My thoughts on Queen City

While my grades, post-graduation what-to-do search, and general non-ultimate sanity would have gone out the window had it happened, I really wish we could have gone to Queen City. Vegas was awesome, and the extra-Regional competition was great because it exposed us to some different playing styles and defensive looks that aren’t that common in the Atlantic Coast. On the other hand, though, teams like Georgia, UNC, UNC-Wilmington, and NC State are who we’ll be seeing in Charlotte, and with a field that also included Michigan and Notre Dame, it’s really too bad they fell on consecutive weekends.

Since I couldn't be there myself, my thoughts and speculations should be of much help.

-First, as far as Virginia Ultimate is concerned, our girls team went, going 2-2 in pool play and 1-2 in Championship and Championship Consolation on Sunday. From an ultimate growth perspective, Hydra is interesting to me because they have a giant roster of over 35 girls but do not have the infrastructure or willing coach/captain for a B team. This leaves a lot of the top talent kind of frustrated, a lot of the middle talent kind of frustrated, and a lot of the bottom talent kind of frustrated. Regardless, the acquisition of a coach has payed big dividends this year, and I'm hoping that they continue what seems to be a progressive re-vamp of the program.

-If there was much doubt from their CCC performance, Notre Dame is for real. They rolled through pool play, and watching score reporter yesterday, it looked like they were with Georgia until half, only giving up a few breaks later in the game.

-ECU? They went 3-1 in pool play and with a 12-13 loss in the quarters, were the only team not named Jojah to put up double digits on Notre Dame. We played them in the finals at Wolfpack in the Fall, but they’ve got to be pleasantly surprised by how well this weekend went for them.

-On the flip side, NC State can’t be happy. 1-3 in pool play and a 15-11 loss to Wilmington in pre-quarters makes me wonder what the deal was, and I’ll go ahead and make the obvious guess that they had some guys out with injury. Just a guess, though.

-Davidson went 4-0 on Saturday, and after being ousted by Wilmington in quarters, wound up beating UNC on consecutive days. I’ve heard a lot about the talent on this team due to Conger and Robert playing club with Guiller, and I hope to see them play in Texas.

-They missed the finals somewhat handily, but by the look of it, Wilmington was the third-best team at this tournament. Their pool play games weren’t all that close, and getting to semis doesn’t look like it was too hard either. This is one of those teams that I really hope we play before Regionals.

-Despite a tight first half with Rage in the finals, Georgia more or less skated through Queen City, as neither pool play nor the bracket had any team finishing fewer than three points behind. All-Region talent Greg Swanson and Peter Dempsey are likely to garner some Callahan talk, and from what I can tell, they didn’t graduate all that much last year. I’d pay to see them play Florida right now.

-UNC seems to be experiencing some real growing pains from the loss of Mat Thomas, Josh Torrell, and a number of other seniors from last year. Their two losses to Davidson, along with being blown out by Jojah in a rematch of last year’s backdoor final affirm what the suspicion that there’s really not a clear frontrunner for this third Atlantic Coast bid.
-In other news, I didn’t see Clemson or JMU beating William and Mary.

All of this said, I’ve yet to make the glaring note that it’s only February, so I'll save my more ambitions prognostications for practice tomorrow. As of now, Florida and Georgia look to be regionally dominant, with Wilmington, Davidson, Duke, and Virginia adding their names to the mix of possible challengers that already includes UNC and NC State. A few teams will be at Hellfish, Ultimax, and the Peter van de Burgt Classic, but I’m really looking toward Centex for any major shake-ups in the current outlook.


Funny quote: “Stay tuned as Brown is schooled in one of few universal truths of modern life: People don't like it when you beat up Rihanna.” If you’re from Seattle and don’t read Last Days in the Stranger, you’re missing out.

Vegas

This tournament really wasn't supposed to happen for us. UVA has always gone to Queen City, but after a certain captain slacked on his rsd game and another never really stepped out of his sheer ignorance, we found ourselves in the mid-December conundrum of having missed the bid deadline. What then started as wishful thinking spawned by a disregard for both grades and finances turned into a serious consideration, and before we knew it we were flying out of Richmond on Thursday afternoon.

