Now that I've had time to clear my mind, take many naps, and rehydrate, I am ready to think about our team this weekend. It was an amazing experience and a great way to end my regular season of the senior year. We only lost one game this weekend - and it was only by one point. One point. One stinking point.
UBC:
Flywheel has not played UBC since my freshman year so going into this game was a mystery. We didn't know really anything about them, who their handlers or cutters were, what type of game they ran, etc etc. But we came out strong and we came out to win - and that is what we did. It was a hard fought game on both sides but in the end, our defense is what won us that game. We had a great D from one of our rookies, Lizzie, in the beginning of the game to set the stage. UBC was an extremely spirited team so it was a lot of fun to play against them. They are definitely a good team - no need to count them out of the NW region
Wisconsin:
In my entire Flywheel career, I have only beaten Wisconsin once - and that was in the fall of my freshman year. Not to mention that our past two losses to them have come on Universe point. I don't know what it is, but Michigan has always had a mental block against this team. Coming off of our win against the #1 seed in the pool, Flywheel was fired up to play Bella Donna again. This game was a combination of us beating them and them beating themselves. They had many uncharacteristic throw-a-ways and they were extremely frustrated. Combine that with us finally playing defense against this team and the final score was 15-5. Finally, Michigan had made an improvement.
Carleton:
We were the third seed in our pool and Carleton was the fourth seed - but we were both battling to take the pool. The first half was close. They got one break and we got one break to stay on serve at half. However, at halftime we decided to start the game over. We were getting beat up the line by their handlers and playing to their style. After half we came out strong and got a break to further our lead and then we never looked back. Carleton always amazes me at how good of a team they are but extremely spirited and NICE. They play classic ultimate: dump and swing, handlers moving the disc, and cutters looking for it. They don't try anything too fancy but they excel at what they do.
End of the day on Saturday:
We won our pool. It was an extremely amazing feeling. For once, we got to shower and eat dinner before other teams because we had a last round bye. I like that feeling and would love to continue getting byes
Iowa State:
We saw Iowa State at Easterns and we went down 7-1 against them. When we found out that we would be playing them in pre-quarters, we got extremely fired up. We wanted to show them that it was a fluke and we don't normally play that terribly. And that is what happened. We fought and fought until the final score was 14-9 and we were moving on to quarters. They are definitely a strong team and have some very good players. But it was time to focus on Flywheel getting through to the next round.
Iowa:
Again, last time we played them (at Easterns) we went down 5-1 against them. Yikes. We knew what we had to do in order to beat them. But, we let this one slip away. They took half 8-6. We came out strong in the second half with extremely intense defense, but time was the issue. We tied it up at 8s when the hard cap went on. They were on O. It took them forever to score, but they did - ending our hopes of going to semis.
Stanford:
We were not going to let our loss to Iowa ruin the rest of our day. We still had two more games to play and we wanted to get 5th place . First on our list was Stanford. I had to go get my foot taped during the first part of that game and when I came back, Stanford had taken a time out. The reason? We started off on defense, forced a D, and then scored without any turnovers. This happened three times in a row. (Maybe I should leave the game more often...?!) Flywheel showed that we were not going to let one loss hurt us and ended the game 10-5
Washington:
All of the returners were extremely excited to play this game - Washington beat us last year 15-13 in a hard fought game at Natties. We wanted our revenge. The game was up and down. We went on a three point run. They went on a three point run. We traded points until we broke them to take half 8-6. The second half was going to be extremely critical so we needed to excel. And that is what we did. The final score was 13-10 and Flywheel had placed 5th at Centex!
*Side note about this game: I was incredibly incredibly pleased with Element. Not only are they a talented group of ladies but their spirit was unexpected. I will be honest and say that I did not enjoy playing them the past two years - but this year was very different. All of them were extremely nice and made good calls. They played and fought hard the entire game. It was so much fun to play them and I would love to play them again. This was one of the biggest surprises of the weekend for me.
Thoughts about the weekend:
What a great great weekend! Finally, Flywheel was stepping up to be the team that we knew we could be. We still have a LOT of work to do, but it was nice to see the reward for all of the work we've put in so far. Many players stepped it up this weekend and showed that we have an incredibly deep roster. Our offense clicked and our defense looked great. We shredded zones this weekend. Additionally, this was the first time that I finally felt back (well except for the part of playing only 1 point during the Stanford game due to my foot hurting...). I felt quick and sharp, especially on defense and loved that feeling. We only have a month until Regionals which is not that many practice days. Flywheel will be at it looking to improve yet again from this tournament to keep up with the other teams.
Let's do it
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