This past weekend the mighty Air Squids started the first of the series on their path to Nationals with the SoCal Sectionals in SLO. This was the beginning of the end where any mistake could make or break the rest of the season. While we are in it for now, work will have to be done for a nationals showing.

Day 1 started off fairly windy creating a big divide between playing upwind and downwind. Our first game was against Loyola Marymount University which played out as expected with a 11-5 win with a nice warmup into the long weekend ahead. The wind spiced up the game causing many drops and erratic throws though both teams had adjusted to this 15th player by the end of the game. Game two was against our in-city rivals in San Diego State and though we faced them a few terms early season, it had been a while since last playing them. The squids came off to a commanding start taking the first half with ease, although SDSU wasn’t out yet. While the squids were lacking in the latter half, SDSU brought it back to 13-9 final score in favor of the Air buddies. That would be the last warmup game of the tournament, as we went into the final game in a pool with the number one seed themselves, Cal Poly SLO. The last time we met, the air squids took the game to universe point. The game once again started pretty close and stayed that way throughout, though with a few crucial breaks, SLO came out on top with 15-12 win over the mighty squiddos. 

On Day 2 of Sectionals, the squids started off with a tough match-up, UCLA.  The notorious SLO wind continued on Sunday, which made it difficult to score many goals throughout the day.  Against UCLA Smaug, the squids could not keep up with their fast small ball and handler movement, so we were unfortunately knocked out of the championship bracket with a loss of 8-13.  Moving into the second place bracket, the squids of air faced UC Santa Barbara Black Tide. The past two times the squids faced this team, we went to universe point with them, and this time was no different. This time, the Air Squids won on universe point 9-8 against Tide, following a couple of ten minute long points, constant bickering, and one dislocated shoulder.  Having won, the squids would have a rematch with Cal Poly SLO, who were recently upsetted in the finals by UCLA.  Unfortunately, the Air Squids could not keep up with SLO’s unstoppable break mark throws and complete mastery of the wind, resulting in a loss of 8-15. While the squids were disappointed with the 3rd place finish at the tournament, this sectionals proved to us that we could face any nationally ranked team, and play them close, leaving a good feeling in us going into regionals.