Game 1: Pomona Cows: With a few sanctioned tournaments on the horizon and Dev Regionals looming closer, Squid Lite traveled up to Pomona this past weekend to practice and prepare. The Squids started out the tournament bright and early Saturday, facing the Cal Poly Pomona Cows, a familiar foe who also happened to be the ones hosting the tournament. Coming off of a 12-4 loss in their last matchup with the Cows, they knew something had to change. The Squids initially tried running their new zone defense against the Cows; however, this would prove costly as they were easily able to break through the Squids’ cup and push downfield, leading to an early deficit. With insight from their captains and coaches, the Squids quickly transitioned back to their trusted man-to-man defense and saw near-instant success. The man defense fared much better against the Cows’ attack, while the horizontal stack offense pressured the Cows’ man coverage. The Suids ended up tying the game 6-6 going into half courtesy of two huge defensive breaks. The Squids began to fall flat in the second half as Pomona ramped up the pressure on defense. However, some offensive adjustments and a pivotal captain-to-captain connection from WayBac to Fan Fan brought them right back into the game. A 7-10 deficit was now 10-10, and with the fate of the “universe” on the line, the Squids sent out the best line they could muster. An early turn from the Cows sparked hope, but the offense was unable to convert, and the comeback fell just short in a tragic 10-11 defeat. Despite starting out the tournament with a crushing loss, the Squids proved to put up an incredibly strong fight against a powerful Pomona team that would go on to win the entire tournament.

Game 2: UCI Bedtime: After a crushing defeat on universe point to Pomona, the Squids looked to bounce back against UC Irvine. Unbeknownst to the Squids, Irvine had brought a large portion of their A-team roster, with only a handful of actual Bedtime players sprinkled into the mix. Either way, the Squids were ready for battle. Despite being outsized, the Squids fought and stayed true to their calm horizontal stack offense, leading to just a 5-6 deficit at halftime. The Squids came out in the second half a bit sluggish, and a few untimely turnovers felt like they could prove costly as Bedtime jumped to an 8-5 lead. With the soft cap soon to go off, the Squids knew they needed to give everything they had in order to fight back. With Casa finding the end zone on back-to-back points and Unc B-day dishing out numerous clutch assists, the Squids showed true resiliency, resulting in another 10-10 universe point. With the final point ensuing, the Squids sent out one last line in hopes of finding just one more break. Unfortunately, the lights were too bright once more, and a clean hold from UCI crushed the Squids’ hearts. Despite another 10-11 loss, the Squids showed they were capable of hanging with an A-team-level squad.

Game 3: USD Flat Tax was the final game of day one, which was exciting since the two teams have very good connections with each other through regular scrimmaging. During the first half the Squids were energized; coming off of two lost universe points, they really wanted to win. The Squids were looking extremely good with an 8-4 lead at halftime. They were keeping the disc in their hands and breaking their man and zone defenses consistently. The things that the Squids had practiced were paying off and were successful. One thing that contributed to their success was taking note of two of their fastest players (26) and one of their best throwers (1), which the Squids combated by creating good defensive matchups and calling “no big” to stop any deep throws from going off. The second half didn’t go as expected or as planned, as the Squids made multiple poor decisions that led to turnovers. They let go of the gas and allowed USD to catch up. The Squids underestimated their team, and with the game going to universe point at 9-9, they were luckily bailed out by the captain, Fan Fan, who made a spectacular one-handed catch over a defender in the end zone. This game served as a lesson to play hard, win both halves, and never underestimate the other team.

Game 4: Blackout: The Squids started our first match of the second day against UCSB Blackout. Having played this team previously at SBQ, the Squids knew that it was within their ability to keep the game close. Their main strategy was to force them under, as they had 2 tall players as well as 2 very quick players that could easily threaten the deep space. The Squids kept it close as the game was 4-4, but unfortunately after a couple of defensive breaks, Blackout pulled ahead to lead 7-4 at half. With a few key players having gotten injured on the first day and now unable to play, there was an obvious missing presence on the field as the squids struggled to catch up and bring the same energy into the second half. After a few consecutive breaks and scores from UCSB, the Squids fell 12-6.

Game 5: Our second matchup of day 2 pitted the Squids against UCLA Smoke, another team that they’ve become familiar with facing all season long. Starting the match, the Squids were met with a unique offensive formation from UCLA. It consisted of a vertical stack that was pushed to a sideline, tunneling their players to take up the huge middle space to have easier short passive passes. The game was a mix of big throws, with each team trying to beat one another in an athletic sprint downfield. However, it soon showed that if these throws couldn’t be completed, it would result in very long points. A combination of the sun starting to beam down and everyone bolting for the deep hucks left players from both sides feeling exhausted. These long points resulted in little scoring on either end, as it was just 2-5 as the teams headed to the sidelines for halftime. The second half continued with this aggressive style of play. Unfortunately for the Squids, exhaustion continued to set in, and UCLA’s size and quickness allowed them to take better advantage of the deep space, resulting in a tough 5-10 loss.

Game 6: USD + Claremont Tax Beaters: In the Squids' sixth and final game of the tournament, we played an exhausted Claremont team who ended up recruiting a few USD players for reinforcements. Given that Claremont had to forfeit the game in order to have the USD players join, the Squids decided to use this extra game as a way to practice their new zone defense. The game started out slow for the Squids as they traded points back and forth with neither defense being able to find a stop. A few spectacular catches and some calm offense led the Squids to taking a 4-3 lead going into halftime. Coming out of halftime, the zone defense saw great improvement, as they were finally able to limit Claremont from pushing the disc down the field. A Fan Fan assist to Wigglytuff in the back of the end zone concluded an 8-6 victory, officially leaving the Squids with a 7th place finish. With only two weeks until Southwest Showdown and just over a month until Regionals, the Squid Lite season is now full steam ahead.