First of all, this was Vegas. Excitement and shenanigans abounded, and I tried to document them with daily emails to the UVA list, as neither our B team nor the girls team accompanied. I'll keep this entry mostly frisbee-based, but it seems that with this city, business and pleasure intersect with ease. Tomfoolery like...

...us playing Wisconsin first thing Friday morning. We didn't really know what the pool play situation was going to be, but since we were only listed with Harvard, Oregon, and Whitman, it figured we'd have some games added. We just didn't really see one of them being the defending national champs. As a team that's been making steady progress with regard to who we're comfortable playing, a first-round matchup with the Hodags was welcomed. Sure, everyone knows how good they've been since returning to the finals at Nationals in 2006, but with that in mind, what could there be to lose? Couple that their graduation of a large class of elite club caliber players, and really, what's the worst that could happen? With the warm weather, the lights, and the mountains already putting me in a great mood, I couldn't have been more excited as I went to sleep on Thursday night.

Friday
Wisconsin [10-8]
We got to the fields more than an hour early to warm up, and after the usual plyos and drills, wound up starting the way we prefer: on defense. Wisconsin came out horizontal, pushing two cutters pretty far to each side and having either Jim Foster or Ben Feldman initiate with a horizontal cut that then either came under or went out, with the other mirroring. Throughout the game, I was particularly impressed by how good a job their handlers did of cutting consistently throughout the point, minimizing poaches and getting creative with resetting the disc. All of this seemed to be clicking for them. But then, they crossed half field. One of their handlers threw an errant flick that floated, and Dagley layed out to stop a trailing Hodag from picking up the trash. Turn. After a swing or two, Robert bombed the disc to a streaking Jesse, who was making his first appearance since pulling his hamstring just before ACC. On one hand, the deep shot worked out well: two throws later, Peter caught our first break, taking our already-high intensity to another level. On another, it was the end of Jesse's first and only point in Vegas, and the beginning of what will hopefully be a quick and actual rehab.

The same wind that made games virtually unplayable later in the day stayed calm throughout the rest of this one, but if there was any downwind, it was with us on the next pull and we took the score to 2-0. Wisconsin then held, and the O line got its first run. We held first, but once the score got to 4-2, they broke us twice in a row. Sure, they were a bit off with their own throws and cuts, but we definitely caught glimpses of their D being both complicated and well-orchestrated. They played our cutters in a whole lot, which allowed the deep game to open up after a swing or two, but we did hit trouble here and there when they poached actively. Stalled disc movement led to our real problem, which was uncharacteristic drops on both an in cut and a dump as a result of the disc being forced a bit. One thing I took away from this game: with a team that plays so physical, you've got to trust your dump set to run the wrap, especially if you're dumping it into the middle of the field; doing so just makes for much higher percentage throws.

At the risk of turning this into a soliloquy on our win over Wisconsin (who went 3-6 on the weekend), I'll wrap up the rest of this game quickly. They took half 7-6, and we held to start. Our D then ramped things up and earned a break, doing it again on (I think) the subsequent point. A hold from Wisco made it 9-8, and with the hard cap sounding our O took the field knowing that a score meant a win and a break from them meant double game point, something I didn't realize until well after things had ended. The wind kicked up and there were a number of turns, but after a nice deep D from Greg on Foster and some patience on the goal line, Robert punched it in to Tom for the win, 10-8. A couple more things from this game: For one, Matt King played like an absolute beast. He ripped a couple of floaty discs out of the air, got a few layout blocks, and just as a Stanford guy on the sideline remarked to me about just how nondescript Matt looked, pulled in a layout callahan that, if Rob stays true to his promise, we may be seeing soon. Also, as the game got closer to cap, Wisconsin tightened up and made a travel call or two, but for the most part stayed competitive without the cost of becoming complete dicks. I dig it, and on that note, on to the next game.

