Call: We Made Nationals! Response: Yes!

This past weekend in Davis, 16 open teams battled for two bids to UPA College Nationals in the most hotly contested Regional tournament of the weekend. With no clear frontrunner, each of the top 6 or even 8 teams considered themselves in contention for the two bids to Boulder. UBC entered the weekend as the #1 seed, but they finished in 4th place among the 5 Northwest teams at Centex. Santa Cruz had the second seed by virtue of their first place finish at Bay Area Sectionals, and they were followed by Stanford, LPC, Cal, and Oregon, a dangerous 6th seed after leading at half against every team they faced on the Saturday of Centex, including Wisconsin and Michigan.

We opened the weekend against Humboldt, a team that struggled at Oregon Sectionals but gave us trouble at Sean Ryan in the fall, when we won 11-8. Led by Ben Carlson and his big forehand huck, Humboldt kept it close at the beginning, and Matt Kissman cut strongly in the middle of the field. Sloppy play from both teams led to a long first half, but Stanford took half 8-6. There was a lack of urgency from Stanford, but drops and throwaways from Humboldt allowed us to pull away. Humboldt did shred our zone defense, which was cause for concern, but our defense clamped down later on, and we ended with two breaks to take the game 15-10, after a point block on Ben Carlson's attempted around forehand break.

That led to our quarterfinal game against Oregon, our first game against them since an 11-10 victory in consolation at Sean Ryan in November, and our last meaningful game against EGO was the 15-10 Regional final last year. The typical players who got recognition were fairly quiet in this game, as Eli Janin, Dusty Becker, and Kevin Stout were outshone by Gavin McKibbon, Spencer Wallis, Joe Condon, and Cody Bjorklund. After starting out up several breaks, Oregon clawed their way back when our offense stagnated and Eli and Gavin broke through our marks and various defenses. Stanford took a few break lead but Oregon never gave up. After the game, Reid Koss remarked on the sideline that without a coach, Oregon could never channel their talent into success because the egos (get it?) of the "Big 3" led to sloppy play and poor decision-making.

Midway through the first half, Mark Sherwood caught an upline pass as Eli was poaching off his man and slammed into Sherwood, knocking him into the ground with a lowered shoulder. Sherwood lay there for several seconds before popping up and shoving Eli in the chest, sparking the closest I've ever seen in ultimate to a bench-clearing brawl. After the observer issued TMF's, play resumed as normal. Speaking of the observer, this weekend proved that having one observer who doesn't know the rules is worse than no observers. At one point he ruled that the offensive player fouled the defensive player, upholding the D player's foul call. Instead of awarding Cody Bjorklund the disc, he sent it back to the thrower, giving Stanford a second shot. Dusty had at least one monstrous layout D, as did Sherwood, and Dusty got into several confrontations with Stanford players who considered his late bids at the disc dangerous and gratuitous. Oregon took the lead early in the second half, but Dusty dropping a pull helped Stanford claw back. We found ourselves on universe point with Stanford pulling, and both teams with their money lines on the field. After Oregon had a couple swings and short gainers upfield, Dusty had the disc on the open sideline and launched a forehand huck OI to a streaking Spencer Wallis with a couple steps on Angus Pacala. But the disc hung in the air long enough for Angus to catch up, and with the disc lingering out of bounds, Angus was able to get the D just out of bounds in the endzone, and Stanford began to march the disc up the field. In what seemed like 100 passes, Stanford calmly moved the disc from side to side with swings and stall eight bailout cuts from across the field, as Mark Sherwood took over and led the charge. Everyone was exhausted, and finally Chris McCarty, out for most of the season with a broken leg, threw the winning goal to send Stanford to the semis. After the game, Eli and Sherwood settled things with an apology and an explanation, and Eli's still alright with us.

