Catch Up!

Its been a while!

I'll give a quick recap of what Saucy has been up to since the end of May.

We started the fall with a lot of recruiting effort. It worked out! We had over 35 girls at practice regularly in the fall and are now able to field Saucy and Sedusa with strong numbers.

We had a strong fall season focused on teaching new players the basics and developing veteran players skills even further. Mike Lun joins us for this third year of coaching.

The spring has started off well and we are hall confident about the season. So far we have finished 3rd at Queen City Tune-up, 1st at Indoor ICe-xhibition, and 1st at Midwest Throwdown leaving us with a record of 17-2.

Unlike the last few years we have yet to play Iowa State at any of our Spring Tournaments. We are sort of itching to see how our new squad will match up against theirs. We've seen Wisconsin once so far and they are a strong athletic team that will prove to be difficult at regionals. Minnesota has been tough every time we've played them. The north central region has a lot to offer this season.

We have Centex coming up in a few weeks and then the series takes off!

In the upcoming weeks, expect more updates, and some opportunities to support Saucy Nancy.

Fundraising

Help Saucy Nancy get to Nationals!
Buy merchandise or donate to our paypal account. Any amount will help. Donations can be sent to: saucynancyultimate@gmail.com
(use the personal tab so paypal doesn't take out fees)

Join Saucy Nancy

Saucy Nancy is the University of Iowa’s women’s club ultimate team. We are a competitive team that practices 2-3 times each week during the fall and spring semesters. A few weekends each semester we travel to tournaments in the midwest and across the country to compete against other college teams. Last year we had 24 girls on our roster, 3 coaches, a 32-7 record, and finished 5th at nationals. This year we are returning 21 players and are hoping to expand our program to two teams - a more competitive a-team that will travel farther for tournaments and a b-team more aimed at building skills but that will also compete at tournaments within the midwest. We are eager to recruit more girls to play with Saucy Nancy and are looking for new teammates of all experience levels.

Why join Saucy Nancy?

-Play on a competitive, non-varsity team

-No experience required

-Learn a new and growing sport

-Make new friends

-Get exercise, stay in shape

-Meet people- all different grades, majors, girls/boys, and people from other schools

-Fun social events

-Travel to new places – anywhere from Grinnell, Iowa or Milwaukee, WI to as far as New Orleans, LA or Boulder, Colorado

Interested in playing with Saucy Nancy?

email Alyx Averkamp at alyxaverkamp@gmail.com (co-captain and 4th year member)

Want more information?

email Alyx with questions

check out our website -

https://sites.google.com/site/saucynancyultimate/

or watch some of our videos - http://www.vimeo.com/22231704

End of Season Update

Saucy Nancy completed our 2011 season with a 5^th place finish at nationals. This is the best finish the team has seen since 2005 and a tie for the team’s highest place finish in the history of the program. Our road to the finals ended with a hard-fought lost to Oregon in quarters, the defending champions, who were later defeated by Michigan in semis.
Overall, we were extremely happy with how our season went. We ended with a 32-7 record, placed 1^st in 3 of the 6 tournaments we competed in, and placed in the top 5 at each of the tournaments. It was the first taste of nationals for each of the girls on the current team and left us hungry for more. Until then, I’ll conclude this season with awards and announcements.

Robyn Fennig: 1^st team NC All-Region, 2^nd place nationwide Callahan award, Team MVP

Katie Johnson: 2^nd team NC All-Region

Anna Pritchard: Rookie of the Year

Erin Vorland: Most Improved

Chelsea Twohig: Spirit of the Game Award

Mike Lun: NC Coach of the Year

We will be graduating 3 saucies from the team – Kelli Parsons, Katie Johnson, and Robyn Fennig. These girls have all been great teammates and will be very missed on the field. Fortunately we’re hoping to still be seeing a lot of them in the future as saucy alumni, helping to continue building our program.

Alyx Averkamp, Bekah Hickernell, and Liza Minor were chosen as captains for the 2011-2012 season. We’ve already started planning for the fall season and excited to see where saucy nancy will go.

Big thanks to our coaches - Mikey, Steve, and DK for all your help this season at practices and tournaments as well as to Chris and Gordon Sedgwick for filming and photographing!
Videos from nationals produced by Gordon will continue to be posted - check out http://www.vimeo.com/sedgdad

Robyn Fennig for Callahan 2011

Univ of Iowa Saucy Nancy CenTex 2011 REMIX from Gordon Sedgwick on Vimeo.

A recent addition to Iowa’s Saucy Nancy, Robyn Fennig has smoothly worked herself into the Saucy lineup, quickly becoming an integral part of the team. Of the many qualified Callahan candidates, Robyn is sure to draw another look.

If you don’t know who Robyn Fennig is, you should. If you do, you should show your support by 1) voting and 2) becoming a fan on facebook.

Saucy Nancy's Season

Record: 29-4

Midwest Throwdown Champions

Eastern's Champions

North Central Regional Champions

Captained SOL 2008-2010

0-4 in Back Door Nationals Qualifier Games (with UW-Eau Claire’s SOL)

1-0 Regional Finals (with Iowa’s Saucy Nancy)

3 Year All-Region Player (2008, 20089, 2010)

UPA Sectional Coordinator 2010

DI Women’s Conference Coordinator 2011

More Frisbee!

Two-time Club National Qualifier (Two-time semifinals appearance)

Where’s Robyn?

Robyn in the news: Here!

"Grad student Robyn Fennig provided significant firepower on offense, creating matchup problems for teams and opening up opportunities for other Iowa players" -Michelle Ng (Midwest Throwdown interview and recap)

Robyn wrote USAU’s North Central D1 preview and recap.