Oregon [7-9]
I remarked afterward that I felt like we were in control of this game throughout... until we lost. We started the game with a break and they started it by yelling at each other, but after a hold from their O, we couldn't convert on the endzone line and we gave it right back. The wind started to garner more attention, and they just completed more passes than we did. Both Dusty Becker and Eli Janin are fantastic throwers, and something that worked really well for them was their willingness to throw blades and no-looks. I figure that with that kind of wind, turnovers were inevitable, so this kind of thing was smart strategically because the chance being taken was at least one that, if completed, put the disc where only an Oregon receiver could catch it. Regrettably, the game also got a bit heated, and though the blame can be evenly doled out to both parties, it took us out of things mentally. Combined with what was definitely over-exuberance after our win over Wisconsin, the arguments and useless comments led to a loss of focus, and probably a lost game. Having figured Wisconsin would be our toughest game of pool play, I guess dropping this one was affordable, but still, we felt quite frustrated going into our bye.

Duke [6-9]
After an hour and a half break, the wind had made itself the centerpiece of the tournament by the time this one started. We changed fields so that we were oriented directly up-down wind, and after losing the flip, we knew we'd have to get a break to win; If only we could attribute our loss to the wind and the wind only. The gusts made throwing more than 15 yards upwind extremely difficult, and each pull from Duke landed in a blade that then circled 180 degrees and starting rolling back toward them. On offense, all we had to do was punt the disc into the endzone if there was any trouble because we could count on a turnover from them giving us good position. Holds came from each team, and we started to think about how we could get our break: Greg and Robert agreed to put Conger and me in on D so that we could look to work the disc up for a score, but before we could do it, we had a multiple-possession swill point that ended with them breaking us, 3-5. In all honesty, they earned the break because they were much more tenacious in attacking the disc in the air regardless of a possible bounce or misread. More than once, we swatted it away only to have it picked back up and caught by a Brimstone guy. With the wind at their backs, another Duke break came easily.

We more or less lost hope after their D line scored, and with the cap quickly approaching, didn't get it together in time. A few O line guys did go in on D, but it was too little too late, and even though we were beating them upline consistently, working 70 yards just wasn't happening. The shitty thing, though, was that it was happening for them, and the game ended on us getting broken once again. Like I said, as much as I'd like to blame the wind, them pulling off three breaks to our none is more than enough to prove that we straight up got outplayed. For me, this game emphasized just how timid we can get in the wind, with our sidelines dying down and our movements on the field slowing. Good teams come to play frisbee regardless of the conditions, and if Regionals ends up happening in a below-freezing snow storm, we've gotta be more ready than we were against Duke.

Clarement [5-4]
This game was kinda cool for me because it was the first of three in which I got to play against Northwest kids: Riley MacPhee and Logan Schumacher play for Claremont, Jeremy Norden and Chris Hansmen are on Whitman, and Casey Ikeda just started with Las Positas. For the most part, though, our spirits were still pretty low, and as the score indicates, this game was by no means a pushover. Robert went out with some cramping and our D line stopped converting, but toward the end the O made even things out by giving up two breaks. Claremont played a three man cup with an extra guy guarding the dump, leaving the break side of the field completely open as an unlikely target in the wind. We got trapped on the sideline a lot, having to look upfield late in counts because our crashes were ineffective. On double game point, we turned it at least twice, but Max finally made a real boss grab on an errant huck that was tailing sharply away from him, and after he dumped it to me I threw the score to Justin for the win. Though we had started out on a real high, the day had turned sour quickly, so a final win was definitely useful in looking toward Saturday with optimism.

After hotel showers, brief naps, and dinner at a next-door restaurant that induced a discussion on exactly what it would mean to earn GB points, we hit the strip. In sum, non-stop lights, drinking, gambling, and vice make for a pretty cool tournament nightlife.

Saturday

Whitman [10-5]

As good a thrower as Jeremy is, he really only had one or two receivers to help him out, and this game didn't give us much trouble. I did get handblocked after trying to throw a high release backhand in the same manner as I had two throws earlier, but it was a nice reminder that defenders react to what you as a thrower do, so mixing it up is always beneficial. Also, I got them back with some of my nicest flick hucks of the weekend.

