Monday, April 28, 2008
Everyone's injured or sick
Ok maybe not everyone, but a lot of sMITe has some sort of ailment, some more major than others. Why can't everyone just be healthy...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
They're talking about us :)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.disc/browse_thread/thread/de9b88911bdfa011/22dfdae1c4018b92?lnk=gst&q=new+england+regionals#22dfdae1c4018b92
3. Is MIT going to peak at just the right moment? Their season hasn't been too long, nor impressive, up until sectionals. MIT is a team with a long history of success, though, and know what it takes to do well.
Yeeahhh :) Let's show 'em what we're made of!
3. Is MIT going to peak at just the right moment? Their season hasn't been too long, nor impressive, up until sectionals. MIT is a team with a long history of success, though, and know what it takes to do well.
Yeeahhh :) Let's show 'em what we're made of!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sectionals
We placed third at sectionals this past weekend. Pool play on Saturday went well. We beat every team in our pool except for Tufts. We had a lot of good runs against Tufts but we dropped 0-4 pretty quickly, and then came back 3-4. And then after that they were just always 3-4 points ahead of us. We kept getting broken by one of their handlers, which hurt us a lot. On Sunday we had another chance to play Tufts, who had lost to Northeastern in the championship game, so we were playing them for second place. We were leading most of the first half, but lost 6-8. And then we just ran out of juice the second half and lost 8-15.
In any case, we saw some pretty amazing things this weekend, in individuals as well as in the team as a whole. Doris made this sick layout grab in the endzone for Erika's huck. She was wide open but the huck went pretty far. But Doris caught it one-handed, full body extension and everything. I ran over to her and as she got up, she had a blade of grass sticking out her nose. :P Chenxia was cutting aggressively as usual, making some great catches, even some low ones where she slid on her knees. Amy made some amazing layouts as well (come to think of it, this is the first tournament where I saw Amy layout so much) :) Natasha and Rosa were making some really great cuts and grabs as well. All our rookies have improved so much over the course of the season. :) And as always, Erika and Catherine made some really amazing hucks to Smeri and Doris.
I'm really excited for regionals. Right now it's anyone's game. Over the last few weeks Dartmouth has beaten Tufts, Northeastern has beaten Tufts, we have beaten Northeastern (in a scrimmage but whatever, we showed ourselves that we can do it). It's just going to come down to who wants it more and who has the deeper team.
In any case, we saw some pretty amazing things this weekend, in individuals as well as in the team as a whole. Doris made this sick layout grab in the endzone for Erika's huck. She was wide open but the huck went pretty far. But Doris caught it one-handed, full body extension and everything. I ran over to her and as she got up, she had a blade of grass sticking out her nose. :P Chenxia was cutting aggressively as usual, making some great catches, even some low ones where she slid on her knees. Amy made some amazing layouts as well (come to think of it, this is the first tournament where I saw Amy layout so much) :) Natasha and Rosa were making some really great cuts and grabs as well. All our rookies have improved so much over the course of the season. :) And as always, Erika and Catherine made some really amazing hucks to Smeri and Doris.
I'm really excited for regionals. Right now it's anyone's game. Over the last few weeks Dartmouth has beaten Tufts, Northeastern has beaten Tufts, we have beaten Northeastern (in a scrimmage but whatever, we showed ourselves that we can do it). It's just going to come down to who wants it more and who has the deeper team.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Sectionals this weekend!
Omg I can't believe sectionals is tomorrow! We're playing in Lancaster, MA if anyone wants to come out and cheer :) Here's the schedule and seedings:
http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=34&id=4499
Go SMITE! :)
http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=34&id=4499
Go SMITE! :)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Photos
From Scrimmage against Northeastern
Also, my claim to fame:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N19/graphics/smite.html
Easterns pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironalchemy/sets/72157604402682087/
Also, my claim to fame:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N19/graphics/smite.html
Easterns pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironalchemy/sets/72157604402682087/
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Scrim against Northeastern
It was a pretty fun game. Our goal was to come out strong and play hard and get our heads in the game from the get-go. I personally felt guilty for showing up late because I was coming from church... I told the team to be cleated by 11:30 to for warm-up, but I came at 11:50 and felt like a hypocrite. :( I'm sorry guys.
sMITe came out strong in man defense and nice flow on offense. We had 9 players so everyone had plenty of playing time. Natasha was making some nice cuts, getting wiiiide open on her girl, which was really awesome to see. I thought my dump cuts were a lot better this game; I made it a point to drive really hard in one direction and then cut for the disc. There were some nice dump-swing action going on.
Northeastern also put on a strange zone defense where they had a mark and three defenders in a vertical wall so they forced a sideline and as the disc was swung back and forth the force changed. (Like 1-3-3 but the middle three were vertical), or maybe it was just a really non-curved cup... anyway, it doesn't matter because our zone O looked really good; Catherine and Erika were crashing well and kept the disc moving. There were a few misthrown hammers early on in the game, but in general, we were able to work the disc up the field easily, going around and through the cup. Also, it started to rain which made some of our throws a little off, but overall it didn't affect our game too much.
