Game 1: W (15-13) vs Utah

Utah is a good team, and we knew going into the game that a slow start was not an option going into the weekend. Fortunately, we had a good, focused mindset throughout the whole game, making concrete throws with the disk and applying strong pressure on defense. We went into halftime down a point or two, and knew that we would have to tighten up defense in the second. Their handlers were quite speedy, and had caught us off guard a few times. But then by playing better and preventing them from attaining easy progress up the field we forced them to make less optimal throws, thus leading to enough turnovers to take the lead. One notable point had them stuck in their own endzone for several throws, before turning over on a shot upfield. We continued to make high percentage throws and close out the game with a 2 point lead. Shoutout to Captain Ethan “Tendy” Wang for going up in the sky on a floaty huck to seal the deal.  

Game 2: L (7-15) vs Washington

We aimed to continue the momentum from our win vs. Utah into this game. We started out on equal footing. Despite an early break in our favor, a fair few drops earned Washington a significant lead over us going into a half. Our energy took a significant hit, and we didn’t quite have enough in the tank to get ourselves back into the game. Feeling our deficit grow and grow, we ended up playing in a quite zoned-out manner, and were not competitive in this game. We talked in the huddle after this game about having the mental resilience to just move on to the next game and not let losses like this upset us. We still needed to win another game to get out of our pool!

Game 3: W (13-11) vs Virginia

This game was a battle. Both teams were 1-1 on the day and had to win to make the bracket. Hold after hold went through from both sides, so we were neck-and-neck for 90% of the game. With both teams trading calm and collected points, the first half felt like a heavy weight slug fest. We knew that the first team to make a break would gain a massive momentum advantage and open the floodgates. This is exactly what we did. Shoutout to Eli “Dewey” D’Amico for locking down their main handler for their handler-centric offense. Just as we predicted, their offense fell apart after the first break. After bringing on the pressure they messed up again and again, giving us a few breaks in a row, and the eventual win.

Game 4: L(11-15) vs Western Washington

They were probably the best team we played all weekend, and we played decently well against them. We felt the consequences of our uniquely small roster for this tournament, as most of our players were pretty tired and unable to play with their usual vigor. Unforced errors grew their lead slowly throughout the game, and we were unable to bring a defensive intensity that could fight us back into the game. Going into the half down two breaks, it felt we didn’t quite have enough energy to rectify our situation, and their lead only grew until we inevitably conceded the final goal. Shoutout to Saw-See for dueling his parallel mid-sized blond speedy dude, notably coming out on top in a long-ball to the endzone. 

Game 5: W (15-11) vs Wisconsin

This was a must win game for us, in order to have only one more game to play on Sunday. We delivered. The beginning of the game saw us trading holds, with both o lines looking clean but not perfect. Eventually however, we were able to earn a couple breaks to take the lead. Lock-down defense the whole game, clean offense, great sideline assistance gave us a significant advantage. We closed out the game in style, with the o-line playing a consistent and conservative game. This game was a grind for us, coming in with only 17 guys and losing 4 throughout the first day and half of this game, we finished the game with only 13 healthy players. 

Game 6: L (9-15) vs Utah

We were pretty beat up by the end of the weekend, but still wanted to finish confidently and with satisfying play. We were only down one going into half, and kept playing overall well for around three-fourths of the game. Towards the end we started to fall apart, in part out of fatigue from playing so many points over the weekend. As a result Utah was able to break away with a lead. But this is one of the things we came to the tournament to get more experience with – staying mentally tough and physically durable in long, low numbers games. So hopefully we can come out of this experience stronger than before. Shoutout to ex-captain Trey “Zeta” Scheid who had the stickiest of hands and made some very clean plays.