Central Plains Sectionals

Whaaaat? New template? Yeah, I figured you all might want something new to look at. Anyway.
As if I really have to announce it, or as if I even had to put up a poll, the Roll Call Baller Bids winner, with over 50% of all votes, is Meg.

Meg Hofner is a baller, period. Meg participates in a lot of activities, including smoking crack, spreading herpes, and sitting on Shamrock Shakes/bags of ice, yet she still finds time to school fools on-field. Meg's bombs are usually pretty accurate, but just in case her 48mph flick overshoots a receiver, she'll get the disc back by laying out past you for the D, even if it means she'll be too banged up/tired to drive and will have to put her life in the hands of over-aggressive Asian drivers. Congratulations Meg, and hopefully next time I'll get your shoulder-high bids on film.

Something else I'd like to point out about this Baller Bids poll is that a lot of different people were getting votes, instead of just one or two people getting votes. I think that's great, because it says that more people are bidding instead of just the usual suspects, and I hope it continues to be this way.

Anyway, I'm sorry this took me so long to post, but I've been having some issues with my intrawebz lately (my first Sectionals post was deleted, sad day), and schoolwork has been particularly ridiculous this week. So please forgive me if this is a little lackluster.


If you can believe it, in just a few short days, we will be playing in the Central Plains Sectionals, where 15 teams will be competing for 8 bids to Regionals. We'll be going in this weekend as the top seed, as well as the reigning Central Plains Sectionals champs. I'm going to start by talking about the teams that we'll see on the first day, and I'll go on to talk about some of the other teams.

[[EDIT: 4/10/08, 2:40AM
So apparently I go through all the trouble of putting off my paper that is due in a few hours to do this God dang preview, and they change the pools on me after all my hard work. Now, with time winding down, 1650 more words to write about Hu Jintao and Deng Xiaoping (two names I never want to hear again after this shit), and two more Chinese stories left to memorize, I've got nothin' but a very mis-informed blog. Thanks, Sectional Coordinator. I appreciate it.

Anyway. The changes are as such: Our first game of the day is against UChicago, second is Northwestern, third is Valpo (so we still play them, just one game later than I thought), and after a bye, we end the day with the A1 vs. A2 match-up with Wheaton, samesies as before.
[[/EDIT

Our day starts off with a pleasant get-together with North Park. They've been having a pretty good spring, actually, hosting Chicago Invite and playing at Whitesmoke and Roll Call. At Chicago Invite, with help from Tracy, they dominated Pool B, and barely edged out Northwestern 12-11 to win the pool. In the cross over game, they lost a close one to UIC 10-7, but when they met up with Haterade again the next day semis, they were blown out 13-4. Allihopa had a ridiculous Roll Call, where they once again swept their pool, with their closest game a 9-7 win over Massachusetts. They even played Northeastern close, losing 15-12 in pre-quarters (we lost to NE 9-12). At Whitesmoke, North Park played Michigan State and Wheaton close, but lost 13-8 and 13-11, respectively. They also were not able to advance past quarters, losing to Notre Dame 9-11. North Park is a weird time. They do all this ridiculous shit that shouldn't even be considered, but somehow it works for them. So who do we have to look out for? Well we've got American Apparel, their fierce-looking red-headed handler who tries way too hard when she dresses herself, as well as #10 Frequent Flier Miles, who loves high release flicks and traveling.

Valparaiso seems more co-ed focused than anything else, per their website. They've been to that unnamed tournament, Flava Fest, and Whitesmoke, where they've had the chance to play against a lot of teams from our section, including Indiana, Northwestern, Purdue, Notre Dame, and DePaul (all losses). According to score reporter, they have won three games all year, against Michigan-B, Kalamazoo, and Central Michigan. There's not too much to report about them, except that they're not "Chicks" Hucking Discs, but "Chics" Hucking Discs. I don't know.

