Trouble in Vegas
Here is a recap of the weekend. Arrive in the City of Sin only to find out our casino hotel arrangement had been overbooked. That means, upgrade to the Penthouse Suite!
On to business, Game 1: Rematch of Nationals 2005, first game, Harvard Red Line. A windy and dusty morning makes for an upwind-downwind type of game. We get our breaks early, but drop an unwind pull to give 2 breaks right back. As the game goes to the wire, a zone D point finds Shane “Busta Bust” Hohenstein 30 yards out of position as the deep D. The deep jack goes up and Shaner makes up the difference, gets the D, and straight steamrolls the dude, Roger Rabbit style, Sick! We get more breaks by means of Tom Burkly hucks and at 10-8, the cap sounds. A 10-9 win first game to shake off the hay, I mean rust.
Game 2 versus Las Positas is not as stressful, and we even let their coaches play. Our defensive offensive finds its rhythm en route to lots of breaks and a 13-1 victory.
Game 3 versus Kansas. After what seems like an eternity of a bye round, we run off the stiffness and get pumped to play Kansas, with whom we have a little bit of history. We come out super pumped and jump all over the unsuspecting Horrorzontals. With the dropped pull we roll to a 5-1 advantage before they can patch the leaks. During our run, we get a timeout at stall 6 on their goal line. When we can’t reset, Scallet desperately rockets the disc at stall 9 straight through the front of the end zone where Drew makes a huge standing reaction layout with a fingertip catch just past the defender for the break. With half at 7-3, we lose that initial energy but manage to hold on 13-10. Dan “Q-tip” Miller makes his second huge layout of the day, 5 feet off the ground Jedi levitating with his feet over his head on a Mr. Wolfe. It was pretty awesome.
Game 4 versus Northwestern. We get reseeded and prepare for our fourth and final game of the day. As the sun sets and the lights turn on, the climate and sun have taken their toll. It seemed as though everyone was pretty lazy through this game except for Tom Animal, who was busy getting ridiculous layouts at about nipple-high, almost maiming several players on the sideline. For some reason NW was playing really hard and was spiking the disc almost every chance they got, too bad it was a 13-7 smack down…
Nightlife: Most of the team made it to the Bellagio and Freddy even managed to win ~$100 in 3 hands of blackjack. Pretty sure the rest of the team lost money, especially our injured players Lang and Tripoli, who managed to stay out all night and arrive just in time for our wake-up call. Now that’s dedication.
SUNDAY: After the reseeding, we had the opportunity to play the winner of UCSD v. UCSD and after that, the winner of Colorado v. Florida, pretty sweet competition, props to the tourney format.
Game 5 versus UC Santa Barbara. Another fairly windy morning and we came out of the gate slow again. Finding ourselves down 0-2, we fight our way back into the game, by way of Drew Mahowald getting double happiness with a sky D and huck catch goal. Lots of zone later, we find ourselves up 11-8. All we need to do is finish, so obviously, we choke and at 11-10 the cap blows, so onto universe point with the winner Florida keenly watching. However, double game point is not nearly as exciting as it could have been, due to a SB defensive mix up, leaving Miller running free to the end zone. Muffin to Miller to Heijman, game 12-11 Hodags.
Game 6 versus Florida. How long have we waited to play Colorado, we will have to wait longer. Then again, Florida was more than we could handle. As much as I completely dislike Florida, they are damn good this early in the season. This was actually the finals of bracket play for seeding and also the first game of the weekend where neither O nor D kept us in the game. However, Lokke had super sick layout D on a hot cross field hammer to some kid called Rook, Will got like 4 feet horizontal off the ground. Overall, it was a crappy game; lots of zone, long points, heated discussions and break chances. However, offense went 4/8 and defense went 0/4 and the game was capped the first point after half. Our numbers had dwindled to only 18, but the loss only affected seed for Sunday, now #3.
Game 7 (Prequarters) versus George Washington. After another long bye round we had our last game of Sunday. Pretty sure, this game was another smack down. 13-7 is too kind, seeing how we went up 5-0 before GW had even completed the hitch on offense. Adam Drews, play of the weekend: after stopping the 1st several hitch throws by hustling down the field, Adam applies the meanest hit I’ve ever seen on the ultimate field. A 2-catch disc goes up and a GW player and Lokke are converging, but neither sees Drews streaking in from the other side. They both jump and Adam unknowing to either’s presence undercuts this kid at full speed. GW does a 720 side twist spin tuck double axel in mid air and sticks the landing, with the first words out of his mouth being, “I’m not okay with that!” I surprised he survived uninjured because the impact was just ridiculous.
Nightlife: Team dinner at Olive Garden and lots of passing out, way to go out with a bang in Vegas guys!
MONDAY: Game 8 (Quarters) versus Arizona. Yeah, I said Arizona, the Sunburn! The biggest surprise of the weekend. But they earned it, beating Oregon in prequarters with a great game plan. The saying is: all you need is one break to win a game if your offense is perfect. Well, that was the case; the first non-windy morning and both teams play super chilly offense. Offense scores first, defense gets the quick break, and both teams are flawless the rest of the way out. Actually Jimbo and Miller get 2 huge blocks to keep the O perfect with Foster catching hammers and just bombing the disc deep, 12-10 Hodags on the cap.
Game 9 (Semis) versus central region archrival, loathed antagonist, hated enemy Carleton. I’m not even going to get into how much I hate Carleton. But this game sets the stage for that fateful Sunday morning come May in Iowa City. When the game started, the wind had picked up considerably. We jump to a 2-0 lead before the zone and wind make for a 30+ minute point. Both teams burn their timeouts before half, and oddly enough, the game doesn’t even make it that far. CUT manages a 5-3 lead and at 6-4 the cap sounds. Game over, 6-5 CUT. Glad they capped the game with a solid 2 hours before the final. Make sure to see Riley's travel call on Ultivillage clip of the day. You can't pivot from your butt...
Game 10 (3rd place) versus UBC. We agree to only play to 11 and those tricky Canadians only decide to play a couple points serious before putting in the scrubs. With an 8-2 lead Tom Burkly pulls out his staple ‘UltiVillage Sky’ and we take home 3rd place with an 11-5 drubbing.
Overall, 8-2, 3rd place, a sick tournament format in a sick location with our only losses on the weekend being to the teams in finals who we only gave up a combined 14 points to. Back in Madison on Tuesday at 5:50 AM, woo hoo!
Link to bracket:
http://www2.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=122&id=2111
Mardi Gras in LA – 86 hours and counting…