Northeastern liked to dump it and give-and-go. We had some trouble with our dump defense, especially with getting beat up the line or just not getting our mark on. It got better throughout the game though but it's something that we should work on during practice. Personally I need to work on getting my mark on faster and close my shoulders to cut off the swing.
There were some deep throws that were hard to read because the wind was bouncing the disc up and down but everyone was pretty heads up. There was one huck that was supposed to go to Meri but she and her two defenders missed the disc and Stephanie ended up catching it for the score.
I think I learned how to play wing (D) during a few key points this game. They had three handlers back so it was basically man downfield but Darlene told me to take away the biggest threat, either the wing or the third handler. I don't know, but something seemed to make sense about that comment this time and I ended up getting three Ds, one of them *almost* a callahan... should've laid out for it better =P
There was this one long point where I had hucked it to Smeri and we were about 20 yards from our endzone. She dumped it back to me and I called a timeout. We called a standard endzone play - open side cut (Steph), dump (Catherine), swing (Erika), but after we set up our offense, they set a zone on us. So the off-point guarded Catherine, leaving Erika wide open so I threw through the cup to Erika and she made an easy pass to someone cutting breakside (probably Smeri) Yay. :)
Final score 15-5.
The men's team also won their scrim against BU 15-8.
sMITe in the Tech for Yale Cup on Friday: http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N18/smite.html
I can't believe sectionals is in 5 days... eeek
sMITe came out strong in man defense and nice flow on offense. We had 9 players so everyone had plenty of playing time. Natasha was making some nice cuts, getting wiiiide open on her girl, which was really awesome to see. I thought my dump cuts were a lot better this game; I made it a point to drive really hard in one direction and then cut for the disc. There were some nice dump-swing action going on.
Northeastern also put on a strange zone defense where they had a mark and three defenders in a vertical wall so they forced a sideline and as the disc was swung back and forth the force changed. (Like 1-3-3 but the middle three were vertical), or maybe it was just a really non-curved cup... anyway, it doesn't matter because our zone O looked really good; Catherine and Erika were crashing well and kept the disc moving. There were a few misthrown hammers early on in the game, but in general, we were able to work the disc up the field easily, going around and through the cup. Also, it started to rain which made some of our throws a little off, but overall it didn't affect our game too much.
Northeastern liked to dump it and give-and-go. We had some trouble with our dump defense, especially with getting beat up the line or just not getting our mark on. It got better throughout the game though but it's something that we should work on during practice. Personally I need to work on getting my mark on faster and close my shoulders to cut off the swing.
There were some deep throws that were hard to read because the wind was bouncing the disc up and down but everyone was pretty heads up. There was one huck that was supposed to go to Meri but she and her two defenders missed the disc and Stephanie ended up catching it for the score.
I think I learned how to play wing (D) during a few key points this game. They had three handlers back so it was basically man downfield but Darlene told me to take away the biggest threat, either the wing or the third handler. I don't know, but something seemed to make sense about that comment this time and I ended up getting three Ds, one of them *almost* a callahan... should've laid out for it better =P
There was this one long point where I had hucked it to Smeri and we were about 20 yards from our endzone. She dumped it back to me and I called a timeout. We called a standard endzone play - open side cut (Steph), dump (Catherine), swing (Erika), but after we set up our offense, they set a zone on us. So the off-point guarded Catherine, leaving Erika wide open so I threw through the cup to Erika and she made an easy pass to someone cutting breakside (probably Smeri) Yay. :)
Final score 15-5.
The men's team also won their scrim against BU 15-8.
sMITe in the Tech for Yale Cup on Friday: http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N18/smite.html
I can't believe sectionals is in 5 days... eeek
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Yale Cup Recap
Yale Cup was pretty fun. It didn't end up raining at all and actually turned out to be a pretty nice day on Sat. (Good job weather captain!) It was a little windy and cold, but I'm not complaining because I expected it to pour. And even though we had a late start with our first game at noon, we played all 4 games that were originally scheduled on Saturday.
First game we lost pretty badly to Cornell (2-11), who put a ridiculous 5-man cup on us (4-man cup and boxing a handler) and it was super windy and we were having a hard time working the disc up the field. We should've been more pro-active about throwing hammers and bendy throws. Our man defense was really off; we kept getting broken and beat to the open side. Personally I felt like all my throws were not there, partly because I didn't get to warm up my throws, partly because I didn't feel mentally in the game yet. We had a lot of good runs and flow but we just had to string them together. Everything was there, we just had to focus and get our mind into the game.
Ok now I have to be honest and say that the only games I really remember are our first game against Cornell, and our last game against BU. And everything else in between was a blur for me (Smite, you're going to have to help me out with remembering some of these games.) Anyway, we won our next three games on Sat against Williams (10-7), Brown (11-3), and Vermont (?), during which our defense got progressively better and we gelled a lot better as a team. I saw some really amazing things from all our players: Chenxia making some really aggressive cuts and catches, good deep cuts from Jenny and Smeri as always, good defense from Rosa as a wing in zone, a lot of nice I/O throws from Daphne and Erika, and a never-tiring cup consisting of some combination of Jenny, Smeri, Shan, Veena, and Catherine.