At the start of the Whitman game, the weather didn't look so bad. It had rained a bit and was chillier than Friday, but nothing too unreasonable. This all changed during our bye: the skies opened up and gave way to downpour, and the temperature dropped as the wind returned. We huddled under the hotdog tent, putting our faces and bodies up against the grill in an effort to pick up any warmth possible. Seriously, shit sucked, and most of us wouldn't have been too upset if games had been called instead of warming back up and trying to cut in six inches of mud.

Las Positas [13-6]

Miraculously, though, the clouds gave way to sun, and by the time this one started, the rain had stopped for the day. (Proof of a frisbee God: I wasn't missing this kind of opportunity in a years-old trashtalk saga, and this wouldn't have been a Night Train experience without a debate over SOMETHING [fucking Frenchman's Mountain]). Our D was strong for the first half, taking it 7-1. We may have gotten broken in the second, I'm not sure, but the quick handler game that I expected from LPC was slowed by the mud. Casey told me he had been playing with a pulled hamstring, and I think they'll be helped once he's at full health and clicking more with the other cutters on the team.

Harvard [9-8]

The winner our match-up with Harvard would take second in the pool, meaning stronger competition on Sunday, a big deal when you fly across the country to play. Add to this last year's Roll Call results (double game point loss on Saturday, 2 point loss on Sunday, with us holding a late lead in each), and this game was a pretty big deal. We started the game with two breaks on D. Robert was doing a good job guarding George Stubbs, their focal point on each side of the disc, and we were connecting on deep throws as well as we had in the Wisconsin game. Our O, though, got a bit comfortable with the lead, and we misfired enough times to give them a break or two back. Personally, this was my weakest game of the tournament. I had a few nice long throws and was working upline regularly, but I can count at least three turnovers that would have been avoided with a bit more patience. Coming out of half, we got broken again. And then again. I'm not sure what happened next, but the score was 8-8 and the cap went on. The line was Robert, Greg, Justin, Peter, Conger, Healy, and myself, and after some nice work between the handlers, Robert hit me in the endzone for the score.

We didn't win Regionals, but there were smiling faces all around after this one, and I couldn't let go of the disc for fear of parting with the feeling of satisfaction held in the moment. After what we would all consider to be a disappointing Friday, we had done all we could to put ourselves in the best place possible by the end of Saturday. The up after a feeling that was so down certainly reminded me of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at ACC, but it also did more than that, epitomizing the emotional transience that I've come to see as part of growing from a decent college team into a really good one. Last year, we dropped a lot of close games because of an inability to maintain fortitude as the pressure mounted. It's obviously only February, but the contrast of our meetings with Harvard last year and this time around was heartening.

We soon got wind that our games the next day wouldn't be starting until 11:30. In-n-Out. Walk. Calm down, Svet; Good God, Robert; Jump, Mullins! I love Las Vegas.

Sunday

Western Washington [4-8]

My tour of west coast teams with people I know and played with this summer had one more stop. While not as cold or wet, the wind from Friday returned a bit, and with the mud remaining, Sunday was sort of a blend of the previous two days. On top of Matt Knowles and Nate Castine in particular, DIRT has a few good handlers who move the mark and throw to space well, and with Wiggins and Andy Lovseth coaching, they're both disciplined and good at making adjustments. They came zone against us, and we worked it well at times, but as the score indicates, this game wasn't that close. For one, showing up 20 minutes before game time with a hangover and Jack in the Box breakfast sandwich can't help. But I saw a few of them out on Saturday night too, so that's really no excuse for our poor play. In all honesty, they just outplayed us and our D line couldn't fight the wind enough to get back the breaks that the O gave up. I did, however, throw a rather sizable scoober, which took a lot of focus considering I was fighting a breakdown from Alan's heckles that revolved around not-so-favorable comparisons to my brother. Anyway, I hope we play this team at Centex.

