PresDay Recap

We lucked out with the weather in SD this past weekend - not a drop of rain. It was such a relief to just relax and play without worrying about the weather. I think this was a very good tournament for both Smaug and me personally. I'm really feeling the pressure of school right now so I'm going to make this recap a bit shorter than usual.

I had Kiosk, Peaches, and Concord in my car for the trip down. Just as Peaches predicted, we talked some serious ultimate on the way. At least Kiosk did, and we listened. Haha. We stayed with Arthi and Ruth, Yugo's old Ptown teammates. They were super nice to us, and gave us sleeping pads and blankets and bagels. And they have an awesome, crazy cat.

Saturday -

We played some not-very-good teams on Saturday. Three of our opponents combined to score a total of 4 points on us. Consequently, the day was kind of a blur of short games and hanging out. No complaints here though. It was a nice change to just relax and feel pretty good about ourselves.

Sonoma St - 13-2
They had surprised us last time we played them by going up 4-0 to start our game at Sean Ryan. Not so much this time.

Squids B - 13-0
I think this was the first time I've ever been on the good side of a bageling. It was very short.

Chico 13-10
Chico was the toughest team we played this day. They were a pretty big step up from the other three teams, and it was tough to tighten up our playing after the level of the first two teams. We went up a few breaks on them and let them hang around until the end of the game. It was closer than it should have been. Chico is mostly cool, tho, and it was pretty fun.

Redlands - 13-2
Penguin's old cronies. We finished up early and I got to see the 'Birds beat Cal B on double game point. Woot!

We cheered on the ladies with some Chipotle and caught a little bit of the showcase game, but the Squids were beating up on SLO so we left. Props to Kiosk for insisting on showering in the UCSD gym. We were the first people to Rock Bottom and so clean! It was refreshing to have a few beers and chill instead doing the responsible thing and going to bed early. Bourbon barrel-aged imperial porter made my night, and I slept like a rock on my little couch.


Sunday

UCSD 11-13

It was chilly and perfectly still for our first big match up of the weekend. We came out strong, with Peaches getting a huge handblock on their goal line on the first point of the game. Break throw to Ratchet and we were up a break. Bam. We put in the next one too, to go up 2-0. We traded a few and they started throwing a box on us, which threw a wrench into our gears. They took half 7-6. They had a dude, Biel?, who was smoking us. We didn't have much of an answer to their deep game. We started cracking their box when we realized that there wasn't even a hint of wind so we could have what we wanted over the top. We traded with them until 11's. They put it in on O, and we turned it and they put it in. Game over.

The Squids are good, but they're far from untouchable. I would love to have another shot at them, maybe at Stanford or sectionals. After this game, we learned that Monday was canceled, making the next game basically Quarters. The top two teams from each power pools were advancing to semis, and we and SLO were both 1-1.

SLO - 14-12

The last time we played SLO, they had put a pretty good beating on us. That was last semester, though, and we're a different team now. We took half on them and went up 8-5, but somehow let them back into the game, at 12s. We have a tendency to tighten up when we have a lead, but we need to just keep playing the way that put us in the lead. I had a very good game, and I'm pretty proud of it after struggling to find my rhythm this season. 2 D's and 0 Turns. I also earned my only "Man card" of the weekend in this game. Sweet.

Cal 13-6
Cal is really freakin good. They have depth and serious athleticism. If they don't do well at nationals, I'll be very disappointed. I was pretty tired after playing a lot in the first two games, and their dudes were running hard the length of the field. They broke us all over the field (again), and made it look generally too easy. They loosened up their lines and we did a little better after half, but not much. We could have definitely used DaVinci, Concord, and Flood in this game. Oh well.

North Texas - 13-10ish

The score on score reporter is not right. This game was pretty close. We we're totally gassed after three tough games, and so were they. The scouting report on them was "the taller the guy, the better he is." So true. They had one dude who was just unreal. There was nothing we could do to stop #19. Anyway, the tall dudes were cool, but just about everyone else on the team were total douchebags. One of them pushed over Banshee in the endzone for fouling him. I really wanted to beat these guys, but it wasn't to be. One of their tall guys was smoking a shitty cigar after the game and I asked him if it was a blunt. "No man, I'm on the probation." Awesome.

On the way back I finally got to check out Stone Brewery, which was everything I could have hoped for. They had tons of taps, and I was ready to indulge when Concord told me that he was leaving early and I would have to drive myself home. Blueballed! It was still pretty fun, tho. I ate some tasty sausages and got to hear about the FBI from Secret Agent Jones.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. It was a very good thing that Monday was canceled because it poured and I got to go home and hang out with my family for the day.

We have three weeks of no tournaments before Stanford, which is probably a good thing. I'm pretty beat from back to back tournaments, and I need some extra time to catch up with school, which is insanely busy. Just thinking about it now makes me want to get working. I'll post some more general thoughts later this week, hopefully.