Easterns/Centex

I'm happy to say that we dramatically improved on some of the things that I posted in my previous post about how Pitt is different than other Elite college ultimate teams. We have made some serious progress over the last few weeks in becoming the team we want to be. Here's my recap:

Centex was an enormous step forward for us. Our first game of the day was against perhaps our most elusive rival, who had squeeked past us at other points in the last year or so and had blown us out at other times. It seemed, whatever we tried, we just couldn't beat them...NC State, that is. The game started to look like just another Pitt loss to NC State. We really turned it on late in the game after a slow start, and got ourselves a win on universe point, 15-14. We needed this win, and the morale that this win provided us helped to carry us through a tough weekend of Ultimate and make us think like a legitimate Nationals team - and this is something that I think we have always lacked.

The rest of Centex was very productive, with a close game with Florida (actually scoring more points on them than any opponent to that point of the season, 11-15 loss), a universe point to a deceptively strong UNT team, a disappointing loss to Carleton, and a huge win over Texas. A good Saturday, at 2-3, but most disappointing to know that having won that UNT game would have put us in the A-bracket. Sunday started with a loss to Western Washington, where we came out just about as flat as we ever has....brought back some chilling memories of Pitt vs. Columbia in the first round of Regionals last year. The weekend ended well, though, with two big wins over a strong Arizona team and Brown.

Easterns was another strong weekend, where we ramped up each game, learning and getting better with each one. We started weak against UNCW, almost blowing a game that woulda been the upset of the century. They came out strong, and capitalized on our sloppiness, but in the end we pulled out a 13-11 win. We won easily over ECU, and then won a game against Central Florida that felt closer than it was...but was too close for comfort in my mind, and was a thoroughly frustrating game.

Sunday was excellent, though. Beat the crap out of Florida State first round...not much to say about that. We actually started our first round game late - once we had played 3 points against FSU, GW was already up 8-3 on Wake Forest. Somehow, we still finished before them...if that gives you any idea of how the FSU game went. Battled GW in semis...started off trading points for the first few points, but we really clamped down our defense in the second half, getting a couple breaks late and pulling away for the comfortable 17-12 win. Playing GW is always fun...will no doubt be a good matchup at Regionals if it comes to that.

Finals was even more excellent than beating GW, though. We were up against a team that, barring a disaster, will be at nationals coming out of this years weakest region, New England. Beating them would ensure us a non-16 seed at Nationals, if we qualify. This game was very similar in many ways to the GW game, although the wind kicked up a little and made the game much more of a straight upwind-downwind game. After trading points for most of the first half, we got a huge break 8-7 to take half 9-7. This set the tone for the second half, where we maintained our lead with strong offense and got two late breaks. After only giving up two breaks the entire game, including one on an upwind point after the D got a break, we finished the game out on offense, winning 17-14.

Overall, a good two weeks of Ultimate for the team.

My play was mixed over the course of these two weeks. Saturday at Centex was one of my best days in a long time...I was getting up reallllly good on deep balls, cutting strong, throwing some nice hucks, getting some big D's....all that good stuff. Sunday was a much more mixed bag....and that's being generous. I was hurting really badly from Saturday, seeing as Saturday at Centex was so grueling and I'm still not in top condition. I played like I was hurting badly, which sucked...made a couple mental errors, which is usually one of the strongest aspects of my game. Easterns was mostly good play all around - I had a couple turnovers on the first day, and I count 2 on the second day. The GW game pissed me off cause I had a drop on a huck from Sean in the endzone....it was coming in hard and I was kinda being screened by my defender, but there still isn't an excuse for not catching that pass. I also missed a pass that Tallz threw behind me a little on an in cut...also, unacceptable. Besides that, though, my play was very good most of the weekend. My best game of the weekend was the Harvard game, where I played some really good defense on their stud and had 0 turnovers on offense along with a bunch of goals.

The goods and the bads aside, I think the most important thing about these past two weeks is that I learned a lot about myself as a player and will use that to continue to improve throughout the remainder of this season.

Next up: West Penn Sectionals