Regionals Write-Up

Coming out of this college series is the best I've felt about any team's performance that I've been a part of. Strike-Slip made the game-to-go this year, but that was exactly what were expected to do so it wasn't as fun as it was grueling.

We went into the weekend as the 7 seed. The tourney was a huge bracket, so we would very quickly be playing in important games. Shockingly, the weather was great. Maybe 65 degrees and light wind. It worked to our benefit.

Saturday:

Game 1 - Colorado College

This game was supposed to be easy, and it was. They seemed decent enough, but they had serious problems with our box and zone looks. They also dropped it a lot. I think we took half 8-1. They scored a few more in the second half, but we won pretty easily 15-(not very much).



Game 2 - Long Beach

Long Beach was only playing 10 guys, so it was bad luck catching them this early in the tournament. They took half by a break or two. At about 9-7, we called a time-out and the team got fired up to make a last ditch effort to make a comeback. We started gaining momentum with a couple breaks. Thor had a huge layout D on a bad dump throw. We brought the game to 10-10 universe, with them receiving. We got the disc a couple times (once on a 50 yard hammer look) but they punched it in on a sky from Jake. Flood did a good job trying to contain him, and there were some spectacular plays in the air, but in the end it wasn't enough. Uni, Bogo, Marcos, and Mike all played great in this game as well.

Game 3 - Air Force

The guys were down after our universe point loss with LB, and I think we all assumed that we were going to walk through this game. And we should have. But we let them hang around, down only a few points. They scored a few breaks and started acting like the shirtless pilots in the volleyball scene in Top Gun. Going up wind, someone put up a janky, floaty huck and Spectre had a huge sky for the score.

During soft cap, we received on O to end the game. Arby hucked to Curse wide open on the goal line, and the coaches called for a time-out. During the timeout, the other coach insisted that we had called 2 already in that half. He was right. Turnover. Before we knew it, it was universe point with us receiving on O. We worked it downwind calmly and put it in for the score, but not with some serious sweating. We almost ended our season against Air Force. I don't even want to consider what that would have been like.

Game 4 - Arizona

We started off with a few breaks. And then a few more, until we had taken half 8-1. Arizona is a better team than that, and I don't know if they were just tired or what, but they really rolled over in the first half. Their best player, the tall blonde guy, was going crazy in their huddle. They came out of half and went on a run, but they were too far down. We started trading until hard cap, 12-6. The team was tired after playing all day at altitude. Thor also hurt his knee pretty badly skying the balls off the blonde guy after he came down and got landed on. Despite our "big roster," we ended up playing on Sunday with only about 14 or 15 able bodied players, and it definitely hurt our chances.

Saturday night we went to HoHut, Ft. Collins best (only) AYCE mongolian bbq place. It was actually pretty good, and perfect for a big hungry team. After the Lakers game, the coaches and injured people went out to check out the local Brew/pub. It was a fun night.

Sunday

UCSD

We came out fired up quoting this guy. We felt like we had nothing to lose, and because of that I think we went into this game with the right attitude. They gave us a bunch of turnovers, and our D-line was taking good huck looks when we had them. They took half 8-7, but I was feeling really good about the attitudes both teams were playing with. They threw their box, which has always given us trouble in the past. We struggled for a point, but the second point we shredded right through it and did the same on each subsequent point. My main memory from the end of the game is Avatar getting a huge layout D on Kattan and the macking the disc squarely off his chest. We received the disc on universe, and slowly marched it down through their zone for an easy score. 12-11. This win really felt good. To my knowledge, UCLA has never beaten UCSD before in the series and I don't think they ever saw it coming.

SDSU

SDSU had beaten us pretty squarely the last 2 or 3 times we played them, but we were riding high off our win against the squids. I think the altitude made the games a little more turn heavy because peoples hucks were misfiring and we were getting more chances for breaks than we normally would. We sat on a nice 2 point lead for most of the game, until the end. We called a couple of time outs late in the game to help run out the clock, and SDSU took issue with it. However, we played completely within the rules and the game was observed, so I really don't feel too bad about it. They scored the last point after hard cap blew, but the game was over, 10-9.

UCSB - 2nd Place Game

Tide was coming off a blow-out loss in finals to Colorado, 15-5. They were very strategic about resting for the game they could actually win, I think, and it worked out for them. We came out hot and went up 2 breaks to start the game, but the fatigue from the weekend started to catch up with us. It also got fairly windy in this game, and it hurt our hucking game and benefited their more fundamental style. However, I don't think they would have won had it not been for stellar play from Max and Tim. Those two destroyed us like they have every time we've played them this year. Once they got up a couple points, they held on and never let us back in the game. We were running out of gas pretty quickly by this point. Pagoda, Thor, and Spectre were not playing by this point, too, which also really hurt us. We were running 14-15 guys and were looking pretty ragged. Huge props to Curse for working his ass off all Sunday though. He was our best and most consistent cutter, and favorite target for Arby's hucks. He also skied the balls off a Tide guy on an upwind floater near the sideline.

UCSD - 3rd/4th Place Game

It really didn't look coming into this game. They were up and throwing, and our guys collapsed on the side line. They broke us twice before we got on the board, 3-1. The whole first half we looked like we were just ready to give up. Forge was skying the balls off of everyone, and we just didnt have the energy to put up much of a fight. They took half 8-3.

During our huddle, we reminded everyone that this was likely the last game that our seniors would ever play with Smaug, and that there was no reason not to give every last ounce of effort we had. We we're the team that was not supposed to be there, and we should just play to enjoy our last half of ultimate of the year. We came out looking revitalized in the second half and got a bunch of breaks to bring it closer. I think at one point I think it was 11-9ish, and we were bringing all the momentum. Unfortunately, we ran into the soft cap and they calmed down and played "the most boring point of ultimate of their lives" to put in the final point.

A lot of guys came up huge for us in this game, when our stars were running fumes. Syntax came in and looked great running the offense. Attica had an amazing goal line layout D on two guys that were standing about 5 feet apart. In the end, we were just too tired to take advantage of the position that we had put ourselves in. I hate to speculate, but if we had had Pagoda, Spectre, Thor and me playing, who knows what would have happened.

Still, we earned the highest finish in the history of Smaug, and made it to 2 games to go. The end of year circle was amazing, and there were more than a few happy tears from the guys that were finishing their years on Smaug. I hope the young guys can take the experience of this weekend and realize what it will take to make the jump from a high placing team at regionals to a team that will go to nationals. We had wins this year over Stanford, Davis, Victoria, Florida, SDSU, and UCSD. On the other hand, we had some losses to some teams that we probably shouldn't have lost to. It seemed like everyone on our team peaked individually this weekend. Going through our roster, I don't think there's anyone who I can point to and say that this weekend was not the best I've ever seen them play (except guys coming off long-term injuries. I may have seen them a few steps faster).

I'd like to think that a lot of our younger guys, especially the guys that have never gone through a season on the A team, saw this weekend how amazing ultimate can be. The high that you get from winning big games after a full season of working towards that goal is incomparable. Now that they've had a taste, hopefully they'll keep working so Smaug can have that feeling again next year.