Spring 2010 Results
Results will be added as the season progresses.
Mardi Gras
TUFF and Graze - Baton Rouge, LA - Feb 13-14
TUFF had a difficult tournament, going 0-4 on Saturday, and 1-1 on Sunday. Losses were against Minnesota, Iowa State, Arkansas, and Washington University on Saturday. On Sunday, TUFF played their first game against Grinell. After going up initially, Grinell caught up, but TUFF was able to hold out and win 9-8. Texas then went on to play Notre Dame in the quarterfinals, where they lost 13-4.
Graze, who went split squad, also had a tough tournament. Both Graze-X and Graze-Y went 0-4 in pool play on Saturday. On Sunday, both teams turned it around. Graze-X winning 3 games in a row to take them to the Chumpionship Bracket Semifinals, where they lost to Wisconsin B. Graze-Y also won their first game on Sunday against UCF B, but then lost to Lawrence in a close 13-12 game, taking them out of the runnings.
The Stanford Open
Graze - Stevinson, CA - Febrary 27-28
Courtesy of Abhi Kudva:
The last weekend of February saw the other half of Graze compete in the Stanford Open tournament in Stevinson, California. Although the weather was predicted to be rainy and cloudy, it was all sunshine throughout the weekend, which was a fantastic sign for Graze. Seeded 4th in their pool, Graze began play by facing UC-Irvine, the 1 seed. Graze after shaking of a poor start were only down 6-7 at half. They hung in on every play and had some chances to even take half. Both the defense and offense were running quite smoothly. The second half however, didn’t go as planned. The defense continued to make UC-Irvine earn every point and forced turnovers but the offense had some mental lapses and end zone jitters that lead to Graze losing the game at hard cap, 7-11. Similar offensive woes continued into the first half of the next game against Las Positas, where Graze conceded half to the Hawks 2-7. The second half saw a slight improvement as the teams traded points. The offense did pick up and the defense’s consistent effort and play made it difficult for the Hawks to run away with the game. The game ended on hard cap at 10-5, Hawks. Disheartened, the team welcomed the bye following a 0-2 start to the day. Graze regrouped, refocused and were ready to play from the very first point of the next game against Almeda HS Darkmeat, a high school team with great athletes and competitors that were giving the top seeds in the pool a run for their money. Graze cleaned up their choppy offense, continued their defensive intensity and quickly jumped to a 10-0 lead. Darkmeat made a run of its own, but Graze didn’t lose focus and closed out 13-4. The last game of the day was the most exciting game so far of the Graze season. They played Puget Sound Postmen. After an intense first half that saw both teams come from behind and battle their way through, the Postmen took a 7-6 lead. They quickly jumped to a 9-6 lead at the very beginning of the second half. But once again, Graze regrouped and refocused and erased the lead. After that, the teams traded points until an 11-11 tie. The Postmen started the ultimate point on offense, but the Graze D, like it had been doing all day, stepped up to the challenge. Due to some great marking, dump-D and downfield D, Graze forced an uncontested stall. Graze took this opportunity and scored, winning the game and finishing of a successful Saturday 2-2 and tied for 2nd in the pool with three other teams. But, due to their unfavorable aggregate scores, Graze held on to their seed.
Sunday, Graze took the confidence it had gained the previous day and continued their smooth offensive plays and their consistent defense and beat Oregon-B, 13-8. Next, they played Humbholt State Buds. The Buds’ offense was hitting on cylinders and the Graze D, despite its efforts, couldn’t prevent the Buds from taking half. The second half saw the wind pick up a bit, but the Graze zone-O hung in there with patient movement of the disc and broke down the Buds’ D on numerous occasions. But the immense first half hole was one that Graze couldn’t get out off, losing the game 13-5 and finishing off the weekend with a 3-3 record. Though Graze would have loved to leave the tournament on a slightly better taste, the weekend overall was huge stepping stone for the team. Team chemistry took impressive strides forward, taking the offense and defense to a new level. Now that the bar has been increased, Graze can start preparing for the Texas sectionals with this new found confidence.
