Southerns

Back after a brief hiatus yesterday when I decided nothing happened over spring break worth writing about. Basically I tried to do work while everyone else drank themselves stupid. Recap over.

The second weekend of spring break though brought the tournament that I had been looking forward to most all year: Southerns. This was the 3rd year in a row I've been to this tourney and it's probably my second favorite after Vegas. Dartmouth men were there, Wellesley women were there, and a van containing Ian, Mark, and Lechmaier would also be there. Things were looking up.

Saturday:
Game 1 v. Middlebury: It's always fun to play against the northeast teams I know well, and I love Midd. I gave our coaches a scouting report that proved correct, Midd put it deep again and again to a couple great athletes and played a smart game that took advantage of our turnovers. They won 13-6 as we opened up our 28 man roster. Highlight of the game was Midd recognizing me and appologizing for the keg incident at regionals last year. I then put the person to blame for that in a headlock.

Game 2 v. Tulane: Tulane is a great team, lots of fun, and kept a positive attitude despite only have 7 guys and 3 guys on their roster this weekend. We had an open rotation from the start and cruised to a 13-7 victory, assuring us of holding seed in our pool.

Game 3 v. Wake Forest: A rematch for me from Southerns last year when Wake beat Dartmouth with a decent zone. I don't think Wake is as good this year. They got up on us early, but we stayed in it, down a break or two. Then at 9-7 them our zone clicked and we started getting turns. Wake had been trying to break our zone with high floaty throws over our cup, and we finally threw a tall line in to stop that. Needless to say it worked and we went on a 4 point run to win 11-9. Great game, though I feel Wake lost their fight after we tied it at 9s. The last two points for us were breaks that happened on a short field turn due to our zone: for 10-9 Wake forgot to guard me in transition and I scored an easy up the line cut from Ian. For 11-9 I returned the favor to Ian when Wake forgot to guard him.

Game 4 v. St. Olaf: This was our fourth game in a row and our starters were feeling it. We're generally a pretty deep team, but against this type of competition we go maybe 14 deep, which isn't enough for 4 games in a row. St. Olaf threw our same zone and the start of the game was notable for very long points and lots of throws gaining not many yards. Ian and I had some good teamwork on short throws in the cup to gain yards, and I believe I had a 100% hammer completion rate, but something would always seem to go wrong at some point and we'd turn it. Half was still close at 7-5 Olaf, but in the 2nd half they picked it up and we ran out of steam and got bageled. 12-5 final. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again at regionals.

Interlude: After our game I took advantage of our last round bye and went to watch Wellesley play a few fields away. Davidman tagged along, intrigued at the concept of an all-womens college. We watched the first half as I caught up with my friends on the Whips and called Tyke to gloat that I was hanging out with her team. I then walked a couple fields over to say hi to Wellesley B and Dartmouth womens B. Next it was off to watch the Pain Train play. Unfortunately they romped their last round opponent 13-3 and I missed the whole thing. I still got to hang out with them afterwards, and it was great to see them all again and hear about how well they're playing. I also met Carson, the former CUT player who is effectively my replacement cutting on the O-line. I hate to say it, but they definitely traded up. A few hours later I went to the party for the first time in my 3 years, where I spent most of my time talking to Fishie and beating my drunk Pimpdag teammates off of her with a stick. I think my coach actually introduced himself to her twice. When she left I went over to dance with Wellesley for a while before it became time to drag my shitfaced coach back to our campsite and go to sleep.

Sunday: Our 3rd place finish in our pool landed us an upper seed in the 17th place bracket, and even greater luck as due to Eau Claire and another team going home, we were matched up against Chicago B, serving as a filler team.
Game 5 v. Chicago B: We showed up about 20 minutes before game and thank god we were just playing Chicago B or we would've lost. Highlight of the warmup was Dartmouth a couple fields away doing 'the cheer' and me sprinting through two teams' endzone drills to get there in time to scream "we are psychotic". I used this game to begin implementing my "don't turn it over, don't be a hero" handler strategy as the rest of the team goofed off. Half was 8-2 and I tried to pump us up and get us to play clean, saying we could win 15-5, or we could win 15-2. Needless to say we won 15-5. Figures.

Game 6 v. Towson: This team had a couple good handlers with great facial hair, but hardly anyone else. Our zone kept them from getting their offense flowing and forced turns upfield if the handlers ever advanced the disc. Our offense was running well and I spent my time on the sidelines watching Dartmouth play Ohio St. in the quarterfinals a couple fields over. So yeah, we ended up winning this one 15-7 as Towson was happy to hand the game to us after we got up a few points.

Game 7 v. South Florida: We switched fields to the swamp fields and immediately saw a huge snapping turtle. Poking it with a stick failed to produce a desired result, so we went about warming up after watching the end of an intense Brown-B v. Florida B game. That game however was in the consolation bracket of the 17th bracket, while we were in the semis of the 17th bracket, so we began our warm ups with the confirmation that we were indeed the best B team in the country. South Florida was an interested game, intense and good spirited. Both teams collected a lot of breaks in the first half, but we were able to clean it up better than them in the second half and rolled to yet another victory 12-8.

Game 8 v. Princeton: The finals of the 17th place bracket. I played in this same game last year and lost to a rested Richmond team (their semis opponent had bagged), so I looking for a little redemption. The early points were multi-turn battles as Princeton was putting defensive pressure on us like we hadn't see yet this season. I threw into a couple layout D's as our cutters haven't mastered running through the disc and catching at full extension. I also had a couple other bad throws as my "don't be a hero" mentality slowly fell apart as everyone was looking to throw a score just so these marathon points would end. Princeton ended up taking a 4-0 lead before we could punch one in. We actually managed to get a couple breaks in this game as well, but the O-line just couldn't hold onto the disc against Princeton's defense. Despite my throwaways I though I played a good game, my defense was definitely it's most intense on the weekend despite my exhaustion, and I had two great IO hucks for scores. I also had another rules argument for the ages, as I actually made Princeton get out my rulebook so I could prove myself right about a travel call (that wasn't a travel). In the end this was an 11-4 lost for the Pimps, but one I was proud off as it was really the first time this season I felt like I was back playing intense ultimate with Dartmouth.

Speaking of Dartmouth, they went on to win whole the damn thing, holy shit. We never win tournaments. Fishie and Cornell also won. Hopefully I'll see both teams at Nationals in May.

The drive home was more eventful than I would've hoped, but that's a story for another post.