Fall 2008

Dr. Seuss Memorial Tournament

Buffalo, Ny
2008-09-27


Penn State Fall Phling

State College, Pa
2008-10-04

Penn State Fall Phling Oct 4-5

Our focus of this tournament was personal improvement. We wanted everybody to get equal play time so they could enough time to work on their weaknesses. We came into the tournament seeded second and were seeded first in our pool.

Game 1: vs Franklin Marshall (15-2)

We started with man defense against their vert stack. Man defense is something we know we need to work on. We had several run through d's and some good flow on offense. We are trying to get people to play new positions on the field and, by doing this, we are taking people out of their comfort zone to try to expand their skill. When FM switched to ho stock, we just stayed on the force side at first. After a couple of points we tried to play a smarter ho stack defense. This is something we will need to work on more, but we did become a little more comfortable with it during the game.

Game 2: vs Delaware (15-3)

This team was seeded second in our pool. So we anticipated this to be our toughest game of the day. We started off strong and went 4-0. We continued to play strong and never let them score more than one in a row.

We took half at 8-2. In the second half we tried a trapped zone and put some people in unusual places. This worked well for us as we took 6 straight points after half. We let them have one more before we finished the game. During one point, Amelia (our only new Rose) stopped their first throw after the pull by catching it on the endzone line!!

Game 3: vs Princeton (15-4)

In this game, we had better flow and a lot of d's. We stepped up the intensity despite the wind picking up a little. Princeton did a little better against our zone than Delaware did, but we still played strong. There were a couple of points where we played great team defense and their thrower had no one to throw to!! We also had several points with no turnovers! Overall, we ended the day on a high note and were ready for bracket play on Sunday.

Game 4: vs Penn State (8-10)

We started on a 4-0 run and then they took a timeout. After regrouping, they switched out their newbies and played only their returners for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, they came out stronger than we expected and got two points quickly. The wind played a factor in this game and we traded point til half. We took half 7-4. In the second half, they were forcing us straight up and this hindered our deep game. Also, we were not double cutting. This combination left the disc with the handlers to dump swing it. With inexperienced handlers and wind, we were turning it over on the endzone line. They got five in a row to win the game.

Game 5: vs Princeton (13-2)

We used our frustration from the previous game to fire ourselves up in this game. We recognized that we still need to work on our man defense, but we still played hard. We took half 7-1. Our throws were better and we played with more confidence. We utilized their poachy defense to our benefit. It helped a little that we had played this team before and knew which of their players could do what. Overall, we had fewer turnovers and we won the game 13-2.

We ended the tournament in 2nd place.

Overall it was a great start for the Roses! Our B team, T-horny Roses played great! On the first day they only had 8 players, but that didn't stop them. Their spirits and efforts were inspiring. They played every single point with smiles on their faces. Sunday, they picked up two more girls but they only played one game. We are looking forward to growing our B team.


Purple Valley

Williamstown Ma
2008-10-18

Saturday- Pool Play Game 1 against Williams-X (15-3)

We came out slow at the beginning of the game. Williams had many new players but they were stronger than we expected. In the first half we had a lot of turnovers but we pulled it together to take the half 8-1.

After half, they got the first point by catching a swilly throw. We were trying new defenses and mixing it up on offense by putting players in new roles. By the end of the game, we were able to finish with a solid 15-3 win.

Game 2 against Yale (15-4)

Yale came off a universe point win against Tufts-X. They came out really strong and we traded to 3-3. We took a timeout and regrouped. When we came back, Preeti got the ball rolling with a great huck to Kelsey for the score. We really picked up the intensity which fueled our zone defense, forcing many turns despite lack of wind. We kept our fire to win 15-4. This game was our best of the day.

Game 3 against Tufts-X (15-1)

Tufts has been a fierce competitor of ours in the past. We didn't know what to expect from them. They seemed to be down many of their stronger players and they played many newbies. Again we didn't come out as crisp as we should have. We turned it a few times in the first point. They were able to get an offensive point before we started to click on the field. We worked on our zones and transition zones. We focused on our dump swings and on keeping the disc moving. We took half 8-1 and continued to play well in the second half. Tufts was visibly discouraged and resorted to hucking and playing D. We were to capitalize on offense and finished the game 15-1.