There we met the UCSC Banana Slugs, who hadn't really been tested yet and were looking to repeat their Sectionals performance with another big win over their big brother Stanford. Unfortunately, we didn't test them either. We came out flat and found ourselves down 7-2. There was no energy in our defense, but the real problems were on offense, where Santa Cruz's force middle defense frustrated our handlers and cutters and stagnated the offense. On defense the marks were poor, and players like potential FOTY Cassidy Rasmussen and junior Steve Graves made huge grabs for UCSC. Without Tom James, a lot of the downfield matchups got shifted, giving players like Cassidy more favorable matchups and putting us into a deeper hole. We stopped the slide down 3-9, but with the cap approaching, our 6-3 run was too late. We finally figured out their defense, and Sherwood was literally draped over Danny Karlinsky for the entire game. To add to DLK's misery, I accidentally cut him on my wrist brace while marking him a few points into the game.

One of the most memorable plays from our end was a huck to Nick Chapman, who had about 10 steps on Ezra Schiff. But the disc hung a little bit, and Ezra took lazy loping strides (probably due to his sports hernia) and just as Chapman was about to catch the goal, Ezra leaps up, grabs the disc, does some of his signature flourishes, and bounds away to the goal line to put the disc in play. Midway through the second half, I bid for a disc in the endzone and landed awkwardly on my broken wrist, and the entire field of players rushed around me. It was actually Karlinsky who pushed them all back to give me some room. After icing and taking two Vicodin I was fine, and I even played on two D lines that got breaks and an O line that converted, but it was too late. UCSC scored up 12-9 to end the game at 13-9 and go into finals on Sunday. On the other hand, we had a tough road, facing Whitman who knocked off LPC, then the winner of Cal vs. Oregon, and then the loser of the finals. Three games - win them all and we're back at Nationals. Lose one, and our season is over.

We had a delicious team dinner at Applebees on Saturday night to recharge and refocus for Sunday. The only kosher for Passover meal at the pizza place we went to on Friday was a salad, but at Applebees I could have a delicious steak. Our waitress was actually wearing a pin that said "Landshark" on it - courtesy of Landshark Lager. Courtesy of the waitress, our entire team got Landshark coasters. Memories of Kaimana definitely fueled us for Sunday as well. I was actively pulsating throughout the night, as reports of a Maryland-Delaware Metro East final made me almost positive that Maryland and Mike Rubin would qualify for Nationals, and hearing about NC State's near loss to Emory made me cringe. It was a mixed day for my former teammates around the country, but really all I could focus on was making Nationals myself.

In the morning we met Whitman, who had a simple scouting report - Jeremy Norden throws hucks and Jon Loeffler scores goals. The game went pretty much the same way, although we fell into a hole early after our zone failed to produce breaks and our upwind forehand hucks turned over. Down 3-5, however, we turned it on and started playing smarter ultimate, working the disc underneath until smart huck options opened up. It didn't hurt that we had Tom James back, and we scored 5 points in a row to take half 8-5. After seeing Jeremy Norden play at YCC's last summer, I was expecting more from him in an elimination game at Regionals. He threw a bunch of hucks early, but for several points I covered him and he hardly touched the disc. What struck me the most about his play was the he didn't play defense. It wasn't smart poaching or team switching, but he didn't cover anyone on the turn. That didn't work against us, and we essentially traded out the rest of the game until hard cap went on with us up 14-12. We put in a rookie line that got the turn and worked the disc to the endzone, but a point block and a huck quickly ended that. 14-13, Stanford, and on to play another game. Whitman's most impressive player to me wasn't Norden or Loeffler, but Micah Jarnot who had several great grabs and nice D's to keep Whitman right on our heels.

We had a bye next, and our women were playing in the backdoor quarters against PLU after their loss to Cal in the quarterfinals. They were shaken up but looked great against PLU - Reign didn't score in the 30 minutes we were on the sideline watching the game. Apparently they carried that momentum into the next game against Oregon to go up 11-7, but the game ended in disaster for Superfly when Emily Damon and Becca Schwartz layed out into each other while Emily was catching the game-winning goal on universe point, sending the disc and their season crashing down.

