Sectionals

Well, the Pimpdags made it to regionals. Here's what I remember about how it happened:

Game 1 vs. Beloit: Beloit was stronger than they were at Huck Finn, and we were a little slow out of the gate as usual. Since this game was the first with our full team playing to win, there was a lot of figuring out what role to play to for the team during our first two games, which caused this game to be a bit closer than it probably should've. Still, we win comfortably while keeping an open rotation 15-10.

Bye: I went and watched the hodags for while, they were in full costume and throwing hammers at will against Stevens Point. I laughed when some huge guy on SP skied a couple of them for a score and then left to go watch the Slutdags (Wisconsin C) and scout the rest of our pool.

Game 2 vs. UW-Milwaukee B: This game is where we really started to figure stuff out, especially on defense, and we never relented. They couldn't figure out our sponge D and we ran it nearly every point as we cruised to a 15-1 win, narrowly missing the bagel due to a miss-thrown hitch pass off of a pull.

Game 3 vs. Whitewater: Our last game of the day, we were really excited to see how we could match up with guys. The answer: not all that well. We were complacent from our earlier wins and were not ready for the pressure Whitewater put on us. Dumps couldn't get open, the cutters got shut down in and were handing out deep, nothing was coming easy and we got frustrated and turned the disc over a lot. We fought, but couldn't put it together, losing 15-5. However, the lost was good for us I think as it made us realize what improvements to make come Sunday.

With 2nd place in our pool we were schedule to play Marquette in the quarterfinals Sunday morning:

Quarters vs. Marquette: Marquette really just has one guy with ridiculous backhand breaks. Marquette ran their offense through him, playing conservative and knowing that their guy would make the plays and throws for them, which he did. He played nearly every point to start the game, resting only on D points when Marquette had gone up a break. We stayed in it, but just couldn't shut down their offense despite the Hodags cheering us on, and we lost 13-10.

Backdoor quarters vs. Stevens Point: Now we found ourselves in must-win territory. Lose this game and our season was over. So of course we got broken on the first point of the game. Stevens Point was big and was scoring on deep looks. Over the course of the game was starting working it under them and stifiling them with handler defense, and we slowly caught back up and built a lead. I hit Bob with a pretty backhand huck for the game-winning score 12-9.

Backdoor Semis vs. UW-Milwaukee: Win this game and we were in regionals, lose and we faced a 5th-place do or die game. This was a game of runs, we went up 3-1, they went up 5-3, we tied it at 5's, they took half 8-6, and stretched that lead to 10-7. UW-M is an athletic team, but didn't value the disc well. We were getting turns but being frustrated by their D, many points we long with 3-5 TO's per team. Then at 10-7, knowing we were tired and dreading a do-or-die game against Eau Claire, we cleaned up our offense, throwing 100% throws, and kept the pressure on D to tied the game at 10's. They would score the O-point 11-10, but we would answer with chilly offense and 0 turns as we worked it up the field and scored to force universe. On universe Milwaukee moved the disc up half the field before trying a deep shot, we wolf-packed it and Calkins came up with a huge D. Then that same chilly O took over, Friedman hit a wide open Bentley on a huck, and a couple passes later Mark hit Calkins for the win, the bid to regionals, and the bookends. Everyone played amazing in this game, though Calkins and Mark get special mention, I think each of them had multiple double happiness points and huge skies to keep us in the game and keep our momentum rolling.

3rd Place game vs. Marquette: We lost 15-4. We were simply exhausted and were happy with simply making it to regionals. Some of our starters had their cleats and shirts off by half-time. I kept putting myself in, trying to have one last good point before being done, but it took forever as I was exhausted and kept making mental errors. Eventually at 14-3 Marquette came down in zone and we worked it up and I threw the score. I was done. The good news from this game is that we were slowly figuring out to mark their main handler, so if we see them again at regionals I expect this match up to go solidly the other way.

After the Marquette game I walked a field over to root on my Frontline teamates who play for Milwaukee in their game to go against Eau Claire. This was a great game with a lot deep hucks, few turnovers, and even a callahan. With no cap on Eau Claire scored the break to win 17-15 and take a bid to regionals for the first time a couple years. Heartbreaking for Milwaukee, both teams had played 4 long games that day and were probably just as tired as I was.

All in all it was a great weekend. I feel that I finally found the role I need to play for the Pimps and I relish it, hopefully we can make some adjustments this week during practice and play even better at regionals this weekend, where it looks like we'll be coming in as the 11 seed.