Southerns Sunday.

I'm sorry that I've been so slow to get these posts up. I've had a lot of work and I haven't really done a phenomenal job budgeting my time. We're leaving for Roll Call this afternoon, though, so I'm really trying to make sure that I at least get all of my tournament write-ups on here before the next tournament comes along....

Sunday morning was frustrating for me because my ankle wasn't feeling any better, in spite of the number of times that I iced it. It took us longer than it should have to check out of the hotel, but I suppose that this isn't all that surprising considering that this was the last stop of our long Spring Break trip. People seemed a bit worn down, and we weren't able to pack up and get through breakfast until later than I had wanted to get out of there. By the time we got the cars loaded and checked out of all of our rooms, it was already 8:15 for a 9am game. Not the optimal amount of time to warm up, but not horrible either.

The line to get my ankle taped was horrendous. So many people wanted their scrapes bandaged or their blisters covered that it took almost twenty minutes for me to get to the front of the line. By the time that I was taped and ready to go, our team was finished with warmups and about to start our first game, which was against Georgia Tech. I had to warm up on my own, which required the first several points of the game. Even though I eventually did get in for a couple points, my mobility was questionable so I played sparingly.

Georgia is a pretty good program. Though they're never among the top couple teams in the country, they always have a player or two who is good enough to keep them in the game with anyone. This year seems to be no different. Georgia Tech had a couple of guys who could really ball, including this one fairly short guy who ran their whole show. He pretty much got open whenever he wanted (we forced him hard in, allowing him to get the easy first cut off of any stopped disc but preventing him from going deep), and he made a couple pretty spectacular throws and catches. On one occasion, he cut deep but his defender stayed close to his back hip. The throw went up anyway, an outside-in backhand that looped over their shoulders. Babbitt poached off of his man and took position in front of the Georgia Tech player, who was now sandwiched between two of our defenders. It looked like an easy d, but the Georgia Tech guy layed out over Babbitt's shoulder, flipped onto his back in the air, and made the catch. It was a tremendous play.

Even though I would say that our team largely dominated the pace of the game, Georgia Tech kept the score close by making spectacular grabs and taking advantage of mistakes that we made close to our own endzone. I think that we were also shaking off some of our early morning laziness, as we struggled to challenge their offensive cutters and we let them break us over and over and over again. We also made an effort at the beginning of this game to sub more equally, which resulted in the presence of some sub-optimal defensive matchups. Georgia Tech, to their credit, did a pretty good job of identifying and exploiting these matchups, and we struggled for the first half of this game. The talent on our team, however, was certainly deeper than Georgia Tech's and we gradually wore them down (they only had about ten players). We gave up a break after the soft cap, but held on to win 16-15. It was a tough win, and we looked sloppy at times, but we finally ground it out for the victory.

Our second game was against Luther, who (like us) had started their season with a bit of momentum. We decided to tighten up our lines against them until we had built a comfortable lead, but this point never happened. Luther fought us, point for point, for the entire game. Although I would say that we did a better job controlling the game than they did, our excessive throwaways made it difficult to sustain any sort of lasting lead against them.

We began the game trading points. Luther dropped the disc several times, but we were unable to convert on our first few opportunities. At the end of the first half, we broke several times to win the half 8-4, and it appeared as it momentum was on our side. Luther rallied at the beginning of the second half, scoring the first point and then breaking until they led 9-8. This was largely due to our massive number of throwaways. Our handlers seemed too eager to look for the home run throw; rather than working the disc down the field, they were trying to win points on one throw. This often happens as our team tires and players want to win points quickly without having to do too much running. However, Luther had a couple athletes who were pretty good in the air, and we stuggled to complete our hucks, especially when the throw floated or was a little off-target.

Once Luther took the lead, our team pulled together and got back on track. Our starters were tired but determined, and they outran and outworked their opponents for the rest of the game. We also limited our turnovers and our offense started to look good. As a result, we broke through the last several points of the game, winning 15-13.

Luther was a frustrating team to play against because they loved to make ticky-tack calls. During portions of the game, it felt as though we could hardly throw up field without one of the Luther players calling a travel on us, even if the call didn't serve to benefit their team; they were just looking to get in our heads. One Luther player called a travel on Alden when he had his back to Alden's pivot foot. I called this player out on the sideline, and he later apologized for the call. He seemed like a reasonable guy, I think that he was just a young player on their team and he was excited to make a call. At another point, Babbitt clearly thwacked a huck about a foot before it reached a Luther player, and the disc skimmed off of his fingertips. The Luther player called a strip, which was not even remotely true, and I called him a pussy. Good times.

Our win against Luther earned us a spot in the semifinals against the University of Virginia. Our starters were exhausted after nail-biting come from behind victories against Geogia Tech and Luther, and we weren't exactly looking peppy at the beginning of the game. Our offense tried to get rolling against Virginia, but our foes were in much better shape than we were at that time. We scored, let them score, and then allowed them to break us until we were down 5-1. We scored again, but then gave up half 8-2. It was a little demoralizing.

At halftime, I tried to remind people why we were playing in this tournament. Oftentimes, in the heat of a tough game, our competitive nature blinds us to our true goals. It's fun to win games, and it hurts to lose, but we really need to maintain our focus on our team goal: success at Sectionals and Regionals. Everything up until Sectionals is just practice. I implored our team to continue trying to improve, even if we couldn't beat Virginia. I reminded them that the Virginia team had probably been on fields all semester. They were about as good as they were going to get, while we are going to improve in the next few weeks of field practice. Virginia also hadn't played in tournaments all week, so they were significantly fresher than we were. I asked our team to play as if the score didn't matter. I asked them to play offense the Right way (working it down the field and making good decisions rather than trying to complete desperation hucks) because that is how we could grow together as a team. Team growth is important in games like this. The outcome of the game is not. People seemed a little happier at the end of halftime, and we resolved to open up the lines and get more people in the game for the second half.

In the second half of the Virginia game, we played looser and happier. Some of our more fatigued players moved to the sideline while our fresher (and less experienced) players saw the field. This got our team moving a bit more, on offense and defense, even if it meant that we were a little less savvy. Keenen scored a couple goals, Jeff Steeves looked pretty good on offense, Sam and Tim tried to take control of cutting, Rob looked good with the disc in his hand.... Though we still looked a little sloppy on both sides of the disc, we got running and looked Acceptable. At the very least, we didn't look Beaten, and that's the important part. We have to keep things in perspective and keep working so that we will be ready for the trials that await us in Sectionals and Regionals. The final score was Virginia 15, Zoodisc 6, but I think that our team's character really showed in the second half of this game.

Anyway, I have a lot more to say about Southerns but I think that I'm just going to pass on that. We're leaving for roll call in under three hours, and it's time for me to move on to that challenge. My ankle is still bothering me, so I am not planning on playing in this tournament (even though that half kills me). I need to heal so that I can contribute in practice. Participation in practice is as or more important than participation in these pre-series tournaments, and I wish that more players on our team understood that. Expect a tersely worded post to that effect next week if our team's effort in practice doesn't improve from this week. Until then....