4/12/25 - Squid LITE treks to Bakersfield for Dev Regionals
DEV REGIONALS ‘25
The Air Squids LITE made the long trek all the way to the middle of nowhere Bakersfield for the last tournament of the year, Dev Regionals. The pressure was on, a whole year's worth of practice and play lead up to this tournament. LITE had to place top 2 in the tournament otherwise the LITE dream would be over for the year.
After the long drive to Bakersfield, the Squids rested Friday night for a bright and early 7:45am start for the tournament. The Squids first opponent was Arizona State B with the Squids starting a bit cold but getting into the flow of things. Good fundamentals and standout plays from Nick “Yermo” Palmieri and Joey “FanFan” Toscano kept the Squids tied up with Arizona at the half. But following the half and long drawn out game, the Squids lost their momentum after a series of foul calls from Arizona State that disrupted LITE’s momentum and game flow eventually leading to a heartbreaking loss of 6-8. Although it was a frustrating loss, LITE was poised to persevere. With no byes for the day, ahead the Squids pushed on.
The game was against their familiar foe, UCLA B, a team the Squids had faced many times before. In games past UCLA B had beat LITE with their physical offense and defense with 2 handlers running deep hucks. At regionals the Squids faced a new side of UCLA with clean plays and solid fundamentals. LITE was once more incredibly competitive until the half, trailing by one point until the half. Unfortunately after the half the Squids lost some steam and started dropping points like fleas. UCLA were able to exploit the open space under when LITE forced under and threw perfect throws when Lite forced deep hucks, scoring points with ease. Aahil “Spade” Keshwani and Jeff “Taz” Lewis tried to invigorate the team by leading some spirited sideline cheers and calling some “kill” lines (lines with seasoned returners) but LITE inevitably fell to UCLA 7-12. The boys at Squid Lite had no time to look down, and hurried along to the next game against USC.
Lockdown, who was another familiar opponent, ran a zone defense against LITE’S horizontal stack, clogging the passing lanes and leaving many defenders putting pressure on the handlers. But great disk movement by Connor “Bday” Wu, Hillel “Gambit” Avital, Qianli “Tsunade” Wu, and Arda “Baby Maz” Gurel allowed Squid Lite to poke holes in the zone. LITE had a handful of great plays, seeing great consistent sky catches from Yermo, Fanfan with an ungodly endzone toe touch, and a cross field hammer throw to Collin “Apollo” Ong from Tsunade. The Squids led initially, and went into the half trailing by 1. But like in the UCLA game the Squids slowly lost momentum and began to make sloppy mistakes which inevitably caused USC to grow their lead, resulting in the Squids losing 8-13. The Squids, although saddened, fought onwards to face the final opponent of the day UC Santa Cruz B.
UC Santa Cruz B (also known as Ooze) came in as one of the favorites for the tournament and the Squids knew this would be a tough match. The players on Ooze had amazing fundamentals with great disk placement on all their throws, catching the Squids off guard with some of their pinpoint-accurate hucks. But the Squids’ solid defense and disk movement would sometimes embarrass Santa Cruz, leading them to call multiple early timeouts. The Squids played their heart out, keeping pace behind one of the tournament favorites but alas the Squids were exhausted after playing 3 games prior and eventually lost 8-13. The Squids had their heads held high despite ending the day 0-4, knowing that at their best and most consistent, no other team could compete with them.
After a long afternoon reflecting on the first day’s performance, the Squids rested up to tackle the final day of the tournament. The Squids would play against a familiar foe, the SDSU Bomberos, who had lost to UCSB Blackout the previous day. LITE was hungry for revenge from Sinvite two weeks earlier, where the Bomberos barely edged LITE out on an intense final point. As usual, LITE were the first ones on the fields to begin warmups. Something about this Sunday morning brought about a special energy amongst the team.
Everything was clicking. Cutters were finding themselves open at the right time. Handlers were dishing the disc with the purpose. The disc was getting pushed up the field, just as the day before, but this time with a confidence that kept the disc from getting turned over. The Bomberos were scrambling for answers, coming out in zone defense in response. Still, the offense did not miss a step. Cutters stretched the field horizontally and vertically, creating gaping holes for the handlers to throw to. At the same time, handlers patiently moved up the field with poise. The Squids were dicing up the Bomberos like mangoes at a fruit stand. On the defensive side, the Saturday jitters were gone. The marks were doing their job preventing throws to the break side, and downfield defenders were in relentless pursuit of their matchups. At one point, Casa snuck from behind his defender to knock down a disc, which turned into his goal on the following possession. This time, defensive stops from LITE did not slow down the game but ignited LITE to push the disc down the field promptly. Squid LITE crushed the SDSU Bomberos 15-4. All the hours of practice, intense scrimmages, and exhausting tournaments from the year led up to this final game. And LITE showed up.
It was a bittersweet moment. Everything came together; just one day too late. Yet, it was a testament to the brotherhood that was forged throughout the season, starting from the excellent training from the coaches to the passionate leadership of the captains and guidance of the team’s most senior members. Every challenge brought the Squids closer together and made LITE a stronger team. So, despite the final tournament of the season ending not as expected, the Squids proved to themselves that their ceiling was so much higher than what the final standings would show.
