we were the 2 seed in our pool,
one team out of 30 in this tournament of tournaments.  the games began
early saturday morning with a thorough beating of 4 seed stanford b.  
then after a couple of byes we had 5 seed "oxy," which would have been a
walk except for some fucker on their team playing without cleats.  early
on, he managed to collide full speed into toby's shoulder, which resulted
in a broken collarbone.  that took some of the speed out of us, and things
could have been more serious when the same kid landed on dave's head after
a layout.  luckily it wasn't, and even though oxy managed a late comeback,
we held on for a 13-11 win.

next up was uc-san diego, host school and 1 seed in our pool.  we got off
to a slow start, falling behind 6-2 early on, but thanks to some efficient
offense pulled to within 7-5 at halftime.  without toby and piotr, (out
with a sprained ankle) our defense was not at its intensive best, but we
managed some turns and tied things up at 7.  a series of back and forth
points left us ahead 11-10 in the game to 13, and things were looking up.  
but in our first day of the new season, things did not go exactly as
planned, and we lost 13-11.  our final game of the day came against george
washington, and in a matchup of two east coast teams, we took care of
business easily.

day 2 was the fullest day of ultimate i think i've ever played.  4 games,
all against 1 and 2 seeds from the day before.  and we were a small team
with injuries.  the good news was all of us would play lots of points.  
the bad news was our day began with cal-berkeley, starring pat corn, ghost
of harvard ultimate past.  we hung close with berkeley for awhile, but a
few too many turnovers by us and deep goals by them allowed them to take
the game 13-7.

next up was uc-santa barbara "black tide," who brought abot 30 players to
the tournament.  they had an impressive warmup routine and some cameraman
following them around, but when it came down to it, they didn't quite have
the game they wanted.  we took an early lead, and helped by several layout
grabs in the endzone, were up 7-6 at the half.  we won the first "game to
3" in the second half, and were enjoying a sweet 9-7 lead.  on one of
these points, will obrien had the best point of defensive ultimate i think
i have ever seen.  two or three full extension layout d's to prevent sure
goals ... the cal-berkeley ladies cheering every one of them ... it was
some crazy shit.  maybe a couple more points like that would have given us
the win, but unfortunately we kind of fell apart in the last few points,
and sb took the cap-shortened game 11-9.  it should be noted that black
tide committed a ridiculous number of fouls during the game ... you
thought it couldn't be done, but they definitely had worse spirit than
tufts.

our last two games we were definitely a bit tired.  we let humboldt take a
big first half lead, and although we tied things at 12 when our zone
offense finally clicked, we lost 13-12.  and we lost our final game
against north carolina 13-9.  a somewhat disappointing day for sure,
especially because there were two games we really could have won.  but
staying close against santa barbara, working the humboldt zone, and
playing even with unc and berkeley for most of those games, especially
on only the 2nd day of our season, was pretty encouraging.

day 3, we had a little something to prove.  coming all the way to
california, losing so many close games already, doing luge shots at the
ultimate party ... there was a lot of pride and commitment on the line.
luckily our first game of the b-bracket was against yale, our friendly
whipping boys from the northeast.  with 9 or 10 noninjured players left,
we knew it would be more of a struggle than usual.  and it was close for
most of the game, until we eventually pulled away 14-10.  in the
semifinals was british columbia, a scrappy bunch from the canadian
frontier.  they were outmatched by us anyway, but i think their biggest
mistake was coninuing to throw zones on the unstoppable red line zone
offense machine ... full of awesome handlers, poppers, AND wings.  it was
clockwork all game long.  final score, 15-8.

our 11th and final game of the tournament, finals of the b-bracket, was a
rematch against berkeley and that wiley harvard veteran pat corn.  both
teams were noticeably tired, with the exception being the unstoppable
andrew fleming, who was at least twice as fast as any of the berkeley
players, and who had several layout grabs.  what is his secret anyway?  we
took a commanding halftime lead, never looked back, and finished the
tournament with a typical dave to andrew endzone connection and a 13-8
win.

a great tournament and a great time for all.  i for one am very psyched
for spring season, and our run for nationals.