Straight to Individual highlights
Ah, the memories. A week later, and a look back at Serendipity, aka the Guilford tournament. The fields were sweet. The were soft and had this strange green stuff growing on them that felt really nice. Many folks had family members in attendance. Dan Parrish's, Cori's, and mine are the ones I recall. Perhaps I forget others.
We went 4-3 (one was a forfeit but we're counting it because we're pretty sure we would have won.) We played ECU first and we still psyche ourselves out against them (and, I think, against App. St.). Good mechanics, hard "D", and long points but bad throws and drops led to a 13-4 score.
Then we had a bye before facing Guilford. Our first play was a thing of beauty. We knew they would look for Carl after he rattled their cage at Ultimax so we left him out of it and did Mark to Alan to Albert. 2 passes and a score. We got pumped and went ahead 3-0. They rallied to tie but then we rallied again and won 9-6.
We played Davidson (fairly new team) and won 14-6. We were having a lot of success with zone, but we chose to focus on improving our man to man instead of continuing with zone. Then we played an exhausted SUNY - Purchase squad that had few subs. They said they would play to half time and see how the game was going by then. We were up 8-0 and they called it quits after the half.
We retired Saturday evening to a wonderful dinner at the Parrish household. Dan's mom spent most of the evening in the kitchen preparing spaghetti and we all enjoyed that while we watched basketball or played pool or Ms. Pacman. Then most of us returned to Chapel Hill, while a few stayed to enjoy the Violent Femmes concert and the party.
Needless to say we were pumped and looking forward to more pool play on Sunday (it was 7 teams with complete round robin and the top 4 playing an elim tournament at the end of the day). We had ASU and John's Hopkins left to play. John's Hopkins (who played close with Davidson and SUNY Purchase) bailed out though - the forfeit.
ASU played well and while we didn't play bad we didn't play with as much precision and intensity as I would have liked (or expected). Guilford had rallied from 8-4 to win 10-9 on them but we lost 11-6. Then we had to sit around for two rounds (bye and forfeit) before playing ASU again in the semis. This time was worse. Something to 4 or 5 I think. I think ASU is a solid team, but a team that we can beat if we are playing very well. Don't misunderstand, we had some solid moments against App. and generally played well.
Overall, it was a good weekend. We beat all of the teams I think we should have beat and managed to maintain our .500 record (even without the forfeit). I think we should aim at continuing to beat those teams, take aim at wins against App. St. and Duke, and scoring at least 8 against ECU as our goals for sectionals. I think it speaks well of us that every team we've lost to is currently ranked in the top 25. However, I would prefer to be able to talk about the teams we've BEAT in the top 25 or our own position there. :-) (BTW, Pleiades is 20th in the nation.)
Our team offense looked solid. The mechanics of our plays were solid. Sometimes the other team would play good "D" and stop them but there were seldom (with the exception of the Rodning incident) any blown plays. Our intensity and precision against Guilford (sans their rally to tie it at 3) were great.
A toast to gymnastics. Breaking somewhat new ground and igniting the cheers of teammates and fans, Mark Parris and Alan Hoyle notched some amazing layout catches during the tournament weekend. Scoring the last dramatic point against Davidson, The Rookie (Alan) made a nice deep cut on a transition, continuing through to grab a long huck at the apex of a sweet dive towards the back of the end zone. Next afternoon, The Babe (Mark) made a nice handler cut and refused to let gravity prevent a catch, making a great layout for an exciting catch. Acrobatic police. Players more commonly seen horizontal, including Ryan Brown, Carl Erikson, and Dan Parrish, made some highlight dives themselves.
Albert Monroe kept his concentration to catch a pass that must have traveled right through the hand of a diving defender. Cheers for concentration and looking the disc into the hand.
His beautiful cut on the opening point against Guilford was key.
A good example was his hard sprint after one of Alan's hucks. The disc was WAY out in front of him, but he heard our screams from the sideline and gave it everything he had. If that disc had been catchable he would have had it.
You probably shouldn't put this in the highlights, (well, I am anyway!) but you might mention that in addition to his usual role as our primary scorer, Carl is really starting to get verbally and emotionally involved on the team. I love it when he starts yelling things on the field because he's always, always right.
Early in the 1st game against App State we threw him a score. As I (Dave) ran up to the line I heard his defender panting to his App State teammate, "That motherfucker is fast!"
Swift of foot. Carl Erikson continued to run like a gazelle, making great cuts on offense and gritty efforts on defense. Top highlight came while playing the irates, when a handler of theirs kept yelling for a dump throw. When the player with the disc relented and opted for that throw, Carl blocked the pass, prompting the first handler to yell at his teammate for daring to take that throw. Really rattled their cage.
His cuts make the Mark to Carl to Mark to Carl look so easy.
Head in the clouds. After a play call, Chris Rodning calculated his move and cut smack through the middle of the passing lane on the strong side, demonstrating amazing powers of concentration and clear thinking. Almost paralleled by that odd habit of continually calling eight players on the line instead of a Magnificent Seven. At least he can sing now and then. Symptomatic.
Not necessarily a highlight but credit where credit belongs: calling subs is not easy and I think Chris does a fine job of getting good PT for everyone and keeping a balanced squad on the field. Wine and cheese applause please.
He also had lots of nice inside outs to keep our flow going.
Dan also had a beautiful block right in front of our sideline against Guilford followed by full-field sprint (I think we activated his "fight or flight" instinct with our screaming) to receive a huck from Alan.
Also, several trademark, "oh, is this disc behind my ankle for me? why, thank you" catches.
Also, in the App St. game. he was running another give and go with Carl but Carl's lead pass was high and went over his head. But a quick turn around and layout he got the reversal of fortune. It was also the first time THE HAT has ever come off (and that my glasses got bent.) Carl agreed this was payment in full for the gravelly path incident with the rarity of a Parris layout balancing the gravel.
Yet another player who can be underestimated based on appearances. Before the Guilford game, my dad asked, "besides yourself (haha!), who would you say your top players are?" I started pointing out folks (there were lots) and when I got to Ryan my dad was quick to comment, "You know when I watched you warming up I saw him and he didn't really impress me. But then when you started playing he was ALWAYS open and he caught everything and every single throw looked good!"
He also threw a hammer for a score, worked wonderfully in the homey's we ran, and played all day Sunday while he was sick.
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