Going into Regionals, this is it, the entire season has been leading up to this weekend. With the team hoping to reach nationals, the squids enjoyed playing with each other in this tournament. Unlike usual 9:00 am tournaments, we started playing much later with our first game being at 1pm.

The first day was extremely windy making many throws unpredictable and more frequent turnovers. We started off hot beating ASU 13-4. We were all very happy with the work put in by defense, getting a lot of breaks and conserving a lot of energy for the matches ahead. After this exciting start the squids hit a rough patch playing against UCSC who qualified for nationals. Although we started off badly, getting broken straight away, the squids did not give up and fought all the way, finishing with a score of 7-12 for UCSC. We then faced off against the Feds of SDSU, the squids started with slightly low spirits due to the previous match, SDSU stayed close for the first 3 points. Then coach Fyla took a timeout to tell the squids to focus up which made the squids gain control over the rest of the game finishing with a score of 10-4 for UCSD. 

After these three eventful games, we moved on to quarterfinals facing a very strong UCLA, even though we managed to break them on the first point, they were very consistent and took advantage of the turnovers we gave them finishing up with a score of 15-8 for UCLA which finished off the day with still a spot for nationals ahead of us going into the third place bracket. 

Having been knocked out of the championship bracket, the squids were in the 3rd place game. It was win or go home if the squids wanted to make it to nationals. Just like the first day, we started the second day with a great game against Stanford. We had great teamwork on defense and we managed to keep a streak of breaks against them. This overwhelming victory over Stanford of 13-6 ignited the fire within our squids’ three hearts, having just sent another team home from the competition. Next was the rematch against UC Santa Cruz and with the significantly less wind, the squids hoped for an incredible upset. With some great skies, layouts, and Ds, the Air Squids put up a great fight against the Slugs. However, the Slugs’ consistency and height outmatched our efforts resulting in a 9-13 loss. Having been knocked out of the tournament, our final game was a fun one with UC Santa Barbara, who were in a similar situation. The squids got the opportunity to play some fun lines, including a hat line, a big boy line, a short king line, and most importantly, multiple fish lines. On the final point of the game and of the year, Gummo, our only senior, would score his final point for the squids to win us the game 9-6.  While the squids did not qualify for nationals, with only one senior leaving, the team is only going to get stronger next year and we will definitely be coming for a slot at nationals.