Santa Barbara was UCSD Women Ultimate- Berserk’s first official tournament! It was a learning tournament to see how our players - rookies and returners- could play together in a competitive environment. Although not everyone could make it, we had a strong turnout of 23 players.

The tournament was a bit of a mess on the part of Santa Barbara’s Sports Club. We got settled into our motel Friday night and fell asleep to the sound of pouring rain. It continued to rain throughout the night. When we got to the fields, some of our players got their cleats and socks soaked before the SB Sports Club informed us that the grass fields, which our games were assigned to, would be closed until further notice. We headed out to lunch and spent the day in our motel room.

They eventually informed us that we would be able to play 3 games from 7:30pm to 11:00pm on their turf fields which only fit 4 regulation size ultimate fields. The games were also cut short to only 65 min per game. We warmed up and played our three games without incident or weather disruption.

Our first game was against OSU at 7:30pm whom we had never played before! Their team was high energy and we met them with equally high intensity to quickly score the first 2 points. However, they came from behind to snag the victory 6-11.

Our next game was well fought against UC Santa Cruz’s only women’s ultimate team (their “A” team). They came out fast and threw a defense that we had not yet practiced with the rookies. We discussed the main points of UCSC’s defensive strategy and managed to score 4 points for a final score of 4-11. UCSD’s Men Ultimate Team also managed to come out to support after having all of their Saturday games cancelled.

Our final Saturday game against Sonoma State was a hard fought game especially considering that it ended at 11:00pm. Unfortunately they got the upper hand and ended the game with a score of 4-6.

For all Saturday games we took a quick 2 min half time as the games were already shortened and our players were itching to play after the long day of waiting. After our last game, we drove back to the motel and quickly got everyone showered and to bed.

Our game on Sunday began at 12:15pm and was against CSU Long Beach. Our team began the game with less energy than the previous day, but a quick time-out followed by an energetic cheer brought up the intensity in the second half. We brought the disc to the end multiple times, but couldn’t send it just a few more yards to a completion in the end zone. The game ended sooner than we would’ve liked at 0-11.

All in all, the weather was unfortunate, but everyone still had a blast playing against higher level teams with great spirit. Our rookies rose to the occasion and really showcased everything they had learned in practice. Every single player left having improved and the team left being closer than when we arrived- that is all we could ask for.