The Illinois State Gnomes will be right in the middle of our day. It looks like they have a big, albeit young roster. They've only played in one unnamed tournament this spring, in which they pulled out wins over Knox and Western Illinois, but also fell to St. Thomas and UIC. Other than that, I know little else about them, except that Google searching ISU Gnomes will get you a lot of stuff about their men's team of the same name, and their mascot Stanley.

Our fourth game of the day will be against Indiana. We haven't played them at all this year, but we sure have heard a lot out of them. However, RSD drama isn't worth going into or using as a motivation, so I won't go there. I also don't publish lies, like putting up fake wins on score reporter, so I won't do that either. What I do have to say about Indiana, however, is that they really think this is their year. They've got a coach now, 2007 FOTY Jessie Yaeger, and are even hyping players like #4 Juliet McNamara. According to RSD, Captain Juliet McNamara is a lefty with sick fakes and hucks. She is fast and versatile, and apparently has "nice boobies". Sadly, no one on Illinois is an eleven year old boy who pulls pud to his dad's old Playboys, so this is of little concern to us. What is of concern to us, however, is that this is a team is out to get us. They've got a bigger roster than ours, second to last game of the day ... we can't let up, essentially. According to a write-up post Texas Throwdown, Indiana was described as a scrappy team with a lot of subs that could upset some people at Regionals. We only have our impressions and memories of last year, because we haven't played Indiana yet this year. For all we know, they could have gotten vastly better, and will present a real challenge to us. This is why we can't take any game lightly, especially against teams like this that have been working hard to improve and make a name for themselves.

At what I'm assuming was the Michigan Indoor tournament, Calamity Jane had a pretty good showing. They beat Michigan State twice, 6-5 and 11-7, Northwestern 11-6, and they also blew out teams like Central Michigan, Valpo, Ohio, and Michigan-B. Their only losses are to Michigan Flywheel, 1-11 and 3-7 (not sure what to make of this score). At Mardi Gras, Indiana won all their games except one, a loss to Iowa State, 8-13. At Texas Throwdown, CJ managed to play itself into the first place bracket, but had the great misfortune of meeting up with Michigan first, and were quickly vanquished 1-13. They were able to beat Vanderbilt-X 12-7, but lost to Chicago 8-10.

Our fifth and final game of the day will be against Wheaton IMANI. They are a team that has been pretty successful thus far in the spring. They've made it to the finals of Whitesmoke, as well as the semis of Huck Finn. At Huck Finn, they beat Loyola and Winona State big, while baring squeezing one out over Wash U, 13-12. They also lost to two good South teams in Truman State and St. Louis by scores of 5-13 and 6-13, respectively. At Whitesmoke, Wheaton rolled through pool play, losing only to Michigan State 6-13. They absolutely crushed Ohio and Kalamazoo, while playing a close one with North Park, winning 13-11. Championship bracket play went much the same way for them, as they rolled through quarters and semis, beating Purdue 15-6 and Notre Dame Alumni 15-3. In the end, they didn't have enough to beat Michigan State in the finals, losing 15-8.



Some of the other teams we might play:
UIC Haterade goes into the weekend as the #2 seed, and they've been having a pretty good year. This looks like it could be a dangerous team, because according to their roster, they've got a few ballers. It looks like they've picked up #1 Katherine Chou, a handler from Emory, and #88 Val Ngai from Chicago Nemesis. They also have Deep Dish's #12 Christine Miller (who was handblocked a few times at CI, by the way). Something else they've got going for them is that being right in the city, they have the opportunity to play CUSL fall, spring, winter, and summer leagues and looking through the CUSL boards, it looks like quite a few of these UIC ladies are playing on competitive teams with Machine and Haymaker guys.

When they're not busy playing in one of those leagues, they've played at two tournaments thus far. At Chicago Invite, they beat every team except ILLINOIS. They even edged out Michigan State, a pretty good team, 8-7. They sort of had a cake walk through the championship bracket, beating DePaul 13-0 and North Park 13-4 before losing to us in the finals 13-6. At some unknown tournament this spring, it looks like they won every game they played against teams like Illinois State and Knox, never letting a team score more than 5 on them. UIC actually played us relatively close at Chicago Invite. We can't play sloppy.

