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Sunday's Results
By Greg 'Paco' Pierce and Dave Samuels
Photo Credits: Owen Caprell and Elizabeth Henry-Hooker
QuarterfinalsThe morning opened a bit cloudy, bringing hopes that the weather would not be quite as scorching as had been seen on Saturday afternoon. A light breeze picked up just as the quarterfinals began, but it never got strong enough to be a major factor in the games.
The ladies of NemesEx had finished Saturday strong, and looked to bring that momentum into their game against Mint. The Seattlites had not been significantly challenged on Saturday, and when the game opened, it appeared that their A game was still cuddled up in bed, sleeping soundly. Behind the powers of legendary names in the game’s history like Nancy Glass and Michelle Boardman, NemesEx would not be denied, and rode an effective game of smart possession O and opportunistic D to an 8-6 halftime lead. Mint apparently realized that they were going to have to win the game, and they played the second half with the clear intention of doing just that. Mint ran off 4 straight to get to a 10-8 lead, and while NemesEx did score 2 of the next 3, it was too little, too late, as Mint scored the final goal at the cap for the 12-10 win.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s Well Done and Atlanta’s Spinsters were trading points back and forth. After Spinsters jumped out to a 3-1 lead, the game was then tied at 3’s, 4’s, and 6’s. The play was a bit sloppy, but neither team could take advantage. Well done managed the break to take half 8-6, and came out for the second half determined to play a better brand of disc. Cutting down their turnovers was all that it took, and it led to a fairly easy second half, and an 11-7 final count.
The Team Formerly Known as the Peppers, from Philly, and San Diego’s Safaritarians, played an absolute barnburner. The Peppers led the whole way, but every lead was answered by a Safaritarians run, from 2-0 to 2-2, 4-2 to 4-4, and so on. Behind Philly legendary names like Nurit Bloom and Tracy Berg, the Peppers slowly built their lead to an 11-8 advantage. San Diego mounted a furious comeback attempt, but they ran up against the time cap and came up short, final score 12-11 Philadelphia.
Schwuz had the only comparatively easy quarterfinal. Local team Hot Flash opened up with a 2-1 lead, but Schwuz answered with a vengeance, running off 12 straight. Hot Flash finally got back on the board, but the game was capped when Schwuz scored next for the 14-3 win.
Semifinals
Heading into the semifinals, it would seem like the top two seeds, Mint and Schwuz, were destined for a Clash of the Titans-level battle in the finals. Both had stormed through Saturday undefeated and relatively unchallenged, and the safe money was for that trend to continue. Well Done had not been in top form on Saturday, although they had clearly stepped up their play as the tourney progressed, and Mint had easily handled The Team Formerly Known As The Peppers 9-6 in their crossover game Saturday afternoon.
But that, as the eponymous They have been heard to say, is why they play the games.
Mint vs. Well Done
Well Done received the first pull and marched in for the clean score. But that was the last clean point that would be seen for a while, as the deteriorating weather conditions led to a bout of missed connections and fairly easy drops. But Well Done always seemed to pull it together and improve their field position with each turnover, and they continued to capitalize on Mint mistakes to pull out to a 5-0 lead.
With the lead continuing to increase, Mint kept pressing and making mistakes, always looking for the single throw that would somehow erase a multi-point deficit. Well Done, on the other hand, seemed to get their groove going, drastically reducing their unforced turnover rate.
This feedback loop seemed inescapable for Mint, who kept trying to punt their way back into the game, while Well Done’s defense kept rising to the occasion time and again. For the first time all weekend Well Done resembled the Rare Air teams of yore from whom they drew most of their roster. In particular, Jana Krutsinger, Leah Brooks, and Marley Steele-Inama kept the disc moving, while Ally DeBastiani started putting down roots in the end zone, she was spending so much time there.
While Mint stars Abbi Nilssen and Val Dion kept trying to drag their team back into contention, it seemed a futile effort. Well Done simply kept their foot on the gas, and while the teams roughly traded points from that 5-0 start, Mint could never close the gap, and Well Done ended up with a stunningly easy-seeming 13-6 victory and a spot in the finals.
Schwuz v. The Team Formerly Known As The Peppers
Schwuz received pull to start the game, but couldn’t score the upwinder to start off. The Peppers turned it back over, but got it back again and managed to score a downwinder to start the game off. The Peppers tried a zone against Schwuz’s downwind offense, but Molly Barnes used the wind to her advantage, hitting Val Hamm with a long backhand rip for a quick score and a tie game.
