After over a year of delayed play due to COVID-19 the UCSD Air Squids are finally back. This past weekend, October 16-17, the Air Squids traveled to San Luis Obispo to compete in the postponed SoCal College Conference Championships (Sectionals) in order to secure a spot in the regional tournament later this year. 10 teams from Southern California competed in this tournament including teams like California Polytechnic State University (SLOCORE) and UCLA (Smaug). The Squids came into the tournament as the 4th seed but were determined to break seed by the end despite being in a tough pool with 2nd seed UCLA and 5th seed USC. 

Pool play began Saturday morning as the Squids faced off against Cal Poly-SLO’s B-team (SLOB). The first half remained somewhat tight as the Squids tried to get their rhythm going after their one year hiatus, ending the half up 7-5. However, the Squids came ready to go at the start of the second half and thanks to solid performances from rookies and experienced players alike, the Squids pulled ahead for a comfortable 13-7 victory. The Team’s next game was against Loyola Marymount University (LMU) and the Squids were ready to go. The offense and defence were both sharp from the beginning and the Squids easily beat LMU 13-3. The next match would prove to be much tougher as the Squids faced up against 5th seed USC (Lockdown). The game was a physical battle from the get go as USC quickly went up 3-1. However, thanks to great handler defence by the rookie Tyler May, and a solid offensive performance the Squids battled back to go up 7-5 on the half. The second half proved to be no less difficult, as Lockdown continued to fight back. However, the Squids battled well and were able to maintain their lead and won the game 11-9. With this win the Squids secured a spot at regionals and a place in the winners bracket. 

The final game of pool play was against 2nd seed UCLA Smaug. Both Smaug and the Squids were undefeated coming into this match so the winner of this game would be the second seed in the winner’s bracket. Unfortunately, this game did not go how the Squids had wanted. The wind proved to be a crucial factor and the Squids struggled to score against UCLA’s zone defence. By the half, the Squids were down 5-7. The beginning of the second half was a similar story as Smaug went up 10-7. At this point, however, the Squids began to adapt to the wind and scored 3 breakpoints in order to tie the game at 10 a piece, sending the game to universe. Unfortunately the Squids could not get another break and Smaug scored to win the game 11-10. With this loss, the Squids ended pool play with a 3-1 record, and would play Cal Poly (SLOCORE) in the semifinal game on Sunday. 

Going into the second day of the tournament hopes were high that the Squids would finally be able to topple the unstable giant of SLOCORE. Those hopes were wrong. The dropping epidemic followed us throughout the weekend sadly as the team just couldn’t keep up with an overall faster, more dedicated team. This may be the year the Air Squids take the region and SLO’s head, but this wasn't the tournament. It was a good game to start, but it soon got out of hand right after half as they ran three quick breakpoints to put themselves up five. The Squids bounced back but not enough; sadly the relentless handler D by SLOCORE kept us in check all game resulting in a 13-7 scoreline. Highlights would have to be Bernard Suwirjo (Bisquick) putting his body on the line for a swing that never went off and the SLO moms on the sideline talking trash while having no idea what's going on.

The Sunday UCLA game went much better than the previous day’s. The more we pushed them the more they bent. The only eventful part of the game was when the UCLA coach confused the 85 seconds we have to discuss between points for an 85 minute lunch break. Having her whole team meet in a huddle mid field as if there wasn’t a game going on. She probably wishes there wasn’t one as the Airsquids continued to break them over and over throughout the game having athletic and height mismatches with every line called whether it be offense or defense. The Squids rolled them quick 13-8 and continued onto the SB game feeling a lot better with their frisbee played. Highlights would have to be Stefan Samu (Dent) getting two D’s to pad his plus minus the first point of the game, and Jordan Bacharach finally getting some cleats to wear for a few points just to sky all the UCLA players.

Going into the UCSB game for second place in the tournament, the team knew they had to take things seriously from the first point. Putting up three to start definitely checked the egos of our friends over at UCSB (Black Tide). Black Tide tried every trick in their bag to stay with the Squids, but it was for naught. Michael Huang (Lumin) of course was caught in the middle of the pettiness with his handler D being the cause of more than 7 contact calls! In the end, the Squids won comfortably 11-7. Highlights would have to be Dent relentlessly dominating his individual matchup, and the sideline energy on each point as the Squids made crazy plays. 

It was a tough weekend playing seven games over two days, but the team, only being able to practice seriously twice previously, showed great signs of improvement. Each game it seemed like the guys got a feel for what to expect and become a better squad. Weekend MVP: Max Gibson (Agapito) and his beautiful haircut, LVP: Lumin and his atrocious plus minus, sadly while also sporting a similar masterpiece on his head.