From February 17 to 19, 2018 the UCSD Women’s Club Ultimate Frisbee’s A-team hosted their annual Presidents’ Day Invitational. Teams traveled from all over the country to compete at sunny San Diego and fight to be inaugurated as the next champions. 11 out of the top 25 teams in the nation competed in this three-day extravaganza.
The only team that is of any meaning, however is our very own UCSD Psychos, who started the tournament as the 5th seed. The first day was a huge success, beating UCLA (12-5), Northwestern (14-4), and Oregon (13-12) to win their pool for the first day. Going into the Oregon game, the team was slightly nervous since they haven’t played this team in 3 years. This was apparent from the beginning when the score was 1-4. The Psychos were struggling to keep up. After a friendly talk with our coach, the team knew that they had to buckle down and really start playing before the game would be too far-gone to be able to come back. That talk was all the team needed because they started fighting back for all they were worth. Creating turns and sending the disc to the endzone, the Psychos were not about to roll over. By the end of the game the team managed to finish with one last goal to win the game. It was come-from-behind victory to win the pool and end the day with a 3-0 day.
The second day brought Berkeley (12-4), Minnesota (9-6), and UCLA (11-6) as challengers. One great play that stuck out was Dena “Chrome” Elimelech playing great down field defense and getting an armpit D and a foot block all in the same 19-minute point! Although they were slightly tired and sore from the previous game, the Psychos managed to win all their games, ending the second day with an overall win/loss of 6-0 so far.
The final day was the toughest by far, challenging the #1 seed Stanford in semi-finals, then the #2 seed Texas for 3rd place. The Stanford game was tight the entire time with both team swapping points and both teams racking up turnovers. This day was different from the others in that there were strong, gusty winds blowing throughout the day, making it very hard to throw accurately. Not only this, but the main handler and captain Leanne “Muse” Go got injured the previous day and joined her partner Stacy “Aero” Tran on the sideline, meaning this game had to be played without our two captains. Despite their best efforts, the team was unable to make their win come true. They did however take notes and are preparing for the next chance to play Stanford. The game result was 9-11, 3 points shy of a win. The Psychos took their intensity into the game for 3rd place against Texas. The last game of the tournament ended well for the Psychos with an 8-6 win over Texas in the wind.
Stay tune for my next article about the Psychos at Stanford Invite where they will once again fight to defeat this mighty foe!
-Kelli “Krypto” Iwamoto