but had one point gone differently we would have praised their strategy.
It’s really difficult to put up close games against every team. No matter how much training you’ve done your body just doesn’t like it. The heat of the weekend wasn’t going to help. I know my team can hang with anyone, we’ve proven that, but we have yet to prove that we can hang do it over and over and over. After the hard game against UNCW at Easterns both teams went on to lose significantly the next round. We were exhausted.
I wanted to be top two in the pool. We expected the games to be hard. I fully expected to beat UNC so going into this game my strategy was already shot. If we didn’t get two in the pool we had a fourth game to play. We couldn’t play four hard games like UNC and expect to play our best, our best bet for moving up in the pool was Stanford. So the choice was made to play conservative against Oregon. Another universe point loss would be too hard physically and mentally.
I was not impressed by Oregon. I remember watching this team play last year, guarding them at nationals, and was completely underwhelmed this time. It was not even close to the same team. The players I knew were not even close to the same players. It was possible the heat was getting to them, or it was an off day, but something was not right. I assume they were missing people. Rarely do teams travel with their complete roster to non-series tournaments. We’re always missing at least one or two.
The goal for this game was to be careful with the disc, working on staying calm, not getting frantic, and just focusing on our game. It’s easy to get caught up in the “whatever it takes” mentality when you are playing a new team, but the goal was very clear. Play our game, the score doesn’t matter. We gave the first four points away, this time not on purpose. We like to throw deep to our short speedy cutters, but they tended to be near tall Oregon girls who can jump. Here’s an example. It didn’t work out well.
Our lines weren’t as tight. We made some good plays. The Oregon defense wasn’t hard to break, it just took patience and good decision making, which is often a downfall of college teams. (Aside: In finals I watched UCSB look off at least 3 throws in the red zone that my team definitely would have taken before finally putting it in. That’s the difference between good and great.) We often worked it all the way up to field only to turn it on the endzone line. They gave us plenty of chances. I’m fine with the loss but I’m not pleased with the score.
14-4 Oregon.
Stanford
My first year of ultimate was the last year Stanford was national champs. 6 of the 7 years up to that point they’d been 1st or 2nd. I didn’t realize until we started playing them Saturday that I still have the idea in my head that Stanford is going to kill us every time we play them. I’ve never even given up a fight against them. Winning? No way. Clearly the best way to go into a game right?
They scored the first points with relative ease and it was hard to remember that we had a chance. Early on I got a D in the endzone and it changed my entire mentality. It’s just another team. They can make plays, but so can we. Catches and throws. Play our game.
We finally got on a roll and started coming back but it was too late. They got ahead of us early and we didn’t have time to catch up. Cap was on. We scored the last two points ending the game in hard 13-10.
Iowa State
Again? This was the second rematch from Easterns of the day. We beat them on universe in Wilmington and were ready to play again.
I’m pretty sure Gap will end up reading this so I will take a moment to trash talk her skirt. Wear shorts! Or at least match! Also, thanks to the lovely ladies who made a pit stop in Oklahoma to snag my computer charger that was making its way to Minnesota for an indefinite period of time.
The game was back and forth. I remember a lot of running. I was tired. My sleeves were rolled up. (This is important because I got a sunburn and was very confused by it.) We’d get a break. They’d get a break. We took half by 8-6 but they scored two in a row tying it up at 8s. Some more trading points. Universe, tied at 11s. Sound familiar? I wasn’t worried. We always win. No big deal. UNC was a fluke. We had a few chances. But they ended up scoring.
12-11 Iowa State
Really? Why can’t we ever have a decisive outcome against woman scorned? That’s the third game that has been won by a single point.
Conclusion of Saturday
We lost three games by a total of 5 points on Saturday. It was tough. With 4 of 8 DI/DII crossover games being upsets it’s pretty apparent that once at the bottom of DI it’s hard to stay at the bottom of DI. The format is not kind to teams like us. UNC went on to beat Oregon and then lost to Tufts (who lost to Iowa State in pool play) in the crossover. If we had switched schedules with Iowa State we probably would have beat them in the crossover and made it to the championship bracket. That’s just the nature of the format. It sucks but it’s not going to change. I wanted to play good teams and that was guaranteed by the power pools. Last year I wanted to have a shot at playing good teams but we were in division II. That was guaranteed by the crossover. It’s just hard. Several of my teammates made the comment that Saturday of Centex was the hardest day of ultimate they’ve ever played. We worked hard. We lost. But we made them fight for the wins.
I’d been watching the results of the rest of our region throughout the day and it was apparent we were not doing well. None of the South Central teams made it into the championship bracket. We were in the best position to boost rankings of any kind with wins against higher ranked teams. The new system just makes everything so much more… important. I remember talking to captain Shannon Waugh from Colorado about the days games and just shaking our heads. Not looking good for that second bid.
Our coaches gave us the usual end of day talk that wasn’t the sugar coated “good try” that I was expecting. “Let it sting.” Losing sucks. Just take a moment to let it sink in. Remember how much you hate this feeling. So we did. No one else on the team knows what it will feel like if we lose regionals this year. 2009 was a rough year and we were hoping for a shot at nationals. That was disappointing. My rookie year we finished 3rd at Stanford. 7th at Centex. And still didn’t make it out of the region. That was devastating. This year will be even worse. I hope we remember what its like to lose those close games but don’t actually feel it again.