Get insight into Robyn’s thoughts on her blog for Without Limits.

Also featured on the Saucy Blog are some perspectives from Robyn's friends, teammates, rivals, current and previous coaches, and others she has met during her 5 years with Ultimate. The fact that many people have similar things to say about Robyn is a testament to how she treats everyone with the same respect regardless of who they are and how she approaches the game with the same sportsmanship, spirit, and commitment.

Saucy Leaders Endorsement for Robyn

Robyn embodies everything that women's ultimate strives to be- talented, competitive, spirited, and disciplined. She is an incredible role model and teammate on and off the field. As a captain of Iowa Saucy Nancy, I am constantly humbled by her ability to lead by example. What is so impressive about Robyn is not that she is the most talented women's ultimate player I have every seen play, but that she is always striving to be even better. Staying after practice to perfect her throws even further, always pointing out what she could have done better, constantly looking within herself for improvement.

When Robyn joined Saucy Nancy in the fall of last year, I knew that her amazing ultimate abilities would be a huge addition to our team and help us reach our goal of going to nationals. But I didn't realize the profound impact that she would have on our team and myself in many other ways. At practice she will take girls aside to give them constructive advice, or stay after to work one-on-one with them on throws. She treats every single girl on our team as a friend and with great respect. She is always coming up with new ideas for team bonding or making gifts for everyone like necklaces and cds. Robyn has the ability to bring people together on and off the ultimate field unlike anyone I have ever known.

When I saw tears in Robyn's eyes when we won the game-to-go at regionals this year, I couldn't help but think of how much she's done for me, our team, and women's ultimate. She gives so much of herself to the sport- her time, her energy, her heart. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award.

Kristen Appelson
4^th Year Player and Co-Captain on Iowa Saucy Nancy

2011 All-Region Nominee

___________________________________________________

Robyn Fennig embodies the Callahan award in every way - she is a phenomenal player, great team motivator and leader, dedicated to improving the knowledge and development of ultimate, and clearly just has a firey love for the game. While playing against Robyn on Eau-Claire it was obvious that she was a stand-out on the field, she seemed to be everywhere on defense all of the time. Since joining Saucy Nancy as a graduate student for her final year of college eligibility she has fit seamlessly into our team. At practice she is constantly putting in her all and trying to make sure everybody else is getting everything they can out of practice as well, helping to push our young and eager team over the edge. Outside of practice she makes sure she stays well-tuned by throwing the disc every single day and has done countless pool work-outs enabling her to overcome knee surgery before the start of her last season. She also works hard to prepare her mental game by learning about other teams' strengths and strategies and then tries to figure out ways for our team to shut them down. She has shared her knowledge and passion for the sport by helping to develop a new college team - Eau Clair Sol, sharing thoughts and skills about the sport on her blog, putting together the WNC conference tournament despite a busy school schedule and horrible weather fighting against her, and I'm positive she will continue to put forth this sort of effort after graduating from the college scene. What I admire most about Robyn when it comes to ultimate is her passion for the game. When she steps onto the field you can see it written on her face how happy she is to be there. She's often one of the firsts to start yelling a cheer, even after playing a long and hard point.

I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to play with and learn from Robyn over the past year, and I fully support her as the number one candidate for Callahan.

Alyx Averkamp

3rd Year Player and Co-Captain on Iowa Saucy Nancy

Mikey Lun, Endorsement for Robyn

On the field, it doesn’t take long to see what Robyn brings to the table. She has an effect on every aspect of the game on both sides of the disc. What she lacks in speed, Robyn makes up for in length, skill, instinct, and intensity. She’s that “5-Tool” player that pushes good teams over the top and makes them great.

On both sides of the disc, Robyn rules the air. Offensively, I’ve never seen a bigger or more accurate forehand, or a player who can break a mark so easily. It’s always entertaining to hear what Open players will say when they see her play. I can’t count the times I’ve heard guys walking by and something like, “Holy ****, I can’t throw my forehand that far with the wind and she’s going upwind!”

Defensively, Robyn allows us to be aggressive. Her pulls are unmatched. She essentially takes away one side of the field with her help D, and consistently gets layout blocks against the other team’s best players.

Robyn isn’t afraid to roll the dice, and consistently makes big play after big play. As her coach, I admittedly would often like her to take the more conservative throw and poach less on defense. With that said, there’s no denying her impact on every play… her instincts and Ultimate IQ allow her to take risks. The dice just seem to always roll in her favor. She’s ones of those players that makes her teammates better. I could go on and on about Robyn’s playing ability, but hopefully the footage (soon to be posted) will speak for itself, and there are plenty of incredible players in the country this year.

What really separates Robyn from any other Ultimate player I’ve seen is her dedication to the sport and her teammates. Whether it’s volunteering her time to be a Sectional Coordinator, Conference Coordinator, running an Ultimate Camp, or planning a skills clinic, Robyn is always giving back to the Ultimate community. In my head I’m thinking, “Robyn! Focus on what’s in front of you!” But that’s just her nature. She’s always thinking of how to make Ultimate better and how to get people involved in the sport she loves so much.

I wish I could describe the emotion she brings to the game that you can’t help but be inspired by. The focus she’s brought to her team, and the tears she’s shared with her teammates after those gritty wins along the way are indescribable moments that you can always feel inspired by. Robyn has lost in the game-to-go 2 or 3 years in a row now. This was her last year to make it… a position a lot of great players have been in, I’m sure. Regardless of how things play out I couldn’t be happier for her, and I’m glad she was able to do it with teammates who love her. With that said, I’ll let them do the talking.

Mikey Lun
Current Coach for Iowa Saucy Nancy
Multiple World Championship Qualifications
Long-Time Friend and Mentor