Cal beat Oregon in their backdoor semi, 14-12, and now we were set to face Cal for the fourth time this season. Ben Ewing and Elliot Schatmeier were both injured and out for the game, and really, this game was over in the first 10 seconds, as Colin Van Lang got a huge layout D on the second pass of the game, just outside Cal's endzone. Three points later, he pressured Charles Denby into a drop, just outside their endzone again. We were up 3-1 and crushing. The first half ended 8-4, with Cal's spirits crushed and Stanford's legs churning faster than ever. We felt the game to go in our grasp and would not let Cal come near it. Brian Neil was slinging forehand hucks to Tom James and Mark Sherwood, and this handler even got a deep D against one of 6'7" twins in a hell point where Miles Brodsky and I almost killed an old man on the sideline after bidding out of bounds for a huck. The best part of it was, after he regained his senses he asked both of us if we were okay. Choon got several deep D's that point for Cal, but eventually we were able to punch it in and several points later, we sealed the win, 15-10.

We were able to catch the last two points of the UBC-UCSC final, where Cassidy Rasmussen and Steve Graves were again making huge plays, and Karlinsky and James Yeager were throwing pinpoint hucks. Thanks to UCSC, UBC finished the game dead tired. Eamonn Watson threw up on the sidelines and Jon Hayduk was hunched over on the field, shirtless. Their body language indicated that they wanted no part of a game against a Stanford team that had played two hard games but still had the legs for a third. Our entire team could smell blood, and we knew that the game to go was ours for the taking.

We started the game on defense and got a turnover on a rushed huck. Matched up on Blair Hole, I could feel how tired he was and was open deep and underneath on each cut I made - and from the way we were moving the disc up the field, it was evident that the entire team had fresher legs than their Canadian defenders. We broke first, then traded to 3-3 and then went up 6-3. Receiving at 3-3, we struggled through a long, long point that forced several UBC players to call injury subs, but we toughed it out as Tom James caught a huck over the four inches taller Jon Hayduk, then instantly cramped up in tremendous pain. To Hayduk's credit, he stayed with Tom and stretched him out until our coach and resident trainer, injured freshman Nick Greenfield, could take care of him. Our defense capitalized on UBC's exhaustion, breaking their offense two more times and watching them hunch over and gasp for air at the end of each point. But UBC wasn't done, and Blair Hole, Eamonn Watson, and Raef Immerman moved UBC up the field, throwing goals to Mark LeDuc and Jordan McPhee. But we gathered our composure at 6-6, then broke again to take half 8-6. Sherwood was poaching off of LeDuc a lot, given how tired he was, but LeDuc still managed to make him pay, and Blair Hole launched hucks that helped UBC avoid some long, grinding points.

In the second half, things started to get chippy, sloppy, and extremely frustrating. UBC scored some O points on long hucks, and they got some discs back with a Raef Immerman layout D and Dan Woodsworth sky. UBC's tiredness manifested itself with almost nonexistent defense, while Stanford started to crumble with rushed throws and overthrows. The second half was also marked by an inordinate amount of injury subs - the most I've ever seen in one game. After Steve Scardato dropped a huck in the endzone and UBC got a break back, the game got narrower and chippier. With the UBC womens team drunk and loud on the sidelines and Superfly supportive but still in shock, angry heckles crisscrossed the field. At 14-12 Stanford, we got several D's (two by Mark Sherwood and one by Derek Frome, a first-year player) and break opportunities, and receivers were open downfield, but a rushed huck, turfed open forehand, and a dropped dump all ruined our chances to win with a break, and UBC converted. At 14-13, we received and Sherwood touched the disc nearly every other pass, throwing scoobers over the top to Tom James and eventually scoring the game-winning goal to send Stanford to Nationals for the 5th straight year. Make no mistake, this is a different Stanford team than the ones that made Nationals before. Ten rookies joined twelve veterans in November to take this team to Nationals, and we achieved our goal. It doesn't matter that we'll be the #3 seed in our pool instead of the #3 seed overall. The way we cut on Sunday throughout all three games, and the intense defense that defined our play in all the elimination games we faced, will give us as good a chance as anyone to play on Sunday for the first time since 2002.

2008 NW All-Region Team:
Mark Sherwood, Stanford
Danny Karlinsky, UCSC
Blair Hole, UBC
Joey Durkin, California
Ernst Westphal, LPC
Tom James, Stanford
Nick Chapman, UCSC

FOTY:
Cassidy Rasmussen, UCSC