Sunday- Bracket Play
Quarterfinals- Game against Umass (15-2)

The dancing the night before didn't stop the Roses from being the first team to break the frost on the fields. We had a strong warm up despite the absence of Umass. Umass showed up to the fields 5 minutes before game time. They begged us for 5 extra minutes and we started our game at 9:05. Because of our good warm up, we came out very strong. Our movement on the field was the best it has been this season. We were playing crisp, clean ultimate and it showed in the score. We took half 8-0. By the second half their entire team was warmed up and they proved to be a good competitor. They had a few girls with very solid experience and throws. They were able to score two points right after half before our flow proved to be unstoppable and we finished the game 15-2.

Semifinals- Game against Amherst (15-10)

Initially our crispness continued from our game against Umass. We were utilizing Kelsey and Preeti's good pulls by running a strong zone. We were able to contain them in the endzone. As a team, we were able to get TWO callahans and numerous other D's in the endzone. We took half 8-2. In the second half, Amherst came out with a new strategy. Because they were low on numbers, they resigned to hucking and playing D. Unfortunately, when we would make a mistake, we would take a second before jumping to defense, they took advantage of this. A combination of this and their quick players enabled the immediate huck to work more often than was convenient. We lost our crispness and were not playing our game. They took it to 11-10 before we kicked it in again. We finished the game 15-10.

Finals- Middlebury (4-15)

Unfortunately, our momentum did not carry over into the final game. The clean, crisp ultimate that had excited us in the first game didn't show in the finals. We were making the right decisions but the throws were not connecting with the cutters and we turned it over way more than we had in previous games. They played a hard 4-person cup and we were not moving the disc quickly enough to break the zone. Our new handlers had trouble breaking the cup. We turned it many times giving them easy breaks. They took half 8-3. Although we tried to get back in the game, we had gotten ourselves into a funk we couldn't break out of. Many of the points were long and contested but never ended up in our favor. We turned many disc over on our endzone line. We had some great D's but our butterfingers got the best of us. They were able to take the game 4-15.

Purple Valley was a tournament full of learning experiences. We had periods of greatness and periods of static play. We came to purple valley with the hopes of being challenged. We are at a point in our season that we would like to see many new things so that we know what we need to work on. Our first few games gave us the opportunity to work on our fundamentals, consistency and new offenses and defenses. While our last two games on Sunday were more challenging they gave us an opportunity to recognize weaknesses on our offenses and defenses. We now know what we need to work on to prepare for our next tournament, Delaware November 15th-16th. We are hope to face new challenges at Delaware and hopefully we will be able to improvise and be flexible. We want to work out all of our kinks in the fall season so that we are prepared for the Spring.

We had wonderful sideline of parents this weekend, which we greatly appreciated!! We would like to thank them for their love, support, and food!


Delaware's Piggly Fest

Newark DE
2008-11-15

Delaware Piggly Fest Nov 15-16

Our last tournament of the fall season was Delaware's Piggly Fest. The weekend of November 15th and 16th we drove south with the hopes of finding warmer weather.

Saturday- Pool Play:

As a tournament in the fall season, we were still subbing evenly and trying new positions.

Game 1 against Northeastern-Y (13-0)

The weather was not ideal. It was raining and windy. As the score suggests, this was not a close game. We were trying to work on our game and not fall down to theirs. But the number of points with turns greatly outnumbered the points without. This seemed to become a bad theme for the weekend. In the end, we ended the game quickly. But the combination of the rain and the puddled field, left us drenched and cold.

Game 2 against Delaware Alumni (3-13)

This team was very skilled. Being an alumni team, all of the players had experience and had played together for many years. But that still doesn't explain the score. As Doug put it, we were playing half points. We would work it down the field great and then we would make a mistake on the endzone line when it mattered. Once Delaware alums got the disc, they didn't turn it much. They moved the disc quickly and made long hucks and hammers that were completed more than one would hope. They took half 7-1 and we just couldn't get ourselves out of a bad groove. Even though the sun peeked through the clouds for this game, we did not shine on the field.

