In taking a page out of the men's team's book, this is the blog for the University of Illinois' women's ultimate team. I like that I'm writing this like nobody knows who we are or something ... ridiculous. Well, I suppose some people reading this might not know who I am. My name is Joann, although I'm frequently called something else, including but not restricted to "J.Wo". Sometimes words like "What the fuck was that?!" and "What the fuck are you doing?!" preface or follow my name. In any case, I'm a second-year player, and I am all about sweatbands (I sweat a lot), cut-off t-shirts, and Michael Cera, but that's a different story. On some real talk though, what I really have a passion for is sports photography and writing, so hopefully I can regale you with stories of ultimate glory, team triumphs, and occasionally vulgar, pop culture-laden bromides about things that really grind my gears. I also hope I can capture some sweet-ass photos while I'm doing my best Scobel Wiggins/Matt Lane/Jason Mechler impression.
But onto some ultimate talk. This past fall season saw the Menace playing in five tournaments: CHC, Glory Days, Fall Out, Missouri Loves Company, and CCC. CHC was ... a learning experience, and Glory Days allowed for some early play against split Wisconsin squads and Truman State, both teams that went to Nationals last year.
Fall Out split Menace into X and Y teams that would eventually meet up to play one another in the finals after both squads essentially destroyed all other competition. While MLC was a rough trip, it taught us a lesson in intensity and playing like we belonged on the big stage. In the last few minutes of the game against Truman State, our team really turned the intensity on, stopping TSUnami from scoring multiple times on their own goal line, with some help from some fired up rookies.
We closed out the fall season with a trip to Chattanooga to play in CCC against some pretty top-notch teams. We came right out and straight up harassed teams with our zone defense, until our zone o ran into a little bit of trouble against Vanderbilt's 4-man cup. The next morning, we found ourselves on the losing end of a battle with an extremely talented Michigan team. That was definitely a motivating game, to see what it was we were going to have to beat in order to get to Nationals. In the end, we took 5th at CCC after ending the day with victories against North Carolina and Maryland, despite broken faces and janky Asians and the rain clouds rolling in.
As fun as the fall season was, the spring season is upon us (you wouldn't know it by the weather) and bigger and better things are on the horizon. In approximately a week and two days, we will be flying out to Las Vegas for Trouble in Vegas. We will be one of over 40 women's teams that are going to fight to come out on top. Our competition includes teams that went to Nationals last year in Tufts (a team we lost to at Southerns last year by the slimmest of margins), Dartmouth, Wisconsin, UCLA, and UBC. We will also see some familiar Regional foes, UChicago and of course, Northwestern. That's only seven teams -- there are still other really good teams that are going to be there just waiting to bring it. This is why we've been working hard in practice. This is why we've been lifting and running and sprinting and throwing like never before. If you want to see your name on a ticket to Boulder this May, you had better play hard.
So don't let up, not for a moment. We have a week of practices left before we leave, so use each one of those practices and each one of those days to prepare yourself to unleash some brutality on teams that aren't gonna expect it, and surprise teams that don't think we're going to bring it. Work hard, get better, and get geeked. Vegas will be here before you know it.
-Joann
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