Introducing... Svetlana

Name: Svetlana

Year: 2011

Course: 14 and 18.. econ and math

Height: 5' 7"

Favorite Position: so far, not a handler? anything, really..

Personal Strengths: running.. decent throws

Personal Goal(s): to always know what's going on while in the field

Interests: drawing, reading, pick-up ultimate, going for walks, meeting people

During our first fall tournament at Wellesley, the sideline decided "Svetlana" was a mouthful to say on the field so her name is now "Lana". She'd get my vote for the next beautiful one on sMITe, to take after Yelena.

Practice last night was intense, tiring, and really fun. :) We worked on man-D and started off with 5-pull where the team that doesn't score runs sprints. I think the final score was 2-3-5 so each team ran 7-8 sprints. There were a lot of drops in the first few points but by the end of the game people were starting to play better man-D and the turns were due to good defense rather than just careless drops.

The scrimmage against ourselves at the end of practice was awesome. It was Catherine, me, Daphne, Shan, Chenxia, and Natasha vs Erika, Trisha, Amy, Jenny, Smeri, Svetlana, and Jess. We were down the first half - mostly because I sucked getting open as a dump and we were a little slow on defense - but came back during the second half with some pretty good offense with some dump-swing action. The team that lost also had to do sprints. Anyway, I don't think I've ever been that tired after a practice. :P And I think I got mild whiplash from hitting the ground (Svetlana knocked me over during the two-cut drill).

Wednesday is the last indoors practice! To celebrate, we're going to have a full tournament-situation scrimmage.

Until then, this is what Dictator Daphne has been up to:

http://www.ourstage.com/video/channel/66-cmf/YCJEMEWTIIEU-une-fille-dans-une-pice

Scrimmage against Northeastern

Scrimmages are always fun - a chance to play people besides us. We had 15 people and worked on spread, stack, hard man D, and clam. Our offense and flow look pretty good - there were several points when the disc was always moving: Doris to Daphne to Jenny for a score; or when Erika, Smeri, and another handler worked it up the entire field for a score. It was exciting to watch. :)

Our defense needs some work. We gave up many points because we were beat to the open side (something that I still need to work on), because our dump was getting beat up the line, or we just didn't match up wisely. Sometimes it was something dumb like we didn't pay attention to who we're on when we pulled, or they didn't know the force. If we just talked to our mark, telling them inside or around, it would help a lot. I also think we just need to want it more.

Our clam defense is improving a lot. Steph has great field awareness and is amazing at playing I/O lane, Doris is great at deep - as always, and Smeri chasing. It was a good learning experience to play clam against another team. Some people haven't been to practice very much in the last few weeks so at times it was difficult, but still a good learning experience... that's what scrimmages are for. :)

There were a lot of little things that made this scrimmage great: Natasha making a great cut - closing the space between her and her girl and then turning her hips sharply for an in cut. Also Kelly making a great cut and then passing it to Chenxia upfield. There were many points where our girl caught the disc, didn't freak out, held onto the disc, and flipped it back to the handler. On defense, Kelly's mark has improved a lot.

We want to bring up the intensity level in our practices: to push ourselves, set goals for ourselves, and really strive towards them. I'm excited to see what this team can do in the next few weeks. It's unreal how fast the season has gone... I can't believe we're going to North Carolina in two weeks!

Smeri: "did I tell you my dad read your blog? he was looking for my thesis online, but instead he found out about my weather controlling abilities, so then I had to explain to my whole family how I control the weather"

Introducing... Dorphne [edits added]

Dor enjoying our Pat Bell tourney winnings.

Name: Doris

Year: M. Eng-er

Major: EE

Height: 5'4'' and a half (and yes, that half is really really crucial)

Favorite position (or throw or play): deep in any junk D, popper

Personal strength: run through Ds

Personal goal(s): better mark, better hucks, better handler cuts

Interests: kitchenware/baking, karaoke, guitar hero

Captain Planet! She's our hero! Going to take pollution down to zero! Huck a Hunk 07.

Name: Daphne (a.k.a. Captain Planet)

Year: 08

Major: 7 (Biology)

Height: 5'2"

Favorite position (or throw or play): give-and-go-and-huck

Personal strength: shoulder shimmy fake

Personal goal(s): regain speed/stamina, man-d, seeing the field better in zone/clam/1-3-3

Interests: baking cookies in large quantities, Chipotle (added by Karen)

Dorphne is one entity. The coaches still get them confused sometimes. And I feel like my readers know them better than I do so I'll let you guys talk about them.