On Sunday, we lost our first two games to Tufts and Wesleyan. Personally I think we played really well against Tufts. We were a lot more mentally in the game than when we started out Saturday. Our man defense was really good - Tufts had to keep dumping it because their upfield looks just weren't open. We ended up losing 7-13. I think we took that loss pretty hard and it showed in the first few points in the next game against Wesleyan. It took us a few points to shake off the previous loss and get our heads in the game again and although we won the second half of the game (I think), it wasn't enough to beat Wesleyan. Final score 7-11.
Despite tired legs and the cold weather, Smite played really really well against BU, our last game on Sunday. I have never seen Daphne lay out so much in a game. She was an incredible mark in the cup, shutting down the handler in our zone D. She had at least two layout Ds and several blocks in the endzone. Smeri and Jenny also played very well in the cup with Smeri taking away many of the crashes that BU tried. Doris was an amazing deep deep as always, tipping many discs away from BU's deep looks.
As handlers and wings, Karen, Erika, Daphne, Trisha, and Catherine tore up BU's cup, swinging the disc across the field and through and over the cup to Doris/Veena/Smeri as poppers. Our zone O looked really good. The disc was always moving and everyone on the field had the disc at some point in time. I don't remember for sure, but I think we played some spread in this game and were able to work it up the field nicely. MIT won 9-5. It was also nice to have the men's team watch and cheer us on. :)
Two things stood out to me this weekend: First, I'm glad that we play with flat marks rather than angled ones. Personally, I can huck SO much better/easily with an angled mark and I don't want other teams to have the same pleasure. Second, we really need to get our heads in the game starting with cleating up when we arrive on the field. It is so so important to be mentally prepared and competitive for our first game. Espeially during warm-up, it's so important to psych each other up and stay positive and bring up the intensity and carry that intensity through our first game.
Sorry, no photos/videos from this tournament.
I'm so psyched for sectionals! I can't believe it's April already!
First game we lost pretty badly to Cornell (2-11), who put a ridiculous 5-man cup on us (4-man cup and boxing a handler) and it was super windy and we were having a hard time working the disc up the field. We should've been more pro-active about throwing hammers and bendy throws. Our man defense was really off; we kept getting broken and beat to the open side. Personally I felt like all my throws were not there, partly because I didn't get to warm up my throws, partly because I didn't feel mentally in the game yet. We had a lot of good runs and flow but we just had to string them together. Everything was there, we just had to focus and get our mind into the game.
Ok now I have to be honest and say that the only games I really remember are our first game against Cornell, and our last game against BU. And everything else in between was a blur for me (Smite, you're going to have to help me out with remembering some of these games.) Anyway, we won our next three games on Sat against Williams (10-7), Brown (11-3), and Vermont (?), during which our defense got progressively better and we gelled a lot better as a team. I saw some really amazing things from all our players: Chenxia making some really aggressive cuts and catches, good deep cuts from Jenny and Smeri as always, good defense from Rosa as a wing in zone, a lot of nice I/O throws from Daphne and Erika, and a never-tiring cup consisting of some combination of Jenny, Smeri, Shan, Veena, and Catherine.
On Sunday, we lost our first two games to Tufts and Wesleyan. Personally I think we played really well against Tufts. We were a lot more mentally in the game than when we started out Saturday. Our man defense was really good - Tufts had to keep dumping it because their upfield looks just weren't open. We ended up losing 7-13. I think we took that loss pretty hard and it showed in the first few points in the next game against Wesleyan. It took us a few points to shake off the previous loss and get our heads in the game again and although we won the second half of the game (I think), it wasn't enough to beat Wesleyan. Final score 7-11.
Despite tired legs and the cold weather, Smite played really really well against BU, our last game on Sunday. I have never seen Daphne lay out so much in a game. She was an incredible mark in the cup, shutting down the handler in our zone D. She had at least two layout Ds and several blocks in the endzone. Smeri and Jenny also played very well in the cup with Smeri taking away many of the crashes that BU tried. Doris was an amazing deep deep as always, tipping many discs away from BU's deep looks.
As handlers and wings, Karen, Erika, Daphne, Trisha, and Catherine tore up BU's cup, swinging the disc across the field and through and over the cup to Doris/Veena/Smeri as poppers. Our zone O looked really good. The disc was always moving and everyone on the field had the disc at some point in time. I don't remember for sure, but I think we played some spread in this game and were able to work it up the field nicely. MIT won 9-5. It was also nice to have the men's team watch and cheer us on. :)
Two things stood out to me this weekend: First, I'm glad that we play with flat marks rather than angled ones. Personally, I can huck SO much better/easily with an angled mark and I don't want other teams to have the same pleasure. Second, we really need to get our heads in the game starting with cleating up when we arrive on the field. It is so so important to be mentally prepared and competitive for our first game. Espeially during warm-up, it's so important to psych each other up and stay positive and bring up the intensity and carry that intensity through our first game.
Sorry, no photos/videos from this tournament.
I'm so psyched for sectionals! I can't believe it's April already!
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