Third seeded Notre Dame Womb is also having a pretty good year. So good, in fact, that they've already got Nationals down in their tournament schedule. Oh. Okay. They've lost to Michigan State (we beat them twice at CI) 15-1, and they also lost to Emory 13-3, another team we've beaten. Despite this, there is no denying what's green on score reporter. They've won a tournament -- edging Duke 15-13 for the Ultimax crown. They've already beaten a lot of teams from our section, including Valpo, DePaul, Purdue, and North Park. They've also played some close games with good teams, including 8-14 losses to Truman and Iowa State. They beat Georgia, a team many think will go to Nationals this year, 10-8 at Itchfest, a fall tournament, and they just straight blew out Wellesley 12-4 at Southerns. Womb will be led by captains #17 Shannon Morrison and #13 Loretta Brown, as well as the cutting of #24 Megan Franke and the handling of #19 Katie Bilek. They also have #3 Katie Morin, 2007 FOTY. They've got a pretty sizable roster with plenty of young'ns, and I'm pretty sure every single one of 'em has hopes of upsets and Nationals in their heads. We haven't played Notre Dame at all this year, and I don't think they should be looked over, at all.

Chicago goes into the weekend as the 5th seed, looking like they could play spoiler in Pool D. According to Meg, their former captain says they've been working extra hard this year, and it shows that they're looking to surprise some people, because they've been playing in competitive tournaments all year. They have thus far played at Trouble in Vegas, Texas Throwdown, College Southerns, and Roll Call, an impressive list. They had little success at Vegas, winning only three games, and losing to teams like Claremont and Cornell, both teams we beat at the same tournament. Their record at Texas Throwdown was much better than ours, as they had a good showing in Pool B, beating a sectional foe in Indiana 10-8, and losing only to Vanderbilt-X, 11-6. At Southerns, they finished third in their pool, losing to Cornell and Williams. On Sunday, they beat Northwestern 15-10 to advance to the ninals, where they lost to Williams again.

Finally, at Roll Call, proving the tournament seedings were shit, Supersnatch went from seeded last in their pool to completely dominating Pool B, going undefeated on the first day. They blew out almost every team they played except Salisbury, beating them in a closer game, 13-11. They ended up losing a close quarterfinal game against Penn State, 9-11. After being moved to the 5th place bracket, they completely reversed their results from Saturday, and blew out Salisbury, the only team that played them close, and lost to Penn, the team they had blown out 13-5 just the day before. Supersnatch has a pretty big roster (read: fresh legs), made up of mostly upperclassmen and graduate students. Players to look for will probably be that Lanski-wannabe handler, Navine Levin, Diana "Doggie" Han, and Nemesis players Servia "Beef" Rindfleish and Yaya Tang.

Purdue Brickhouse will be led by handlers #11 Jess Sloan (captain) and 2005 FOTY #76 Kami Larson. From the looks of their possibly outdated roster, they have a problem with numbers and height -- both of which they don't really have. They've made appearances at Flava Fest, Whitesmoke, and Frostbite. There are literally like five total scores reported for Flava Fest, but two of them are Purdue's, joyous! At said tournament, they beat Valpo 9-3 and DePaul 13-4. The score report for Pool A at Whitesmoke is also very spotty, so I don't have much to go off of. Brickhouse got trounced 15-6 by Wheaton in quarters of the championship bracket, but went on to the fifth place bracket and again got beat by North Park, 15-7. They had their most success at Frostbite. They won their pool, beating Marquette, Grinnell, and Hendrix, before getting flattened by Wisconsin Eau Claire 13-3 in quarters. It should be noted though, that at this particular tournament they picked up with some of the North Park ladies, so how that affected things I don't know.

