Exuberance (Post Stanford)

Some weekends remind you why it is that you spend so much time playing this silly sport. I'm on such a high after this weekend that it almost doesn't matter that I'm hopelessly swamped with schoolwork.

The fields were worth going all the way to Ripon. They were grassy, flat, and perfect. I have yet to play on fields like that playing Ultimate. The weather was 70 and sunny with almost no wind on both days. This is how ultimate is meant to be played. We had a lot of really fun match-ups, and we made huge strides both on the field and in our team demeanor and attitude.

Anyway, the big news: we beat Cal on universe, 12-11. We went 5-2 on the weekend, but the last game is the one that will define this weekend in for me. Coming into this weekend, I felt like we really needed to take the next big step in our development as a team, and I think we did. The last two games with Cal we lost 13-4 and 13-6. It looked like we didn't belong on the same field with them.

I'll do a full write up of the weekend later. I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I had a big sky to tie the game at 11's and caught a hammer for the win. It felt amazing.

I'm so proud of how Smaug played this game. We really grinded it out even though we were tired after a long weekend. Granted, a few of their ballers were hurt, but this was still a huge win for our resume and for our confidence. We finally won a big game. Hopefully we can build on this huge win and peak at the right time going into the series. I'm exhausted but completely reinvigorated for the rest of our season. Too bad sectionals are a month and a half away...