This past Saturday, the first day of finals week, marked the annual Turkey Tax tournament hosted by the University of San Diego Ultimate Club, the Flat Tax Ballers. This year, out of unfortunate coincidence, most of Squid Lite had finals that day, but those who showed up put so much energy into the tournament that the low numbers didn’t matter. Most importantly, this tournament was our beloved Trefo's last tournament before graduating and leaving the team. 

The day got off to a rocky start, with the first game being the familiar Cal Poly Pomona Cows, who threw a zone defense at us. Due to it being early in the season, we had not practiced zone offense at practice yet this year, and we were out of our depth. However, determined to improve in the next game, we kept our heads up. 

The next game was against the Point Loma Loman Empire. Like CPP, they utilized a zone defense that made the game difficult for us. However, there were some major improvements in our composure with the disc and our movement in this game, and despite a 2-13 loss, we were excited that our offense was starting to take shape. A huge moment in this game was when Yaps saw that a deep throw was being thrown and immediately chased after the opponent going deep, catching up and getting the disc before the opponent could and causing a turnover that led to one of the two scores of that game. 

After a lunch break, we got ready to play the Cal State Fullerton Phantoms. This team played a familiar man defense, so our regular offensive system worked wonders. Almost every point, we forced a turnover and ran a clean offensive system. The highlight of this game was when Trefo left his defender in the dust, scoring a deep shot goal. We won the game 13-3, and went into our last game feeling confident. 

Our last game of the day was against the host, USD. Although this team also played a zone defense, we were ready for it, finding holes in the defense and working it steadily up the field. This game our rookie TiDo made a big defensive play in the endzone, grabbing the disc over two of the other team’s players. Because of the team’s fluid offense, we ended the game on a 12-3 win. 

Finally, we said our goodbyes to Trefo, and went home happy with our performance and improvement. We are excited to get even better as a team in time for our next tournament in January.