Santa Clara Recap

We sent two teams to Santa Clara, supposedly split evenly X/Y, unlike UCSC and Cal who split more along A/B lines. Each of our teams had four veterans, and by the end of Sunday Stanford Y (my team) had two healthy returners and Stanford X only had one. It turns out we're a little short on handlers to field two teams, so veteran, B-team, and even rookie cutters sometimes had to step back behind the disc in order for other tryouts to get a chance to prove themselves as downfield cutters.

I suppose I should have started out by saying that the late-starting tournament was a really interesting idea, but that the schedule was an absolute mess. There were two pools of five teams and one pool of four teams, and six rounds were scheduled in order to accommodate all 14 teams on just 5 fields. However, pools didn't seem to mean much of anything, as teams played teams within and outside of their pools seemingly arbitrarily. Even worse were the Sunday "power pools" that had us playing Oregon State again in the first round and Davis Y playing two teams that they'd already beaten the day before.

We started the day at 12:30 against a splitsquad Santa Clara team. They were inexperienced, relied on the huck, and turned the disc over a lot. They did run a ho-stack that we had some trouble with. We stormed to a 7-3 halftime lead after being down 0-2, but then we started forcing terrible throws and dropping discs. They tied the game at 12-12 and hard cap went on, bringing us to universe point. We called a veteran line and worked the disc up the field, with only one game-saving layout required after a miscommunication between two veterans. We won 13-12, and some rookies had done well to distinguish themselves with strong deep cuts or hucks.

We followed up that game with a bye, and we watched Stanford X lose a squeaker to a Davis splitsquad team on a loooong universe point, and the X team also had difficulties stopping the Davis ho-stack and just seemed prone to drops in general. We turned our attention to our game against San Francisco State, which was a mismatch even with only four vets playing. We confidently closed out the game 13-5, not allowing them back in like we had Santa Clara. Matty Sung spent most of the game on the sideline, coaching and taking notes.

Our next game was against Alameda HS, and the game quickly became a chance for both teams to work on certain offenses and defenses. We threw zone for three or four points, then force middle. They broke the force middle once, and they scored twice the whole game. It was not much of a game for us although we did try to represent the sport and the university well while we played. We didn't go easy on them, but we didn't spike the disc or call ticky-tack fouls or travels either. The game ended 13-2, and we had a little bit of a wait before our anticipated night-game matchup against Oregon State, who had beaten us 13-6 at CHUG.

We were definitely excited to have a rematch against Oregon State, and the game started similarly to last time. We scored first, and then they scored three times in a row. But we played our force-backhand defense well the entire game, taking away their huck opportunities and forcing them to work the disc up the trap sideline for their scores. We never let them get more than two points ahead of us, and we even had a chance to take half up 6-5. But they rebounded and took half 7-6, then went up 8-6 afterwards. At 9-9, Sherwood finally entered the game, still nursing a sore groin that had been plaguing him since before Sectionals last April. It didn't help immediately, as we found ourselves receiving at 10-12, before some long and hard points tied the game at 12's. We anticipated playing win-by-two, but halfway through the point and after several turnovers (on great D's by both teams), the hard cap horn blew. We immediately turned it over on their goalline, and they immediately turned it back. We took our time and finally punched it in for the 13-12 win.

The game was notable for a couple reasons. First, our defense looked as good as it has all season. We did not get broken on the marks, we took away their hucking game, and then we started to grind them on their upline cuts. Also, we kept cramping up, and at some points in the game were down to just 9 players, some of them freshmen playing in their first tournament. Everyone stepped up to help the team win, and it was a great feeling to go home that night 4-0, exhausted but happy with how we ended up playing. Last year our mantra was "get better every game," and we definitely did that on Saturday.

After skipping one of the two biggest Stanford parties of the year in favor of sleep and our 6 am wakeup time, we got to the fields around 7 and realized that we were scheduled to play Oregon State. Again. In the first round. Instead of bracket play for the 8 teams in the upper pools, we had "power pools," or random games against other teams with good Saturday records. We weren't too happy about playing OSU again, but we jumped out to a quick lead in this game, going up 4-1. But they fought back as we got more lenient on the marks, and as their big downfield receiver in his orange hat and sock finally arrived at the fields. We were pulling to them at 11-11 when the hard cap horn went off, and we were able to get a turnover. But we couldn't convert, and they had the disc back. After a layout D on the sideline, there was momentary confusion on the field, and Steve Scardato was uncovered 30 yards deeper than everyone else. Sherwood picked up the disc and hucked it to him to end the game, as we won another nailbiter over OSU.

Our next game was against Cal "A," as they try to break back into the upper echelon of NW teams after their finals appearance in 2004. They looked extremely smooth on offense, and we had a lot of trouble trying to break up their short game and middle cutters in the ho-stack. We had slightly more success once we forced them to huck it and go deep, but we still turned it over more than they did. Our D's were pointblocks and skies, while theirs came on layout D's and our miscommunications. As the game drew on, we started losing players to injury again, and we went meekly in the second half after Cal took half 7-5. The game finished 13-7, but it remained to be seen how our final squad would fare against Cal.

We were set to play LPC next, but with only 9 healthy players we combined with Stanford X in order to make it more of a game. As it turned out, that meant that of the 20 or so players we had available, only three of us were returners, and I was the only handler. That led to B-team players and rookies being forced into handling roles against a vicious and poachy LPC handler defense, and we had lots of turns on dump sets when people turned too late or hesitated to hit the open man, either upfield or back. We still managed to get our share of goals, and some people surprised us, like the freshman who threw two forehand bombs for goals after hardly throwing upfield all day. Our defense was shaky, and LPC broke us almost at will. Their offense moved the disc with a lot of speed, and their dishy cuts tore us up, although not nearly as bad as Oregon State's had earlier in the morning. We ended up losing 15-7, which was not a bad result for a team so inexperienced playing against a group of guys who knew each other inside and out.

So, for the weekend Stanford Y was 5-2, while Stanford X was 3-4, and we were able to see what players could step up and be contributors against other schools' A-teams. Next weekend we'll take a single squad of 6-8 returners and about 16 tryouts to Sean Ryan and see where we stack up against California and NW competition. It will be interesting to see what the 2008 versions of Oregon and UCSB have to offer, and since we're the #1 seed, starting at 11:30 on Saturday is quite the bonus. Of course, some of us might head out earlier to watch Superfly Y play, but two straight tournaments with late start times is quite the change after play started at 7:30 am in the rain at last year's Sean Ryan.