Witch's Teat

RPI's home tournament was a great time. It was our first full tournament of the year, and the first ever for our new players. We got to the fields bright and early, well in advance of the captain's meeting this time! Two teams dropped at the last minute and they could only find one replacement, so our pool only had four teams instead of five.

Our first game was against Wesleyan, although not the same Wesleyan squad I faced at club sectionals. I guess this was their A team and seven car faced their b squad, or vice versa. The field was a mud pit, and cutting was very difficult. On the other hand, it was pretty easy to floor defenders - anyone suddenly accelerating to catch a speeding cutter was liable to trip on the awful footing and fall flat. The Gunx came out strong, scoring four unanswered points or so, but could not hold the lead and slowed down to lose half six to eight. Second half, our motivation was critically low and Wesleyan ran away with the lead to win 15 - 9. All in all it was a fun game and Wesleyan was a spirited opponent. The loss was only somewhat bitter because everyone knew we could have won if we had worked to our full potential. For my part, I had two opportunities to make point saving layout d's and just could not get it together to fly. I need to be able to put my body on the line and make plays. It's by far the biggest problem with my defensive game right now.

A change of scene was just what we needed. Our next match, against Clarkson High Dive, took place on the adjacent field that was mercifully free of large muddy pits. The Gunx came out ready to rock, with an energetic sideline and strong plays on both sides of the disc. As an aside, I mentioned last post that zone offense would be a focus in the week leading up to RPI. Due to a variety of factors, we never had enough players at practice that week to work on zone at all. Clarkson threw zone and we were able to methodically take it to pieces. I guess the Gunx learned zone o by osmosis, spurred on by our veterans remembering last year, when taking apart zones was our specialty. Clarkson's zone could not keep our d line zone offense at bay, and the Gunx took half eight to two.

Clarkson rallied after half, scoring three unanswered points and then trading to make it a close 11 - 9. Fearing an upset, the Gunx got amped and scored four points running, capitalizing on a dropped pull and the occasional deep look. The Gunx made good use of both the methodical zone offense and the deep shot, although late in the game a few hucks were thrown that allowed Clarkson the easy deep d and the score. But in the end, the Gunx intensity was not to be denied, and we celebrated our first victory at a tournament, made even sweeter by taking out the second seeded team.

Our final game of the day was against the Skidmore wombats. The Gunx had given their all against Clarkson, and it showed. We played a fatigued game against Skidmore, and several marathon length points in the first half did not help. We were only able to score once in the first half, and twice in the second. Not much to say, really. The Gunx folded against the combined factors of Skidmore's considerable skills and our own fatigue. Our sideline intensity remained strong, with cheers and strike calls alike, and the sideline is becoming one of our strongest assets.

The Gunx left the field day one for a sumptuous dinner at Dave's house, and everyone seemed satisfied with our 1 - 2 record. All in all it was a great day, one of our best yet as a team. However, it highlighted our inconsistency. When we play hard, we roll. When we don't, we get rolled. Simple enough, but we need to be able to play that hard every game. We could have beaten Wesleyan. Skidmore, I think, could have outplayed us regardless but we could have at least given them a fight. If anyone is reading this and has any tips for increasing a team's consistency on the field, don't hesitate to comment.

Day two we were excited to find out that our victory over Clarkson had been enough to get us into the championship bracket, albeit seeded at the bottom of the top eight. Our quarterfinals opponent was RPI Y, the number one seed. We did well, considering. The final score was 15 to 7, and we fought hard for those seven points. Covering Steve was a high school flashback, and he skied me now with the same ease he did back then, and threw something like three hucks for scores while I was marking him. Ouch. On the other hand, I did handblock him once. Marking him was some of the best motivation I've had all year. RPI is a pretty classy team, I have to say. I'm fairly happy with how we did. If the Gunx can score that many points on a regionals caliber team now, we are on the right track. Sure it was a split squad, but it appeared to be mostly veterans and we were playing with only half of our players in any case. Good game, good game.

Our next match was against Oneonta, a rematch from Danse I suppose you could say. The field was diagonal, and marked with nearly invisible small cones. Unfortunately, a lot of the Gunx seemed to get psyched out, both by the annoying field configuration and by Oneonta. We played a negative game, and it showed. I and several others implored the team to get the field and the opponent out of our heads and play "our game" (I think I used every ultimate cliché in the book at RPI), and when we were able to play ultimate and have fun we balled. When we got psyched out and negative, we got rolled. Go figure! In any case, the game did see some strong plays. Biggest lesson? Mental game! You get psyched out, you lose. Hopefully that lesson was well learned.

Our final game of the day was against RPI X. They were tired and wanted to watch finals, so they asked for a game to seven. We agreed, which in retrospect was silly. We could have beaten them. The first point was somewhat long, and ended with them scoring by throwing the greatest. Bad omen for us! They took the lead early and we could not catch up, although I am confident we could have in a full game. Oh well, shoulda coulda woulda. My fault for agreeing to play the short game! Final score was seven to four or five, can't remember. I threw two hucks for scores, and a third that would have been a score if I had not been hasty and curved it ob. At one point, Kelsey and Ellen both went deep against their zone. Chetti was in the endzone as deep deep, guarding the middle but perhaps staying closer to Ellen because of her height. I got the disc on a swing near the sideline and hucked it to Kelsey. Chetti made a beautiful bid, sprinting full out and then flying through the air fully horizontal, just short of getting the d. Definitely one of the coolest plays of the weekend.

Wish we could have watched finals, I believe it was RPI Y vs. UAlbany alums, with a fair number of Bashing players on the Albany side. Must have been an exciting game. The tournament trophy was a forty spray painted white and capped with a metal salmon. Classy.

Recap: Great weekend. Gunx need to be more consistent, but should be proud of the intensity we brought. Eighth place finish, our best tournament finish as a program (not for long!). Breaking seed by five points was also pretty neat. Thanks to Lizz and Steve for picking up with us, Danielle for taking amazing photos and to RPI for running a great tournament. Our zone offense was strong all weekend. We can play the short game very well when we are on form and not too impulsive. MVP of the weekend was definitely Kelsey, who caught the most scores by far, some of them truly amazing plays. John played a great defensive game day two, earning at least six d's. Our next adventure will be Scranton in two weeks.

For my part, I found myself covering several players who were far and away more athletic and experienced than I am. I could run with them, but I could not shut them down. That needs to change. I need to be motivated to train harder than ever this winter. Gym here I come.