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!
