Fool's Fest

Then there was fool's fest. Saucy went as carebears and was by far the best dressed team. Not only did we look adorable, but we played awesome while doing so.
Our first game was against Kansas. During this game we focused on our man defense and towards the end of it, it was looking very strong which we carried over into the following three games.
Iowa vs. Kansas: 13-2 Saucy

Next we played ISU. Our man defense was aggressive and fast-paced, including a great D by KP in their endzone which unfortunately cost her her ankle for the weekend. On offense the handlers were putting up some beautiful hucks and the cutters were doing a great job at chasing everyone of them down, Kristen had at least one very nice layout grab in this game. Our playing was making our stats girl Chelsea R very excited on the sideline. From the very beginning of the game we were playing cohesively as a team which allowed us to take half. We kept a positive and confident attitude throughout the game which resulted in some of the best chemistry we've had all year.
Iowa vs. Iowa State: 13-7 Saucy

Our next two games kind of blur together for me. A couple specifics I remember- HANDBLOCK CALLAHAN by Chelsea T, followed by a callahan caught by Justine, my butt got a D (yea that took skills), and Kristen had another awesome layout grab. We played a little bit more zone defense in these two games and overall it was looking pretty solid.

Iowa vs. Kansas State: 13-3 Saucy

Iowa vs. Colorado State: 13-6 Saucy

After the Saturday games were over we headed back to the host house to transform from care bears to superheroes. Next we had one of the most enjoyable (and slightly obnoxioius) rounds of toasting ever and unanimously gave the snuggie award to KP. KP is a very valuable part of Saucy Nancy- she is a great handler- such pretty hucks and chilly throws, she shuts down people on man D, skies people in zone D, and also has a lot of useful insight on the game and love for the sport. Once toasts were over and mario kart was played, we headed out to The Granada for the tournament party. Our boat race team consisting of Alli, Sarnberger, Chelsea T, and KP crushed the other teams therefore winning us the party. Much dancing was done and fun was had... it was definitely a quality time.

On Sunday our first team of the day didn't show so we only had two games. We started out a little slow against Colorado State and it took us a while to warmup, but in the end it ended up being a very intense game. There were some pretty long points, the longest of which was a 24 minute universe point at hardcap... Michelle caught the score and ended the game with a saucy win.

Iowa vs. Colorado State: 8-7 Saucy

The championship game was against ISU. Aside from an awesome layout D by Megan, as a whole we were tired from our game against Colorado State and started this game out very sloppy and slow. ISU took half with a 7-1 lead. After a peptalk to boost our confidence and fire us up we came out with much more intensity in the second half. Although we started racking up more points and picked up our aggressiveness on defense, it was unfortunately too little too late and we weren't able to catch back up. After yet another point that lasted forever, ISU got the score and finished the game in hardcap.

Iowa vs. Iowa State: 6-13 Iowa State

Our team chemistry and mentality during this tournament, especially on Saturday, was easily some of the best we've seen all year. Our energy and flow on offense and intensity on defense is what got us our wins this weekend. I know that each one of us was so proud of ourselves after our game against ISU since we have been struggling in our games against them ever since Grinnell. If we can carry the same level of playing we had against them in our Saturday game over to our Sunday games we will be so much better off. It's all about staying strong until that final point in that final Sunday game.

This was our last regular season tournament and I'd say we capped it off pretty well. We came back this week and had two really great practices. Our practice on Thursday was especially good, for those of you who missed it Derek gave us a peptalk about this final month of the season... the gist of it was that our focus needs to be on us as a team playing ultimate, and not the other teams standing in our way. We are what will get us where we want to go. We don't need to worry about bids or rankings, but just about bringing out the best ultimate that we can play. This starts with practice, which after this peptalk was very intense and fun. At the end of practice we took advantage of the muddy fields to practice laying out and to build team trust (awww). By the end of practice each of us had layed out over at least 2 people, and Katie topped out at nine (although I bet she could get more if we'd let her keep going). It's this kind of determination we need to bring out at every practice the rest of the season and then again in our games. Just because we're not sure we can do something we need to support each other, trust each other, and get it done because in reality we probably can. This is the final push of the season, lets show the series what we've got.