Strange Blue 1 at Varsity
After a complete failure to organize a good game of contact on the coach (cmon guys), we arrived at Oxford a bit sleepy but marvelling at the great weather. Also the crazy facts that 1) Oxford Ultimate makes it into their official list of Varsity matches and 2) according to said list we apparently beat them 109-21 or something last year.
INDOORS
Super-long matches made this an interesting indoors experience.
SB1 7-8 OW1 (loss)
SB1 came in as reigning national indoor champions, but with a slightly different squad -- no Justin or Ben, yes Kenny, Log and Jacob. Despite not having played indoors literally since winning Div 1 Nationals, we came out strong and soon were up by a break. Great defense from both sides, with literally every disc contested and layouts everywhere. Dom grabbed some high discs, George got huge D's, Rolo had some super chilly handling. OW1 realised that we were having trouble marking the breakside scoober to their tall iso and used this strategy to score three quick points. 6-5. Cambridge fought back with some sweet handler movement to tie it at 8-8 with 10 seconds left on the clock. Sudden death, finish the point, Cambridge on D. We get the turnover but Oxford really want it back. They're everywhere. Some contested calls, the disc is in the middle with 2 seconds in the stall count, but the handler doesn't spot the open man and gets point blocked. We tried to get it back again but Oxford score with a nice backhand break. Considering it wasn't indoor season, this was a really high-level, good game and was a nice warmup for the big matches outdoors. Both teams reckoned they could win outdoors with the indoors game going to sudden death.
OUTDOORS
SB1 13-11 OW1 (win)
Having had a disappointing loss to Bears in the regionals finals the week before, and then lost in sudden death in indoors, and watching the other Cambridge teams struggle outdoors, we came in to this match with something to prove. And I think we did. From the start everyone was at 100% intensity, I've not seen SB play such incredible D. Despite Tom's best efforts to lose the first point (3 turnovers?) we got it back each time and took half 8-4. From there we never surrendered the lead. Oxford powerlined the last few points but we closed out the 90min game 13-11. Everyone was incredibly happy to retain the car door in its 19th year of existence. If we can start at this level at open nationals, and improve from there, we'll be in the finals for sure.
The whole day had been really well spirited, and though we couldn't stay for a social we wished OW all the best and thanked them for a great day of ultimate. Look forward to next year! The journey back on the coach was uneventful, though the social afterwards was not ...
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