Stanford [9-8]

Last game of the tournament. We came out with two breaks, but after that played pretty uninspired ultimate. As with a number of other teams, their zone gave us some fits, and after swinging it patiently a few times we would either drop a dish or jack a swilly huck. Pretty dumb, really. Personally, I played a good defensive game, coming up with a few layout Ds, but as an O line player, I'm not sure how celebration-worthy such a thing is. On their end, handler movement was the name of the game, as none of their cutters was all that impressive. They had one guy in particular who was everywhere for a few points, and a few others that worked hard and with effect. Bloodthirsty took half up a break or two, and were at 8-5 once we started expecting the hard cap horn to blow. Then we scored. Then we scored again. Then, on a downwind pull, one of their guys absentmindedly hit the disc out of the air and onto the ground, so why not go ahead and score again. 8-8. On double game point to end the tournament, Stanford worked it all the way up before Healy came up with a HUGE footblock for the turn. An out-of-bounds huck from us, however, gave them the disc right back, but after a couple of swings one of their guys dropped an open pass. I'll say it now: while I hate a bad cheer, and "We scored! YES!" certainly qualifies, seeing both the pull mishap and this drop gave me the sad feeling I get when someone on the other team drops a pull and we get an easy break. Not that I'd rather feel a loss, but still, it's unfortunate. After a bit of movement from us, the wind picks up a throw to the endzone and looks like it's gonna float over Peter's head. Justin Webster, however, had different plans, matching Healy's block with an equally HUGE sky for the win. The cheers and handshake were pretty anticlimactic by virtue of the exhaustion felt all-around, but the win felt nice nonetheless. Our record against teams from last year's Nationals: 3-0.

So that's our Trouble in Vegas. 6-3 on the weekend, breaking seed from 21 to a tie for 13. After Stanford, we headed to the finals to watch Florida spam Colorado 13-11. They were actually up a lot more when I left for the hotel (10-6 I think?) and started to put their rookies in, so if anyone knows how this got close (and yes, the rookie thing may answer my question for me, but I figure the ol' Broderick and Co. would have done something before it got to that point), I'm curious. Before I go, a few more thoughts...

Best Players

Bearing in mind that I didn't see a number of teams play (CUT in particular), my top 7 is the following:

Brodie Smith (Florida)- While it's hard to take someone who looks and conducts himself like an absolute neanderthal seriously, I'm not sure that there's anyone more physically dominant. None of the guys on Florida other than him impress me with their disc skills, but with Brodie running the show, they get it done.

Mac Taylor (Colorado)- Aside from length and athleticism, I like how quickly and decisively he moves to space. Also, his downfield throwing in the Final got creative, beating Florida's zone a few times. I want to see Colorado play more, but when the going gets rough on them, I expect that he's going to have to shoulder quite the load.

George Stubbs (Harvard)- I'll say this: If you want to beat Harvard, you've got to be able to deal with Stubbs. The dude is electrifying, lightning quick and with throws and ups that can compete with anyone.

Dusty Becker (Oregon)- As I said earlier, he's just a damn good thrower. But he also came up with a few big skies and Ds against us, and he seems to be a strong leader for Ego. Also, I liked his beard.

Nate Castine (Western)- I was most impressed with Nate when I watched him guard Mac. Even while staying with a top player, he's got the field awareness to rack up poach Ds without being caught out of position. His field vision and positioning really impress me.

Evan Klane (Wisconsin)- Amidst Wisconsin's woes on the weekend, I thought Klane was a positive. As the center handler in their offense, he touches the disc all the time, breaking the mark and dropping pinpoint throws while rarely turning it over. And I really like his throwing form.

Robert Runner (Virginia)- Ask anyone who's played us and they'll tell you that Robert is the real deal. Blah blah blah, same stuff that's written on RSD about whatever school's best player every year. But really. Robert's just allright at ultimate.

Other Random Shit

• As far as how the tournament was run, I didn't have any major qualms. I don't really need LCD screens to tell me how games are going and I'd have liked more merchandise at the Five tent and a few of our fields were absurdly long, but really, the event didn't go as poorly as WarmUp! had me fearing it might, and while I don't need that many teams at all of the tournaments I go to, the scale of Trouble in Vegas made it memorable.

• The major story of this year's college season so far has got to be Wisconsin's poor showing, but I doubt I'm alone in saying that I think they'll be fine this year. With as many new players as they have, they certainly won't be the juggernaut they were last year, but still. The Hodags will be good...