Big D in Little D
Graze - Denton, TX - February 27-28
Courtesy of Matthew Bierschenk:
The last weekend of February saw half of Graze visit Denton, Tx for Big D in Little D. The first day of the tournament saw Graze matched up in pool play against the likes of Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Trinity, and Abilene Christian. Despite high hopes for the day and a 3 seed in the pool, things did not go Graze's way on Saturday. A disappointing 0-4 finish led to some soul searching Saturday night. After a good night's rest and some Olympic viewing Graze came out ready to wreak shop in the Chumpionship bracket.
The first game on Sunday was against Texas State-B. All of the miscues that were so prevalent the day before were held in check. The offense ran smoothly, hucks were a viable option, and intensity and enthusiasm were very much present on the sidelines as well as within their parameters. The result was a resounding 13-7 victory. From there, Graze rolled into their own personal "revenge tour." Up first was Abilene Christian. Wind picked up and the elements were certainly a factor. Both teams ran effective zones that made it very tough to score upwind. Graze scored an up-winder to break and eventually lead at half 7-6. Starting the second half on offense and going down wind, Graze opened up a 2 score lead and then traded points for the majority of the remainder of the game. However, just before the soft cap sounded, Abilene scored their lone up-winder of the game and then broke Graze again down wind to take a one score lead. Graze scored to tie it at 10 in a game to 11. Facing the daunting task of having to score another up-winder to win the game, Graze revved up as much spirit as they could, got a turnover deep in Abilene's zone and then patiently worked the disk into the end zone for the right to play Trinity for the Chumpionship. In said Chumpionship, Graze relied heavily on the same strategy and inner fortitude that had allowed them to reach their current position. Their zone proved to be too much for Trinity to handle and they walked away with the Chumpionship with an 11-9 victory over Trinity. Big Cows.
The Stanford Invite
TUFF - Stevinson, CA - March 6-7
Although the tournament had been moved to the backup field site, we saw beautiful weather throughout the weekend which was a very nice change. TUFF started off with a difficult Saturday, going 0-4. Losses came against Pitt, Wisconsin, Cal, and UCSB. Despite these tough defeats, our play wasn't completely hopeless. In every game, TUFF was forcing D's and had opportunities for breaks, but poor decisions led to turnovers and goals for our opponents. We will contend that our level of play was closer to our opponents' than the scores might suggest.
TUFF began Sunday with a refreshed vigor to win, and started to show some good things on Sunday. In our first game against Carleton, we saw a tough loss, 6-13. Our play was competetive and we got a few D's, but we were unable to capitalize on several Carleton throwaways and made turnovers of our own. In our second game of the Day, we faced Stanford. We went up initially 3-1, and after a timeout, Stanford rallied back and fought. The game was close throughout, but we ended up carrying through and winning 13-9. Our last game of the day was scheduled to be against UCSB, but in order to avoid a duplicate game, we instead played Brown. (Stanford was originally scheduled to play Brown after our game, but had also already played them, so they instead played against UCSB). The game against Brown was where all of the hard work throughout the weekend finally payed off, and our offense finally clicked. We went up 6-0 at half, and ended up winning 11-3.
Final standings: Somewhere between 9th and 11th, depending on how you want to count it and on what may have happened in a second game against UCSB.
College Centex
TUFF - Austin, TX - March 20-21
Rain, rain, and more rain was perhaps the main story for Centex. After a frantic morning of following Cultimate's tweets, we found out that the UT Intramural Fields were first having a delayed opening, and then closed. Then the back up fields were closed. Then there was the rumor of the super-back up fields. Fortunately, the super back up fields just north of San Antonio were availalble for play, and so everyone made the drive down and got ready to play.
On Saturday, TUFF faced North Carolina, UCSD, Northwestern, and lastly Western Washington. The high winds proved to be too much for TUFF, and they lost to all four teams.
On Sunday, the weather was kind enough to allow us to play at the IM Fields. TUFF lost its first game against Iowa, but was able to come back and beat both Texas A&M and Arizona, ending the weekend on a positive note.
Thanks to everyone for putting up with the last-minute changes necessitated by the weather. We were somehow able to play the full tournament schedule, and that is thanks to the hard workers at Cultimate and the officers at Texas Ultimate who made it possible.