Wintercup @ Darmstadt
26/02/07 18:32
Wintercup Day 3, Darmstadt,
Germany - Feb. 25th, 2007.
Outcome: 2nd place after Day 3 (six out of seven games won, one tied)
Summary: (Wait, what happened to Day 2? Well, each team in Wintercup only plays 4 out of the 5 days, so we didn't play Day 2.)
The lesson for this tournament is never to turn down a player no matter how sure you are you have enough. Something always happens, and this time it did. In spades. We played through it all, and had an excellent time playing, so the day wasn't a bust-- far from it in fact. Still, we learned some valuable lessons about underestimating one's opponents.
We started off by losing Hannah to sickness. Then after a harrowing early morning drive to Darmstadt-- Brendan must have gotten us there in just about 2 hours-- we settled down to play the fourth ranked team, Lauter Kleine Hechte from Kaiserslautern. The enthusiasm and energy we had arriving in Darmstadt might have been a bit much, as in one of the very first plays Laura was knocked down and out of the match. Things didn't improve much later on, as Michael went down a few minutes later to the exact same injury he had a month back. Fortunately, we managed to soldier on with the sterling help of Christian, a relatively new player from Mainz. The game was fairly well dominated by us, finishing up at 9 to 5.
The second game, against 11th ranked Mainzelmädchen, Mainz's women's team, started off okay, with us forcing a turnover and converting on the very first point. I'm not sure if it was arrogance, or fatigue, or inexperience, or what, but we had a bit of a rough time in the beginning. We couldn't manage to get a significant lead. The women just played too smart for us, using experience and wisdom to match our advantage in height, speed, and numbers. We went to 1-1, than scored to go to 2-1, then they tied it up at 2-2, and then we scored again for 3-2, and so on and so forth until about 6-5, when we stalled out and started giving up lots of discs. This might have had something to do with losing another player, Steve this time. At least he was original, getting himself sandwiched between Martin and a tall woman from Mainzelmädchen on a high jump, twisting his ankle for the first time this season. At 6-5, the women scored, and turned around and scored again. We were now down 6-7. Whoops. While Martin's back was turned as he was coaching us on for the next point to retie the game, I noticed that the clock had just a few seconds on it. I tried to speak up, but I was too late-- the buzzer sounded. That meant we had exactly three passes after the huckoff before the game was over. And we were down by one point. The pressure on, Martin received and I went long as fast as I could to catch... nothing. I turned around and the disc was still stuck down on the other end. I tried running back out of the zone to clear some space for the next cutter, but before I had a chance, Martin snapped off a flick to Brendan, who then threw a sick continuation flick into the zone. Cursing him for what I thought was a sure miss, I went for it anyway. Fortunately, I didn't curse out loud, as I completely misread the disc and it floated into my hands for the game-tying point. 7-7. Whew.
The last game was against Ooups from neighboring Saarbrucken. Ooups is a young team with lots of potential, and was perfectly fresh, playing its first game of the day against us. We managed to not let that get to our heads, though, and with the extra help of one of Mainzelmädchen's mädchen, Barbara, managed to pull ahead early. Toward the end of the game, Brendan and Christian explained to the rest of the team that they weren't needed anymore, making a three point run with subtle variations on the theme of Brendan blocking the disc and then promptly throwing it to a masterfully cutting Christian for the point. Right at the end after the buzzer, we managed to score the point on the third and final throw, finishing the game 11-5.
Team Roster:
Brendan
Christian Hessinger (Mainz)
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Kenn
Laura
Martin
Micha
Michael
Steve
Barbara (Mainz)
Outcome: 2nd place after Day 3 (six out of seven games won, one tied)
Summary: (Wait, what happened to Day 2? Well, each team in Wintercup only plays 4 out of the 5 days, so we didn't play Day 2.)
The lesson for this tournament is never to turn down a player no matter how sure you are you have enough. Something always happens, and this time it did. In spades. We played through it all, and had an excellent time playing, so the day wasn't a bust-- far from it in fact. Still, we learned some valuable lessons about underestimating one's opponents.
We started off by losing Hannah to sickness. Then after a harrowing early morning drive to Darmstadt-- Brendan must have gotten us there in just about 2 hours-- we settled down to play the fourth ranked team, Lauter Kleine Hechte from Kaiserslautern. The enthusiasm and energy we had arriving in Darmstadt might have been a bit much, as in one of the very first plays Laura was knocked down and out of the match. Things didn't improve much later on, as Michael went down a few minutes later to the exact same injury he had a month back. Fortunately, we managed to soldier on with the sterling help of Christian, a relatively new player from Mainz. The game was fairly well dominated by us, finishing up at 9 to 5.
The second game, against 11th ranked Mainzelmädchen, Mainz's women's team, started off okay, with us forcing a turnover and converting on the very first point. I'm not sure if it was arrogance, or fatigue, or inexperience, or what, but we had a bit of a rough time in the beginning. We couldn't manage to get a significant lead. The women just played too smart for us, using experience and wisdom to match our advantage in height, speed, and numbers. We went to 1-1, than scored to go to 2-1, then they tied it up at 2-2, and then we scored again for 3-2, and so on and so forth until about 6-5, when we stalled out and started giving up lots of discs. This might have had something to do with losing another player, Steve this time. At least he was original, getting himself sandwiched between Martin and a tall woman from Mainzelmädchen on a high jump, twisting his ankle for the first time this season. At 6-5, the women scored, and turned around and scored again. We were now down 6-7. Whoops. While Martin's back was turned as he was coaching us on for the next point to retie the game, I noticed that the clock had just a few seconds on it. I tried to speak up, but I was too late-- the buzzer sounded. That meant we had exactly three passes after the huckoff before the game was over. And we were down by one point. The pressure on, Martin received and I went long as fast as I could to catch... nothing. I turned around and the disc was still stuck down on the other end. I tried running back out of the zone to clear some space for the next cutter, but before I had a chance, Martin snapped off a flick to Brendan, who then threw a sick continuation flick into the zone. Cursing him for what I thought was a sure miss, I went for it anyway. Fortunately, I didn't curse out loud, as I completely misread the disc and it floated into my hands for the game-tying point. 7-7. Whew.
The last game was against Ooups from neighboring Saarbrucken. Ooups is a young team with lots of potential, and was perfectly fresh, playing its first game of the day against us. We managed to not let that get to our heads, though, and with the extra help of one of Mainzelmädchen's mädchen, Barbara, managed to pull ahead early. Toward the end of the game, Brendan and Christian explained to the rest of the team that they weren't needed anymore, making a three point run with subtle variations on the theme of Brendan blocking the disc and then promptly throwing it to a masterfully cutting Christian for the point. Right at the end after the buzzer, we managed to score the point on the third and final throw, finishing the game 11-5.
Team Roster:
Brendan
Christian Hessinger (Mainz)
Dani (couldn't play due to injury, but took some great photos)
Kenn
Laura
Martin
Micha
Michael
Steve
Barbara (Mainz)