Log Jam

So I've been playing ultimate with Hatch, the new Boston women's team. We finally decided on a name just this past week, which is very exciting because considering we've been calling ourselves the New Women's Team for the past month. The name is supposed to be from the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade and hatching eggs but we were getting a lot of strange questions about our name this weekend, such as, "Does your name come from a spaceship hatch?"

Anyway, this weekend we played in Log Jam, a small tournament in Vermont (there were only six teams). And I drove up with Jin, Jenny and Doris in Doris' new car. Unfortunately it rained for part of Saturday and all of Sunday so Doris' car didn't smell or look very new after we sat in it.

We went 3-1 on Saturday in pool play, losing to Ambush 10-12 during the first game of the day. I felt like we played pretty well considering we're still learning how to play with each other. Personally I threw a lot of horrible uncatchable throws because I haven't really played ultimate for the last three weeks. As a team we only got better throughout the day and we learned different zone defenses.

It rained all day on Sunday. We started off the first game against MissCONNduct who had recruited six Storm players. We came out strong during the first half and at one point I think we were up 6-3. We started making a lot of dumb turns but squeaked away with 8-7 at half. I personally think this team cheated a lot by making up their own rules: calling stall when they didn't even say "ten", making the disc go back to someone even though it stays, etc... Granted it was our fault for not stopping them at the time.

Anyway, somehow the game progresses to 10-10 during hard cap, universe point, and one of our handlers throws a backhand to a cutter in the endzone for the score. But the handler was fouled during the "wind-up" motion of her throw (at which point she called a foul) but still released the disc, which was caught. The path of the throw was obviously affected by the foul, but the mark argued that the foul was called before the disc was up and that the foul was not on the throwing motion. Anyway, after 5 minutes, the disc went back and there was a turnover, and then more turnovers, and then MissCONNduct scored, 11-10. AGH such a frustrating game.

Our next game was the "semis" against Ambush again. And we lost again 10-12. Another frustrating loss, but I think my best play was during these two games on Sunday. Except when I dropped a pull during this game. I know it happens to everyone, but it still sucks when it happens.

Anyway, I feel like I need to learn how to do dump cuts again. I think whenever I don't play ultimate for a long time my dump cuts are the first to go. I need to start doing track workouts again, and I need to learn to recognize when my disc space is violated, and how to fake and pivot with an aggressive mark. And I want to work on pulling because pulling is fun. And I need to lift again because my shoulder and back are sore from pulling this weekend... how sad. :(

But yay for ultimate, I missed playing.