UCLA One-Day, Once Again: B-Co Edition
The second UCLA One-Day tournament of the year started bright and early, as UCSD Berserk Coalition (B-Co) hit the road at 6 AM. For this developmental tournament, they split into two teams: O-line (Team Y) and D-line (Team X). With 5 games scheduled for each team and only the possibility of a bye, it was going to be a long day for everyone. But the energy was high and everyone was excited as they took their respective fields at the start of the tournament.
The O-line team’s first opponent was the Claremont Greenshirts. B-Co came out strong against the team, with some early scores, and even though Claremont came back with a few goals of their own, it wasn't enough to stop B-Co's 7-4 domination. By far the most memorable point was Ashley "Ladle" Shen's incredible Callahan, which had the whole team celebrating. The next match was against SDSU, and despite some great hucks from the opposing team, B-Co’s offense showed that they could also play some fantastic defense and ended the game with a 6-2 win. Once pool play was over, O-line joined with D-line to play a rookie only game against UCI. Although everyone gave it their all, UCI took the game 6-1. For the first game of bracket play, Team Y went up against UCLA and gained another 6-2 decisive victory, taking them to the tournament’s championship game, which was a rematch with UCI. By this point it was clear that B-Co was getting tired; however, they still left it all on the field. This was especially true for rookies like Nicoletta “Ness” Gagliano, who kept up the intensity for 5 straight games, sprinting to every disc on every point and making constant cuts. The final score was UCI:7 - Team Y:3. Even so, O-line came home successful, with a second place finish and so much improvement from every player.
The day began much differently for the D-line team. They had a bit of a slow start against their first opponent, Occidental, which led to an 8-1 loss. However, the team learned a lot and made adjustments that they carried through the next games. The second round saw D-line matched up against UCLA. Although B-Co lost 7-2, they implemented zone defense, worked on offensive cutting, and gained yards with their clean upline handler movement, demonstrated by handlers Marisa “Cascade” Viola and Ava “Nala” Beisenstein, all of which would help in further games. The improvement was definitely obvious during the rookie only game versus UCI, as the rookie players were clearly more comfortable with the disc than they had been at the beginning of the day. After a bye, it was time for the final game: a rematch against Occidental and the perfect opportunity to put all the day’s development to work. Team X’s zone defense was especially rock solid, shown by returner Cate “Zyn” Stone’s six D stats in a single point. With multiple extremely long points, this was a hard fight. Yet D-line never let up and played a terrific game, with rookie Evalie “Dice” Rehor scoring the universe point to clinch the 6-5 win.