• Which leads me to my next thought. Florida won the tournament but had an earlier loss to Carleton, who beat Colorado, who lost to Oregon, and on and on. The obvious point here is parity. Last year, Wisconsin didn't lose until Centex, and already every solid team in the country has a loss...

• ... except for Georgia. Queen City just finished a few hours ago. Thoughts on that are in the works.
  

OUT.

ACC

Shit's getting hectic and, as Brooks said today, The Man is looming. Still, I had hoped to get this up last week. Oh well. Vegas is this weekend, so read it while you're wishing you were there with me.

The idea to put on an ACC tournament came about over a year ago, and after no one stepped up and put it together in 2008, UNC and their broken-footed president made it happen. We were pretty hyped on this from its inception, as news came over break that the effort to make this tournament a cutting edge and user-friendly event would include a couple of unique features, the most compelling being experimental rules. Sure, some of it seemed like fanfair for the sake of fanfair (we never did get programs, and the stats were kept in a pretty inconsistent manner), but overall this the changes gave the whole thing a cool feel. Also, after watching this type of thing at Solstice, I was really excited to get a chance to play in that environment myself.

New stuff aside, it turned out we were still there to play the same old game of Ultimate. The biggest impact that I noticed the modified rules having was the speeding up of the game, as quicker pulls and very little time to argue calls had things moving smoothly. A lot of people wondered about travels in particular, but there really weren't many calls at all (sorry, Frank), and when there were any, play resumed almost instantaneously. Overall, I give the whole active calls/refzervers thing pretty high marks.

Alright, onto the games. This was only a ten team tournament (Boston College didn't come because Greg creeped out the entire school, and Miami... well I got nothing) with three fields, so there were just three games to play on Saturday.

Saturday

Wake Forest (13-7)
Wake is kind of in a weird spot of having two or three really talented guys and then a lot of other people who seem to be young and losing. That, and young Dagley quit. Offensively, I don't remember all that much from this game other than the fact that things were flowing effortlessly and I didn't turn the disc over. Our defense wasn't firing at its best, but we brought enough pressure to induce drops-a-plenty, and were cruising by half time. I think we got broken once after half and wound up trading a couple times, but this game was never really a concern.

Clemson (13-4)
Clemson took NC State to 11-13 and they looked really tall and athletic, so I figured we might be in for more of a game than most people were thinking. I turned out to be wrong. They have Ben Slade, who posts a lot on rsd and is good at skying people, getting Ds, and throwing break throws. Other than that, though, we didn't have many problems. They were cool guys though, and one of them said to me during the game (jokingly, of course) that he didn't like us because we were too fast. I thought that was pretty cool because I guess I've just never really stopped to compare our speed as a whole with that of another team; speed is usually something that I only think about relative to individual match-ups and, more specifically, how other teams' fast players can be neutralized with positioning and the like. Not that I don't think about speed in a game that centers around running and running fast, but you get the point: hearing it from an opposing player was cool.

NC State (5-13)
Nothing to see here.

Move it along.

We won't be talking about it.

Ok, ok. So this game... it was a nightmare. I played really shitty, somehow deciding that it would be a good idea to force the issue against their zone rather than work it patiently. They ran a standard four-man, but were pretty physical on our crashers, making us hesitant to stick to the cycling that we know works. Aside from my own throws, us getting static lead to coughing up the disc a lot near our own goal line, meaning quick scores were pretty easy for their D line. Before we knew it, we were down 0-3. Then 4, then 5. It was like a flashback to the old days (I'm thinking second year) when the breaks just kept coming and coming with everyone feeling pretty helpless about it. Finally, I put a huck to Conger and he hit Justin for the score to stop the bleeding. For the time being. Things stayed crappy, and yeah. We lost. I don't want to dwell on it, but all things concerned, I think that NCStateonSaturdayofACCs will go down as a very, very important teaching moment that sparked some important thinking about our offense for the rest of the season. I'm just glad it happened on Saturday.


