Straight to Individual highlights
(with apologies to chris...:-)
Ye noble Warriors,
A steadfast and hearty crew of Darkside and Pleiades players set out from the Ram's head parking lot to play on the ancient battlefield of our forefathers, Manassas, VA. The names as should be listed on the scrolls are Alan Hoyle, Amanda Hollebone, Andrew Ross, Bill Mark, Bill Laberis, Christine Vitron, David Hall, David Luebke, Emily Larson, John Eyles, and Mitch Sally, and Sarah Danninger. Amidst beautiful weather, we headed out of Chapel Hill and continued on, with the exception of a stop to partake of the joys of the Wendy's SuperBar (tm), until the destination had been reached. Arriving at the Hampton Inn, we relaxed and enjoyed the delights of the 7-11 Slurpy and played a game of Pictionary which would have been capped had it not been the last game of the day.
Awakening to the sound of the wake-up call, they broke their fast at the complementry continental breakfast supplied by the Hampton Inn. Taking to the road again, we headed to Bull Run park. Arriving shortly after the appointed hour, we waited for the captain's meeting, determined what name we were to be known as ("Pleiades" as it was), and discovered the tournament format. The name discussion: was ugly at times, we tried Pleicide (didn't like the negative connotations), Darkseides (a little too silly), oh and Broadside reared its ugly head, so we settled on Pleiades. Also, Coleman Ross, Andrew's brother, joined up with us.
Our first game was against Fun Bobby. Pleiades, in typical Darkside style, started out slow. They scored the first three points playing six on seven zone. (They were missing a woman, the gender split requirement for the tourny was three women.) Dave H. had a layout d in the endzone. They went on a 10-0 run at the start, and were in control most of that time. We finally started playing ultimate, and went on a 4-0 run, before finally giving up the last 3 goals.
Our second game against S.P.A.C.E. started out a little faster, but we quickly went down 6-3 in the game to 13. However, we rallied by playing some zone and took half at 7-6. In the second half, we didn't do nearly as well, only scoring 1 point and losing 13-8. This was the only team we didn't cheer, but we both had games waiting when we had the chance to do it.
Our third game, was against a DC team called Party Mix. They were made up of Chesapeake and Lucy players and were a very hard team. They had an extremely efficient offense, and scored on nearly every attempt they had. The Seven Sisters tried to rally, but the game was over rather quickly at 13-4. All 4 of the goals came off of hucks, 3 went to Bill Mark and the other was brought down by Dave Hall. We also met Otis, a very friendly dog.
In the fourth game of the day, against a team in orange shirts called Sunburst. Pleiades won the game. As we were walking up the the field, Bill Laberis made his now infamous offer of a free dinner to anyone who did a layout in the game into the giant puddle next to the field. Pleiades was really smart with matchups and played really good man-to-man defense. We took the half and never looked back. Capped at 11, We won 11-4. Coleman had an awesome layout D. After one of our timeouts, Mitch hecked in the disc on the goal line and threw a sweet break force throw for the score. Dave H. threw an ole to Alan for a score. Bones had a good deep play for a score. Dave H. instigated two timeouts (by yelling from the sideline), both of which we converted on.
In our fifth game, we played against Green Plastic Blocks which beat Party Mix earlier in the day (green plastic blocks had a recent mother/father pair and derived their name from one of the toys they brought with them to entertain their child). They took the early lead, and stayed up by about 4 for most of the game. We stayed in the game on the virtue of five or six hucks to andrew for scores. the other team dubed him hercules. it stuck. During the game, Andrew Ross went deep for a huck and was about to catch it when one of the opposing players started yelling for him to dive into the puddle for the disc. He twisted his ankle after dropping the disc after the distraction, called a Spirit of the Game foul and took an injury sub (He iced it and returned later, more on that later). Mitch came in and threw for a goal. At some point during this game, Bill mark had a HUGE point block. Also, The Brothers Ross (tm) Put on a spectacular offensive performace during this game. Pleiades stepped up its play and tied the game at 11's. Dave Luebke threw a beautiful inside out flick across the field to Alan to take the lead for the first time. Pleiades pulled, and managed to force a turnover. Someone threw the disc to Coleman who threw a BEAUTIFUL backhand huck to Amanda for the winning goal. Alan yelled in celebration, but it was from the beauty of the play, as he tried to get in for the next point. A significant percentage of Pleiades didn't know what the score was. (on an editorial note, this particular game was as satisfying an upset as was the Darkside vs. Athens Club team at the Southern Ultimate Classic in the Fall of 1994.
This left us 2-3 on the day, and the 4th place seed out of pool B. We had a choice of starting in the Winners bracket against the only undefeated team, or going directly to the losers bracket. After some discussion, Pleiades decided to play in the Winners bracket as the lowest seed. (any team losing in the first game, had a second round game against a team in the losers bracket, we figured we'd start out slow anyway, and use the first game as a warm-up.)
We then retired to a good (but expensive) Italian restaurant, and dined finely. Several highlights from there include finding a secret message in the advertizing box on the table, Sarah's straw animals, entertaining ourselves with the chalkboard out front, sprite refills, running into Green Plastic Blocks and Zen at the same restaurant.
All the games were very spirited and loads of fun. Going into the next day, Pleiades lost Mitch to medical school suck-up activity, Coleman to home, and Andrew to injury (his ankle swelled up later that night) (a bad night for the Ross contingent).
Pleiades watched baseball, Rain Man, and went to sleep.
In our first game, we played the only undefeated team, Sadie Huckins. We (or at least Alan) hucked alot. John Eyles was asleep in Washington, and left Pleiades with only 1 sub for each sex. Incredible layout by Dave L. for swill pass thrown by Alan. We hucked more than "Sadie Huckins" and had a good score for playing against the top team at the tournament. Sarah had a beautiful score on a short pass to the endzone, Dave H. threw a hammer to Emily for a score. We hung in the game 13-8. (Really good for playing with so few subs.)
In our second game, we played Zen, who were featuring several SAS and 3 Flatball players. It was a close game the whole way, each team taking the lead several times. There were many hucks both ways. At some point, Mark Holt (one of the Flatball players) started saying "see ya" whenever Alan got the disc. (Alan was apparently suffering from "tired handler syndrome.") Bones caught at least two hammers for scores. They got up 6-3, we started playing zone, and scored four straight to take the half. the second half went back and forth, we got too tense and after tying the game 11-11 cap 13, they went on the 2-0 run they needed to win. Great cup work during the zen game; they beat us on "swill hucks to glandular freaks." (Thank Dave Luebke for the quote.) Our women were better in every dimension than the Zen women, but their zone nullified that advantage. Sweet catches by Amanda and Christine with Zen giants bearing down on them.
After the game, and cheering zen, The tournament Director, came over to talk to us. He gave us a nice bright blue plaque and told us we were the Spirit of the Game Award Winners! Pleiades wasn't asked for a vote, but the director said "we wanted the vote to be unanimous." Alan took the award, and ran over to some of his Flatball friends, and waggled it in front of their faces "Hey, you lookin' for this?" (Zen has a tradition for winning the Spirit award at many of the tournaments they attend.)
We left, ate fine mexican food at Anita's (now deemed Official DC-Area place to go after ultimate by Dave L.), and arrived tired and sore in Chapel Hill....
All in all, a great tournament. Well worth the trip.
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