The teams traded points to 3-2, but the first break came when one of Schwuz’s handlers got greedy and tried to punch a forehand through the middle of the Peppers zone. A nice layout D resulted, and Peppers fast-broke for a 4-2 lead. Schwuz seemed a bit rattled, and an early drop led to another quick break, and then another, and suddenly it is 6 to 2 Peppers.
Coming off a timeout, Schwuz turned the disc over again, but were able to get it back and score to pull within 3. The Peppers responded with a quick score, and on the ensuing point a Schwuz huck was just out of the receiver’s grasp, and the Peppers punched it in to take the half 8-3, and it looks like another upset is in the making.
A rare unforced error by the Peppers O led to Marissa Dunbrasky catching a quick goal to get Schwuz back to 8-4, but Kathy Heyman responded with a big layout grab to keep the Peppers’ offense alive on the ensuing point, and after calling a timeout she set up an offensive set that ended with another goal, 9-4 Peppers.
Dunbrasky made another great catch in the end zone, this time a big layout when a huck got away from the thrower a bit. Beth Wise threw a goal for the Peppers to keep the lead at 5. Schwuz put on a bit of a run, closing it to within three twice, at 10-7 and 11-8, the latter coming after Schwuz’s Dunbrasky showed that she wasn’t just a receiver, sending a big cross-field hammer over three defenders. But it was all for naught, as Schwuz simply couldn’t put together enough consistent points to keep the Peppers out of the end zone, and The Peppers rattled off two straight for another surprising final score, this time 13-8 Peppers, setting up a final few would have predicted when the day started.
Finals: Well Done vs. The Team Formerly Known As The Peppers
As the finals began, typical summer late-afternoon Colorado weather conditions (a.k.a. thunderstorms) were on the horizon. Although the fields were never subjected to more than a quick squall of cool rain, the attendant steady wind would definitely have an effect on the quality of play in the Masters Women’s final game.
The Peppers started the game strong, as Alison Cohen got a D on the first point, and then Mary Catherine Arbour pulled in a huck for the 1-0 lead. On the next point, the Peppers got another end zone block, but Well Done’s Ally DeBastiani made a D on the first throw of the ensuing possession, then caught the goal to tie the score.
Well Done seemed to have taken the momentum they built in their semifinal deconstruction of Mint and kept it rolling right into the finals. Their handlers possessed the disc with cool and aplomb, but seemed to have an almost preternatural awareness of the exact right time to take the big shot downfield, and Anne ‘Pogo’ Pogoriler and DeBastiani were getting blocks and catching scores with near ease. Even when the Peppers’ D tightened, Well Done simply went into possession mode, swinging the disc back and forth 10 or 15 times across the field until the downfield shot was open.
Well Done built a 4-1 lead, including a couple messy points, and forced a turn on the next point. But The Peppers’ Karen Martin got a quick handblock, and the ensuing fast break led to a Peppers score. Each team continued to force turns and get chances, but the net effect was trading points to 6-3 Well Done. By this point, the worst of the weather seemed to have passed overhead, and the sun reemerged. This seemed to energize the Coloradan squad, who followed the lead of Leah Brooks’ defense to a two-point run and an 8-3 halftime lead.
The Peppers, perhaps appealing to higher powers, or perhaps trying distract their opponents’ focus, engaged in a halftime line-dance fest, but even the powers of Garth Brooks’ Friends in Low Places could not hold back Well Done on this day. Much as they had against Mint one round earlier, Well Done’s success bred further success, and their confidence led to better defensive effort and better offensive results.
At 11-3 the Peppers switched tactics, trying to huck their way back into the game, but it was clearly not a style they were comfortable with, and Well Done quickly capitalized on the resultant turnovers to finish the game in style, with yet another Pogoriler D leading to DeBastiani layout score and a 13-3 win in front of the appreciative hometown crowd.
Saturday's Results
Womens Masters
By Greg 'Paco' Pierce and Dave Samuels
Photo Credits: Owen Caprell, Elizabeth Henry-Hooker, and Tim Morrill
2009 saw the return of the womens masters division to the Ultimate national scene as the UPA staged the Men’s Grand Masters and the Women’s Masters National tournament on Saturday. The Women’s masters divison has not had a nationals tournament since the mid 1990’s. Fifteen teams from around the country traveled to Denver, Colorado for a weekend of competitive disc, bonding with old teammates, and renewing friendships with competitors from years past.
Seeding teams for nationals was difficult, since there was no qualifying tournaments leading up to the tournament, and none of the teams present were made up of a group of women playing together for the 2009 series.
Most teams have not practiced together in many years, if at all. Therefore the advantage during pool play seemed to be with those teams who had previously played together as a competitive unit.