Sunday

Virginia Tech (8-13)
Shit was COLD. Real cold. Our first game was against Virginia Tech, who none of us really like since they put us out of Sectionals two years ago. We came in thinking that the game wouldn't be so bad and that we had put the shitshow that was yesterday's loss to NC State behind us. Unfortunately, we were wrong. We traded for a few points and broke first, but our zone woes soon caught up to us and they took half 7-5. They held coming out, and I think we got broken thereafter to put them at 9. I personally felt a lot better than I did against Wolfpack (understatement much?), but I still threw a few turnovers that were far from necessary. I don't know. We lost, something like 9-13. It sucked, plain and simple. Nevertheless, because Clemson's only victory was against Wake, we knew we'd take third in the pool and play the two from the other, which was...

Florida State (13-3)
They had a good Saturday, upsetting Duke and playing UNC close, but by Sunday they were down to 12 guys, two of which got hurt during our game (more on this in a sec). They were really reliant on just two guys, Rook and David, both of whom were impressive but unable to pull the rest of the team up to their level. Most of their cutters just had a hard time knowing what to do with the disc once they got it, and since they were so low on numbers, they tried coming zone but to no avail. While this usually wouldn't even be a victory really worth commenting on, it wound up playing a big part in getting us fired back up. We restored some confidence and were ready to bring some swagger into the semis. Good thing, because it was a rematch of the previous day's debacle.

NC State (13-9)
Pretty sure I covered this, but I really can't overemphasize how demoralizing Saturday's loss was. Sure, the Tech game meant more with regard to pool play finish, but for some reason I was able to make excuses for that one. NC State, on the other hand, had dismantled us so handily that it was embarrassing. So on Sunday, we weren't even talking about revenge. We were talking about redemption.
Each O held for the first two points, but we broke to go to 3-2. Intensity was high for us as it was, but I really don't think we were losing from that point on. I think they held once more but after that we broke two or three times in a row, eventually going to half at 7-4. They certainly weren't happy with themselves, and we knew that they would look to come back in early in the second half. Their O line ran a few zones off of a turn, but to no avail. Their D started coming man, and when teams go man, we have no problem. They broke us to get as close as 9-7 (I think), but from there we kept things rolling. The game got chippy once we were at 11, but that's really to be expected, and is something we need to get used to. The game ended on an IO huck from me to Conger, a connection we've been improving on ever since the 3 turns, one point incident at Philly this summer.

UNC (13-9)
A finals match-up with UNC was what we had both hoped for and expected before the tournament. After a long couple of games, I felt great during the warm-up, and more focused than I had since Clemson. We started the game on O, and while I expected them to come with the poach-heavy handler defense we've seen from them in the past, they stuck our guys pretty close. Robert put a backhand huck to Justin, and we were on the board. Our O remained crisper than it had been all weekend, and our D was playing with more intensity than ever. Layouts were coming from all over the place, and once their cutters got the disc, they had few options outside of a dump. Ryan, typically an O-line guy, was given the assignment of guarding Lucas because of his speed, and he did a great job of simply sticking with him and not letting him be responsible for any big gains. As a team, UNC doesn't have too many holes, but they really don't have all that much firepower outside of Lucas, Noah, and Weeks and some really strong role-playing seniors. One thing I'll say about this game is that it progressed incredibly quickly. There were very few calls, little down time between pulls, and not even that many turns from either team. Probably a result of Mike G observing.
I was really impressed that as the game got closer to finishing, the O line cleaned up and the D line ran even harder. All we had to do was sit on our lead to close things out, and we did just that. Their final O point took a couple of possessions for them to convert, as I recall us forcing at least two turns. Receiving 12-9, we marched it up pretty easily, with Robert hitting Greg up the line for the game and tournament win.


ACC was UVA's first spring tournament win since Queen City 2005 (spring break my first year aside). Given how low the weekend got, getting that trophy and celebrating was a tremendous high. We all came away with a since of just how badly we could beat ourselves, but more importantly of just how well we can play when team-wide focus is all there. Sure, it was only January, but it felt good.

That's all for now. I wanted to get this up before Vegas, and at 7:30am PST Friday morning, Feb. 6, here it is. I'm gonna try something different for this tournament: daily updates so I avoid letting them pile up. We'll see.

Vegas, baby. Vegas.