Game 3 against Hofstra (8-4)

Upset about our loss in the previous round, we came out strongly to begin this game. We went up 4-0 before the wind truly kicked in. The zone was testing the zone offense we had been working on that weeks leading up to Delaware. We traded points until we took half 7-3. We broke the point after half and the hard cap went on. Hofstra scored the last point ending the game 8-4.

Game 4 against Princeton (12-8)

We had played Princeton twice at Penn State and both times we beat them pretty easily. They came out stronger than we had expected and with two mistakes by our handlers, Princeton went up 0-2 (the first of which was a break up wind). We answered back with three points in a row. Pulling ahead 3-2. At this point, one of our main players, Sterling, had to stop playing because of a back injury. Her loss was not as apparent in this game as it would be in games that followed on Sunday. The entire game seemed to be us fighting to get an up wind point; 90% of the game we were in possession. By half, we had broken upwind twice leading to a score of 7-4. In the second half, we came out trading points. We were able to break them up wind, but they answered right away. We broke once more and then hard cap went on when we were up 12-7. Again we let the other team score the last point to finish the game 12-8.

Sunday Pool Play
Quarterfinals against Delaware X (9-4)

The fields were soaking from the rains the previous day, but it was no longer raining. In our first game, the wind was across the field. As in Cornell fashion, we arrived much before other teams and were ready for our first game. We came out strong in the first half. We were not perfect, but we were playing well together. We were able to use our new Umbrella defense against their horizontal stack and were forcing D's. We used our D's and their turnovers to take a big lead in the first half. We took half 7-1. The Second half was the beginning of our down fall. We let them get three easy ones in a row before hard cap ended the game 9-4.

Semifinals against Penn State (2-13)

Penn State is a team we know well. We had lost to them earlier in the season. I could blame our bad loss on the fact that Penn State only played their top 8 players, but honestly, we lost the game. The amount of unforced turnovers seemed more than the amount of completed passes. They were throwing a tight cup that we just couldn't seem to break. Cuts were not there and discs were slipping out of our hands. They took half 0-7. We were able to get two points in a row in the second half, but we were not able to give Penn State the battle they deserve from us. Penn State took the game 2-13 and they headed into the finals.

Consolation against Delaware Alumni (4-7)

After negotiating with the Delaware Alumni who were not completely interesting in playing another game, we settled on a game to 7. We were hoping to redeem ourselves. We disappointed ourselves. We started off on Offense but they got the break. We broke them right back and then scored again to make it 2-1. Then the silliness began. Alumni being alumni began playing in a less than serious manner. The amount of hammers soon outnumbered the amount of any other throw. And to our demise, they seemed to be catching many of these throws. But still, when we were given the disc, we didn't capitalize. Our throwers were not connecting with our cutters. We were turning the disc over without any real pressure from the Alumni. They got 5 in a row to take the score to 2-6. Frustrated that we were spending our time playing a 'joke' of a game, we answered back with two more points, but it wasn't enough. The Delaware Alumni took the game 4-7.

Delaware was a learning tournament for everyone on the team. Our individual weaknesses had been magnified by the poor weather conditions and we all knew what we had to work on over vacation. It was very sobering for everyone. Everyone on the team has a lot to work on and improve before we meet again in January. While we never had the chance to play Northeastern, we watched them quickly move the disc by our B-teamers to score without a turn every point. If we are going to be competing on the level that we all dream about, we have to put in the time over this break to improve our individual skills. We have now established what positions people fit into best and will spend our break and our spring season perfecting those positions.

While this was a very hard way to end the fall season, we are hopeful that everyone will be motivated to bring back their A game in the spring.

On another note, T-Horny also went to Delaware with us. They had a record number of subs having 16 players (one less than the wild roses)! Cornell Ultimate is thrilled to have such a wonderful, fun group of girls join us. They lost on universe point to SMUT. It was very exciting!