The Loyola Sirens will also be present, and it looks like they're getting serious, as they've picked up a new coach (Rob Berg? Maybe?) and a new name (Sirens now, Bogus then). Their main players are Rachel Garrett from Briefcase and these two other handlers, as well as this one fake baller receiver. Last time we played them we started off the day with some shitty zone. We switched into man and that worked out considerably better. Hopefully we won't come out as flat on defense this time. At Chicago Invite, no team scored more than 8 on them, except us, of course, but even so, the only team they beat was DePaul, 9-5 and 8-4. At Huck Finn, with its incomplete results, they lost big to Truman State and Wheaton, but eked out a win 13-11 against Winona State.

Northwestern Gung-ho is a team I don't think you can really shut the door on just yet, even though I think this is a rebuilding year for them. I know that the last time we played them they just sort of rolled over and gave up to the tune of a 13-1 loss, but this is the same team we beat at Sectionals last year and then lost to just a few weeks later. I always like to keep in mind that the reigning champions from the previous year are still the champions until they're beaten, and Northwestern won Regionals last year, beating both us and Michigan. I think we should respect that. They've been all over the map this spring season, with mixed results. At Vegas, they managed only one win, which came against UCLA-B. At Chicago Invite, they took home 5th place, beating Loyola 8-4 for the distinction. At Southerns, they won two games (St. Olaf and Princeton, both 13-5) and lost to teams like Florida as well as section-friends Chicago. In the end they were crushed in pre-quarters by Virginia 15-3.

#12 Sarah "Smalls" Kong is the heart of the team. She is the obvious emotional leader, and her teammates look up to her (BAHAHAHA I didn't mean to make a funny but I just did). She's not as big a threat with the disc in her hands as she is without. She is one of their main cutting options and she gets the disc often, but usually looks to dump. At CI it looked like she was limping a bit, and definitely a little physically hampered, which made her easy to shut down, but she could be ready to go by now. I didn't see #11 Tiffany Davis at CI, but she's another very experienced player they bring back from last year, along with #2 Meghan Kirby and #26 Georgette "Jet" Moyle, both players I don't think I've seen at all this year. At Chicago, I think #44 Victoria Gunderson, #66 Melissa Glick, and #15 Kim Streff carried the bulk of the handling duties.

DePaul is a very new team, and one that we've played before. We played a DePaul + Valpo team at Fall Out, and they annoyed the shit out of us with their double teams and their supposed grasp on the 11th edition rules. They've won a total of two games this spring, 11-4 against Kalamazoo and 12-5 against Valpo. They've mostly been blown out, but some games of note are 9-5 and 8-4 losses to Loyola and an 8-13 loss to Notre Dame.

Knox College Your Mom hasn't won a game yet this season, but it might also be because they've apparently only played like four games. They have a smaller, upperclassmen-dominant roster, and other than that, there's little else I can find about them. But I think maybe it was Knox last year, who we played in one of our last games of the day on Saturday of Sectionals. The senior and junior players got to take a rest, and we sophomore and freshmen players got to play the whole game ourselves, taking on positions we had never played before. We still bageled them, but they were fun to play and said a bunch of hilarious shit, including "They're playing people-defense!" They were cool.


Whew. So that's that. I know we expect to win Sectionals, and that's great, but there's still a lot we should work on, both individually and as a team. I mean, Remember what happened last weekend when we were seeded first going into a tournament? Yeah. About that. Let's work on not starting off slow -- something that really plagued us at Roll Call -- and if we do, let's shake that, quickly. Let's also work on just taking care of business and playing our A-game whether the team we're playing is "good" or "bad" -- something we sometimes didn't do at Chicago Invite. Let's work on making good decisions -- taking care of the disc, trying to reduce the amount of drops and dumb throws. Exercise more patience and restraint, especially near the endzone. Let's play every game like that Rutgers game. Our cup was beastly. We worked hard on man D. We were active and made cuts to both break and open sides, both in and long cuts. Most of all, we were intense and only kept raising the intensity. When their handlers found ways to break our cup, our cup worked together and adjusted what they were doing to stop it. When janky Asians tried to start shit, they were footblocked. The talking on the sidelines was awesome, and we all got so psyched for scores. It was a thing of beauty, honestly.

I can hardly contain my excitement for this weekend to kick off already. That being said, we've got one more practice before it all starts. Let's make it count!