[EDIT] Ok a few words about Dorphne: Phne is way too excited about Chipotle, making movies, making dumplings, and playing sMITe hockey. Dor is way too excited about cute animals, cute robots, crossword puzzles, and rock band. I was really freaked out when I first heard Dor wheezing like her lungs were collapsing. Now I'm like, "Oh, that's normal." :/

Another fond memory of Dorphne is when Phne is helping Dor stretch her hamstring and Dor is on the ground, whole body shaking while Phne has this maniacal grin on her face as she's pushing Dor's leg over her head. And then this past fall I had Phne do it to me and it feels pretty good. :P

I actually haven't played too much with Phne because she tore her meniscus last fall (06) during Huck a Hunk and has been trying to get healthy since then. After surgery and lots of PT it seems like she's getting a lot better. And then during one practice in the the fall (07) she was like, "I threw my back out!!" and now she has back problems. You'd think that I'm talking about a 60-y.o. woman, but no, she's only 22. But anyway, when she does play, she has amazing movement and command on the field (I guess that's where the Dictator part comes into play - I actually didn't know about Dictator Daphne until last week when Liver told me). She's very good at the hucking part of the "give-and-go-and-huck" and Dor is usually catching it on the other end. I've heard Phne is also a very good deep deep but I unfortunately haven't seen her play that position very much.

Dor can play anything on the field. When we split up into handlers and cutters to work more on individual skills, she has an identity crisis and doesn't know which group to join. But she's a cutter at heart and is a good sport about handling when we're short on handlers. She's an amazing short deep and deep deep. She's just come out of nowhere and get the D. And when she doesn't get the D she gets really frustrated and does a little "dang-it-what-was-I-thinking??" dance, flailing her arms and jumping up and down. :P She also has amazing acceleration and field sense, which is where many of her run-through Ds come from. She's clutch as a popper, catching many of my hammers and throws through the cup.

Speaking of throwing hammers to Doris, so earlier today I was taking a nap, and I was sleeping on my stomach (does anyone else do that?) with my left arm underneath me and my right arm over my head. And I was dreaming about ultimate - that I was handling in zone O (we worked on zone yesterday in practice) and wanted to throw a hammer to Doris and I remember thinking the cup was huge (Kari: 6'0", Shan: 5'6", Jenny: 5'10", Smeri: 5'4" as my mark - she's little but has a big mark). Anyway I threw the hammer to Doris, and apparently I threw it in real life too because I woke up with a pain in my right hand - I had hit my right hand on the board on top of the bed.

Finally, one last picture of Nancy Sun guarding Captain Planet:

Introducing... Stephanie

Name: Stephanie

Year: 2nd Year Grad

Major: Architecture

Height: 5'-6"

Favorite position (or throw or play): i've been having fun as a popper

Personal strength: field positioning

Personal goal(s): get better at throwing the disc

Interests: Surfing, hiking, cycling, lacrosse, photography, and traveling

I don't have any pics of Steph because she joined sMITe in the spring but we're very glad she did. I remember teaching her how to throw during her first practice and she picked up forehands and backhands before we started our warm-up run. She's also very heads-up on the field and is really good at catching. Even though she's architecture and has a crazy busy schedule (she went to Thailand last week!) she still makes time for practice and asks good questions about the game. :)

So last night Doris and I worked on hotel and rental car stuff for Easterns. I called this hotel called "Baymont Inn" in Wilmington and I talked to the receptionist who was named "Darlene":

me: Do you have 4 double rooms from Mar 28-30?

Darlene clicks away on her computer...

Darlene (in a super cheerful Southern accent): We sure do! Is this for a sports team?

me: Yes!

Darlene: Is it high school girls soccer? Because I'm coordinating hotel reservations for a high school girls tournament that weekend and all the teams get a discount!

me: Um... yes, we're a women's sports team... it's kinda like soccer...

Darlene: Ok! We'll give you the discount too!

me: Sweet!

Darlene clicks some more...

Darlene: What team name is this reservation under?

me: MIT Women's Ultimate

Darlene: Like, Ultimate Frisbee?! That's so neat!!! Yes, it's a $15-off discount.

me: OMG you're the most awesomest hotel receptionist EVER!!!!

Ok I didn't really say that last part, but she is pretty cool. :)

Introducing... Trisha & Shan

With new video feature!!!

This video is from Pat Bell Memorial in the fall where Natasha dumps it to Trisha, who swings it to Catherine, when Trish's D falls in front of her. Then Catherine throws to Shan for a score!!!

Name: Trisha

Year: Grad

Course: MSE

Height: 5'1"

Favorite position: somewhere far away from my defender

Personal Strength: (written by Karen): always running hard, always excited to play ultimate, consistent throws and constantly trying to improve her throws like low throws and hucks

Personal Goal: improve throws to away cuts

Interests: aside from ultimate, noodling at a piano and baking cookies

---

Name: Shan

Year: G

Major: Biological Engineering

Height: 5-6

Favorite position: going deep! (and wing on ZoneD)

Personal strength of yours: I can fall asleep just about anywhere (was this supposed to be ultimate related, too?) and Karen adds: sweet layouts, ability to catch almost everything, and great cup defense

Personal goal: thro' like a pro

Interests: cookies (making & eating)

Would you rather...

A. Be able to run at twice as fast as your top speed (and be able to maintain that speed) but have calves that are twice as large,

OR

B. Be able to throw any throw (with precise accuracy, speed, spin, and distance for forehands, backhands, hammers, pulls, etc in any weather condition) but have arms that are twice as large. (Note: "arms" include biceps, triceps, delts, both L and R side).