Round 1
Round 1 went entirely according to seed, with few competetive games. The exception was in the B pool,
where Portland’s Schwuz took a while to get their legs underneath them against Dallas’ That’s What She Said. Although Dallas kept the game close, Portland was able to hold out for the 10-9 win at the time cap. The other three #1 seeds held easily, with Boulder’s Well Done showing the home field advantage with a 19-8 win over Austin’s Extended Warranty. Seattles Mint and San Diego’s Safaratarians won out easily as well.
Round 2
Pool A continued to go to seed, as Boulder’s Hot Flash won 13-5 over SXNE, a cleverly-named combo squad of players from the South and the Northeast (the reference is to Austin’s annual SXSW music festival). Schwuz continued their dominance 13-3 over Honolulu’s KapakaHI, the only team to have to cross an ocean to get to the tournament, a situation they are undoubtedly quite used to. The three-team Pool C went to seed also, as The Team Formerly Known As The Peppers took it to Extended Warranty 18-7. San Diego also rolled to victory, while the Ozone alumnus-heavy Spinsters started strong with a 13-3 win over the Bay Area’s Nicely Stacked.
Round 3
Round 3 saw the first major upsets of the day, as the overall sixth-seeded Philly (formerly Peppers) took out Boulder’s Well Done 16-14 to win the three-game Pool C. Not surprisingly, the game was nip-and-tuck all along, with neither team ever able to put together a convincing lead. In the end, Philly’s intense D line was able to force a key turnover and put the game away. Similarly, in Pool D, Atlanta’s Spinsters put up a 13-10 win over San Diego, a minor upset of seed. In Pools A and B, however, games continued to play to seed, but the decisive 1v.2 matchups would not happen until the next round.
Round 4
The weather took a decided turn for the worse as this round began. Colorado’s infamous afternoon thunderstorms made a grand appearance in the distance. Lightning was clearly visible between the lovely field complex and the Foothills west of Denver, and some ground-level rain obscured the mountain views. It appeared possible that a weather delay might be in the works, and the intensity was evident as every team tried to get a lead before possibly having to take to the cars for an extended rest, which would undoubtedly allow muscles to tighten and fatigue to set in. To make matters worse, the wind began to pick up, blowing decidedly parallel to the fields and making upwind goals a suddenly-hot commodity.
Mint and Schwuz continued their pool dominance, scoring 12-6 and 13-7 wins, respectively, over their pools’ 2 seeds, Hot Flash and Chicago’s NemesEx. For Mint, in particular, the wind seemed to work to their advantage, as their deep throwers were able to pin Hot Flash against their end zone line after turnovers, and chilly offensive possessions led to easy upwind goals. In Pool D, Spinsters scored an occasionally-ugly 13-8 win over Madison’s And Your Little Dog Too, completing their sweep of pool play.
Round 5
Although the storms avoided the fields beyond a light drizzle, the wind really accelerated during the final round, when crossover games occurred which would decide seeding in Sunday’s first-round quarterfinal games.
Neither of the 1v.1 crossover games got particularly near the target score of 13 goals, primarily due to the severe wind and the efficient defensive sets all four teams threw on. Although the Peppers were quite game, they never really threatened Mint, who ended up winning 9-6 at the cap. Mint’s strong throwers were simply more than Mint could overcome.
The second game was somewhat more competetive, as Atlanta’s Spinsters used a variety of deep looks, combined with a strong underneath game, to keep tight with Schwuz, but the Spinsters appeared to tire late, as Schwuz ran away for a final score of 11-7.
Not all of the remaining crossover games were so strongly affected by the gusting breeze. Boulder’s Well Done made good use of their fourth-round bye to recover from their loss to Philly. In this case, their revenge was exacted on Pittsburgh’s Prowl 13-7, allowing Boulder to extract some measure of satisfaction from the state of Pennsylvania, even if it did not quite make up for the previous performance. NemesEx notched an identically-scored victory over Madison, in a game which was never particularly competetive after Chicago scored a couple upwinders to open the festivities.
The other two crossover prequarters also went to seed, as Safaritarians and Hot Flash emerged victorious, completing the bracket for the quarterfinals Sunday morning.
Quarterfinal Preview
Far be it from your humble reporter to hazard predictions, but this has been a very chalk tournament so far, and nothing in the quarterfinal matchups appears likely to change that performance. The matchups are:
Mint v. NemesEx
Spinsters v. Well Done
The Team Formerly Known As The Peppers v. Safaritarians
Schwuz v. Hot Flash
