Happy Spring?

You would think that because the second day was canceled, I would have been better about posting about Chicago Invite. Welp, not the case. We woke up early on Sunday morning, and just as I was about to pull on my mud-shorts and mud-jersey, we got word that the tournament was canceled. On the one hand it was great to not have to get back into our muddy clothes, braces, and cleats or to have to play in that ridiculous weather again, but it was also disappointing because it always sucks to lose out on the second day of a tournament. We had even made it to the championship bracket and everything! But yeah, I had planned to post on Sunday but never got around to it. Long story short, I had a LOT of stuff to do before leaving for my family trip and I guess I didn't know just how much I'd have to do. Before I knew it it was time to leave for the airport, so I never got around to posting.

In any case, Chicago Invite. Our so-called "home" tournament. Saturday was kind of awful. Rain and snow pelting you in the face. The wind was pretty bad, and you couldn't even look up while going upwind because the snow would hit you in the eyes. It stopped raining and snowing by the Case game, but then the fields just turned to mud. It was quite a messy, cold, wet, miserable affair, and I'm surprised the tournament wasn't called earlier. There were times when you couldn't feel your hands and feet, and I'm surprised we were all still able to "run". If Amanda Dooley, my Severe and Hazardous Weather professor, knew what I was doing that weekend, she would have been angry at me! After we just learned about frostbite and hypothermia and whatnot! (baha and us having practice today right after we had two lectures about thunder!) As disappointed that I am that we didn't get to play on Sunday in the much improved weather, I understand that they had to do what they had to do to preserve the fields. Despite Sunday, CI was still a very well-run tournament, as always. It's amazing to see how it's grown in the past two years, and I believe that it'll continue to draw in big name teams and become a can't-miss spring tournament.

That being said, Illinois had a pretty interesting Invite. We were missing a few key players, but a lot of rookies came to play, including two rookies who were playing in their first tournament ever! (What a sweet first tournament, right?) We all met at the fields, all sort of delirious and excited. Baby Amy wore Frank's flasher jacket. Sarah was ... Sarah. Cathy ran around in a bright orange jacket. People disrupted our plyos. I was angry 'bout it. Our warmup didn't go particularly smoothly, but nonetheless it was time to start. Our first game was against UW-Milwaukee. Welp. I think most everyone knows how I feel about this game. I'm pissed about it. We lost to UW-M 6-7. I think the main culprit in this game was that we just couldn't catch the dang-gum disc. I mean, it would hit us in the hands, we'd get our paws all over it, we'd sometimes even actually have it in our hands ... and then we'd just drop it. And this happened about a million times each POINT. It was sloppy sloppy sloppy, and we have to get used to catching in the snow/rain and in the cold, because that's just how weather is. We can't play Sectionals and Regionals at Irwin. T'would be nice (but not really, what up most severe asthma attacks of my life), but it's not gonna happen. Other than the catching, I felt really good about our handlers this game. UW-M threw a cheaty cup, but we were swinging well and being patient. In turn, we threw a zone that worked decently well. Unfortunately for us, we just turned the disc a lot and couldn't catch. I think that's what decided the game, really.

This probably isn't the place for it, but I don't give a shit. This game was DIRTY. Ridiculous double-teaming in the cup and FLAGRANT bumping on the mark. I mean, I thought I was in the middle of an open game or something. I mean, they were knocking girls down on the mark. Just not cool. Once or twice, I can overlook. Maybe you slipped on the mud. Maybe you were over-zealous getting the mark on. But if I'm at least five yards in the endzone, jogging to the disc 15-20 yards away from me and you SHOVE me from behind as you're running to get to the mark? I don't really buy it anymore. Unbelievable. To be honest, I was actually in a state of disbelief that we lost. But eh, time to move on.

Without any time to rest, our next game was against Dayton. I don't remember much of this game, to be honest. Just that we won, 9-3 holler holler holler. (It makes me sad, by the by, that I never remember the games we win.)

We had a bit of a rest, and then we moved on to play Case Western. Honestly, this game was messy as hell. Both teams were having a hard time NOT turning the disc, but Case did a little better than we did, as they won 3-5. It seemed like once they were able to get the disc moving downfield, they got into a flow that we for some reason could not stop. They were Game On in the red zone; I remember one of their girls had a sick layout grab for a score. Even worse than not being able to stop their flow, we never had our own flow at all. We'd get the turns we needed close to our endzone, but as we've learned all season, our red zone offense was horrendous. Either there are no cuts or everyone cuts each other off, and either we turf the disc or we jack it out the back. We just couldn't convert. I remember there was one point that went on at LEAST 20 minutes. Legit. Not even kidding. Thankfully, the point and the game eventually ended, and we lost 3-5. I could be wrong, but I think we scored to end the game? Right? Or maybe that happened at Centex, where we clearly were going to lose but scored to end the game? I don't know. Either way, not exactly confidence-inspiring against a team we want to be able to compete with at Regies.

After a bye during which we creeped on Fozz, almost got stuck in the mud pit they called a parking lot, and shivered ourselves to the point of cramping, we begrudgingly walked back to our fields. After a bit of confusion (during which my parents actually walked across a field that was in play *oh parents* ... still not as bad as John Rosenwinkel though) about who we were playing, we discovered that we were playing Illinois State. This was definitely a good game. Their girls were doing what our girls weren't -- a. they were CATCHING and b. they would push us in a little, and then bust deep for a flat, floaty "deep" throw for big gainers without a mark. Coach Foster had tried to point this out to us, but for whatever reason our offense wasn't executing that? I don't know, I'm a pessimist, I notice. I notice and remember all the shitty things we do, but I can't remember the good things we do or how we score. Anyway, there was one point where we were getting mad D's, and we eventually scored that one. It was during that point that I knew we still had a little fire going, that we really wanted to win that game. Illinois State made it supes difficult for us when they broke us for one upwind and that made it 6-6, universe point. As much as we wanted to win, I think most everyone just wanted to play for a later start time (9:30 as opposed to 8am). We dug in and got that win. Like I said, I never remember the good things we do or how we score, but we scored and won on DGP. I think we were all a little more than overjoyed. I was mostly happy to just take my clothes off and shower, eventually.

We were absolutely ecstatic to find out that we had played our way into the championship bracket, a first for this young team. Matter of fact, I think we had our first win of the spring season at this tournament. Scoresville!

Of course, as you know by now, the second day of the tournament of canceled. I'm both sad and happy about it, but what happened happened. It would have been interesting to see how the rest of the tournament would have played out for us, and it would have especially been awesome for our team to play in the championship bracket, but I'm happy to know that we got there. This tournament was super revealing. It revealed that we couldn't catch. Our cutting needs a lot of work. So does our man defenese. And we get terribly rattled by weather. But it also revealed that we can gut out wins, and we can turn up that defensive intensity when we want to. Just gotta work on that little stuff and execute now.

All in all, CI2010 was ... an experience we can definitely tell people we lived through. Holler holler holler, frostbite. Definitely one of the worst days of ultimate I've ever played. Fozzles, Coach Foster, and I were thinking about it. I don't think I can rank them, but here are our top worst tournament days, in no order:
Saturday of Chicago Invite 2010
Monday of Pres Day 2009
Arctic Vogue 2007
Sectionals 2009
Is there something I'm leaving out? Those are the worst ones I can think of, anyway.

In any case, Centex writeup some time this week. Holler.