Sectionals Day 2
Seigs did a good writeup on the overall tournament over here. On a more BEU/DoG-centric perspective, I have prepared the following:
So, if we didn't have a grudge against New Noise before, we do now. After we beat our seed on Saturday with the huge win over Red Tide to win our pool, we ended up playing A2=NN in the winners bracket semis. They had eked out a close victory over us at the Boston Invitational back in June after we had eked out an even closer victory over Gunslingers. They were definitely a different (and better) team than at BI, and we were definitely different (still figuring out whether we are better, though we definitely have the potential to be significantly better).
The game started out and we started on defense and quickly went down a break. We eventually got that break back with a good mix of man and zone. We got another one to take the lead, and then the wheels fell off. We kept the lead for a few points, then we got sloppy. We had opportunities to extend the lead, but had some uncharacteristic turnovers. NN went up a couple of breaks late before we got a final break back and forced double game point with them receiving the pull. They moved the disc slowly but surely down the field before ending up on the left sideline just out of the endzone. At stall 9, they threw an inside out backhand to a cutter who had actually just fallen down. Fortunately for them he was able to recover and catch the game-winner. Very frustrating but overall I think we were happy with our play. The pleasant surprise on the weekend was how well we were able to apply pressure on the man D against much younger teams. We definitely earned a number of turnovers including layout blocks on pressure man to man. The zone was also effective at times, although it remains to be seen how it will do against theoretically wiser masters teams. The one thing that we need to work on big-time (and will do at Clambake) is zone to man. we probably tried it 4 or 5 times, mostly Sunday, and it was DREADFUL. People weren't picking up man to save their lives.
So our loss to NN set up a 3-4 game against Red Tide, who had gotten smoked by Boston Ultimate x-x. While I was sad that I wasn't going to be able to match up against my ex-mates and try and score the most points off them on the weekend, playing Red Tide again was probably far more valuable in terms of playing experience. Red Tide played much better than they had the previous day, but we were able to keep pace. While the final score was not as lopsided as the pool play game, we won reasonably comfortably at 15-12. This game saw the continued effective mix of in-your-face man and an effective zone, although the zone to man continued to elude us. We made fewer stupid mistakes this game than in the NN game, and we were able to close it out.
This led to a proposed 2nd place game against New Noise, who had lost to BU again, 15-7. We had enough people that were willing to play if the game HAD to be played, but we ended up trying to get out of the game, as NN wasn't thrilled to play us again either. No word on whether it was because they were afraid to lose... However, it took a lot of research to figure out whether it was acceptable, including having one guy dial up the UPA website on his crackberry to check the UPA series guidelines. There was one set of verbiage that we figured would allow us to back out of the game, pending approval from the UPA representative at the tournament, Seigs. When we broached the topic with him, he ended up calling Matt Bourland to get the final word on whether it was acceptable, and it was. NN ended up playing Red Tide for bragging rights in a no seeding impact game. Red Tide went up early, and we heckled for a little bit before leaving without seeing the ending.
All in all, a very good weekend that saw us accomplish almost all of our goals. We got almost everyone together at a tournament, we improved very much as a team, were able to play all facets of the game, effective O, man and zone D's. We got a far better turnout playing Sectionals than if we had tried to have a couple of practices. And also FAR more playing time/games. Looking forward to Clambake next weekend for more of the same.
So, if we didn't have a grudge against New Noise before, we do now. After we beat our seed on Saturday with the huge win over Red Tide to win our pool, we ended up playing A2=NN in the winners bracket semis. They had eked out a close victory over us at the Boston Invitational back in June after we had eked out an even closer victory over Gunslingers. They were definitely a different (and better) team than at BI, and we were definitely different (still figuring out whether we are better, though we definitely have the potential to be significantly better).
The game started out and we started on defense and quickly went down a break. We eventually got that break back with a good mix of man and zone. We got another one to take the lead, and then the wheels fell off. We kept the lead for a few points, then we got sloppy. We had opportunities to extend the lead, but had some uncharacteristic turnovers. NN went up a couple of breaks late before we got a final break back and forced double game point with them receiving the pull. They moved the disc slowly but surely down the field before ending up on the left sideline just out of the endzone. At stall 9, they threw an inside out backhand to a cutter who had actually just fallen down. Fortunately for them he was able to recover and catch the game-winner. Very frustrating but overall I think we were happy with our play. The pleasant surprise on the weekend was how well we were able to apply pressure on the man D against much younger teams. We definitely earned a number of turnovers including layout blocks on pressure man to man. The zone was also effective at times, although it remains to be seen how it will do against theoretically wiser masters teams. The one thing that we need to work on big-time (and will do at Clambake) is zone to man. we probably tried it 4 or 5 times, mostly Sunday, and it was DREADFUL. People weren't picking up man to save their lives.
So our loss to NN set up a 3-4 game against Red Tide, who had gotten smoked by Boston Ultimate x-x. While I was sad that I wasn't going to be able to match up against my ex-mates and try and score the most points off them on the weekend, playing Red Tide again was probably far more valuable in terms of playing experience. Red Tide played much better than they had the previous day, but we were able to keep pace. While the final score was not as lopsided as the pool play game, we won reasonably comfortably at 15-12. This game saw the continued effective mix of in-your-face man and an effective zone, although the zone to man continued to elude us. We made fewer stupid mistakes this game than in the NN game, and we were able to close it out.
This led to a proposed 2nd place game against New Noise, who had lost to BU again, 15-7. We had enough people that were willing to play if the game HAD to be played, but we ended up trying to get out of the game, as NN wasn't thrilled to play us again either. No word on whether it was because they were afraid to lose... However, it took a lot of research to figure out whether it was acceptable, including having one guy dial up the UPA website on his crackberry to check the UPA series guidelines. There was one set of verbiage that we figured would allow us to back out of the game, pending approval from the UPA representative at the tournament, Seigs. When we broached the topic with him, he ended up calling Matt Bourland to get the final word on whether it was acceptable, and it was. NN ended up playing Red Tide for bragging rights in a no seeding impact game. Red Tide went up early, and we heckled for a little bit before leaving without seeing the ending.
All in all, a very good weekend that saw us accomplish almost all of our goals. We got almost everyone together at a tournament, we improved very much as a team, were able to play all facets of the game, effective O, man and zone D's. We got a far better turnout playing Sectionals than if we had tried to have a couple of practices. And also FAR more playing time/games. Looking forward to Clambake next weekend for more of the same.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 10:55 AM
2 Comments:
Yeah, there were a number of times during our game that I was thinking to myself "why do the old guys keep getting HUGE layout blocks on us". Overall, very impressed with the squad and I'll sure be rooting for you come regionals.
Also, you should have recognized that tight breakside backhand to a recently fallen cutter... right out of the Count's goaltimate strategies 101.
-Micah
NN #9
Hey, it's all about importing yutes. Actually, the blocks were mostly done by people between 35 and 39.
Arghhhh, I knew goaltimate would trip me up someday. Looking foward to winter goalty this year.
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