Strange Blue Tournament Report

Hi Camdisc,

You have heard several times by now, but last weekend the SB ladies went to UWIN in Coventry and came back with the plate! The team: Anna, Emily, Kelcie, Lauren, Lily, Megan, Pri, Susanna, Veronika and me.

SB were seeded 14th and played four pool matches:

SB vs Far Flung 9-1
So that was the easiest game of the weekend... We got to practice some or our plays on them - even though we'd stick to man D for most of the weekend cos we're just that fast - had fun and won. Think this was the game were Megan scored 3 points in a row?? Also well done birthdaygirl Anna for getting her first run-through-D!

SB vs Too Many Pies 4-5
Hm, this game was a little bit frustrating. Our D was strong as ever and we got lots of turnovers but didn't quite manage to turn those into scores because of our offense being a bit too rushed. Nonetheless this was a very very close game, we were trading points for all of it and never stopped running and working hard. Especially

SB vs Urielle 10-4
Urielle were seeded 1st and we can understand why. Their cheeky overheard throws were very hard to stop, but actually so were their quick handler passes. Nonetheless we adapted our D so that they didn't get their plays off quite as easily and managed to get some good & quick flow going on offense.

SB vs Chi Ladies 6-4
Another very close game, but one were we eventually took it away properly. I can't remember much about this game other than it being very intense... We managed our lines a bit better and made better use of our players (more dumping!). There was some superb iso-ing from Susanna, Kelcie and Lauren which they would keep up for the rest of the weekend. Lots of good sidelining when we played zone!

*crossover* SB vs Trinity 4-5
Our chance to get into the top 8 was lost in a sudden death point that was absolutely nervewracking to watch. Both teams were tired and had trouble connecting, and even though we generated many more scoring opportunities we just didn't manage to cash them all. Defense again was never the problems - I recall for example a great pointblock by Susanna and tireless run-through D's from Kelcie, Lily and Lauren.

A bit disappointed but still fired up for the next day, we drove back to Cambridge where some of us ate Lily's food (enormous amounts of it) before we all went to sleep in our own beds.

On Sunday, we were all ready to give it our best. Warmups including sprints and ferocious cutting drills definitely paid off. Wow, everyone ran and D-d SO HARD that day! But hey, there was a plate at stake...

SB vs UCL 9-2
UCL congratulated us afterwards on being the only team they had encountered were everyone was sprinting all the time and able to outrun their man. Cool! We were completely in charge of that game. The iso/deep connections suddenly&micarulously worked, leaving us wondering why this hadn't happened on Saturday... Great work from Megan, Pri and Veronika as deeps, with Pri & Veronika using their height to full advantage! : ) Glory points were scored by all.

SB vs Chi Ladies 8-4
So Chi Ladies lost their crossover too.. We were expecting a tough game and were intenser than ever, which clearly frustrated the Chi Ladies. They put up some wicked overheads, a lot of which got brilliantly D-d, just because our defense completely shut down their under play. I think this is when Emily discovered she was actually a lot faster than anyone who marked her, which resulted in some brilliant open cuts and scores!

*Plate final* SB vs Too Many Pies 6-5
Pies again! And another terribly close game. There were quite a few calls that fortunately got sorted out okay. Though I think this was the game were Kelcie made a fantastic lay-out score..and then got called out! Despite everything we all managed to stay calm on offense, making the right decisions and cutting with machine-precision-timing. Everyone played their part and got trusted with the disc, and our defense was *hot* as ever (many bag points got earned this match). Well played everyone!!

So SB came 9th and took the trophy. Kelcie and Susanna were joint MVP, Lauren won THE BAG. I hope I haven't forgotten anything...

Thanks for a fantastic weekend, and bring on outdoors!

Valentijn