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TEAM HISTORY
Mary Presecan and Reid Smith (yes, that Reid Smith) founded the University of Texas Women's Ultimate Frisbee Club in the spring semester of 2000. During that semester, the twice a week practices drew perhaps 10 players regularly, and having a full game 7 on 7 scrimmage was impossible. Which was a shame, because our fields are really nice. We played in one tournament that semester, Centex, and when pressed for a team name, and the disappointment that all the good "orange" puns were taken, we adopted the name "Lady Marmalade" in part because marmalade is the required orange, and in part because we all dug the Labelle version of that song.During the Fall of 2000, recruiting efforts strengthened the team, and we were able to have full team scrimmages, and numbers to start attending away tournaments, the first being Harvest Moon, where we played savage, didn't win a game, but our good sportsmanship won the spirit award of the tournament. It was wooden and pretty and almost made up for the heat exhaustion suffered by team members. The spring semester brought more competitive tournaments, including Mardi Gras, where we able to bring subs (5 of them!) and won our first game. Never mind that the game was time capped at 5 points. As much as our team improved, however, at the end of the season we were still unable to beat our sectionals rivals, Rice.
The Fall 2001 - Spring 2002 season was a turning point in both the dedication and competitiveness of our team, as we set a goal for ourselves of qualifying for the nationals tournament. To achieve this goal, we recruited heavily, channeled positive energy and pain pills into the torn ACL's of two key players, bumped up our practices to three times a week, and enlisted national caliber club ultimate players, Mary McDowell and Harper Ray, as coaches. In the spring, we won the "B" bracket of the Mardi Gras tournament, and competed in two "flying distance" tournaments. At the Terminus Tournament in Atlanta we improved so much that we placed 8th in a field of nationally ranked teams, and began to get noticed on a national level, or maybe it was just our really bright orange uniforms. Later that spring we won the sectionals tournament, finally beating Rice, and at the regionals tournament not only did we win all 7 games that we played, but we did not allow an opponent to reach double digits in scoring. Winning regionals gave us our first appearance at nationals, only 2 ½ years after becoming a team. The national tournament in Spokane was an incredible experience where our team was able to watch and play ultimate at a higher level than ever before. Although we did not win any of the games, our sportsmanship again was rewarded with the spirit of the game award and our egos were soothed by a city wide game of catch-the-UPA-stress-ball between 8 cars speeding around Spokane. As an important aside, no team members were arrested.
For the 2002-2003 season, our team again set our sights on the nationals tournament and a top 12 finish, and we performed beautifully at home in Austin finishing with a 5-8 finish at nationals and 22nd on the UPA College Women's ratings (and we beat 14, 17, and 19 at nationals). With over 30 women on our roster, we had the opportunity to fly to several tournaments with full squads as well as get in some great play closer to home, and that experience, as well as continued excellent coaching from Mary McDowell and Harper Ray, was a big factor in our success at nationals. At Mardis Gras, we finished second in a tight match against Iowa. At Centex, we split into two teams and still won all of our college games and played well against club teams. Besides a lot of hot play, we also got a hot new name in 2002-2003 (an no, it wasn't HOT although that was one of the finalists). We changed out name to Mélée and are hoping that it won't become associated with anorexic blondes in halter tops anytime soon.
The 2003-2004 season saw us once again in the 5-8 position at nationals but moving up to and 8th place ranking. Highlights of the season included winning Mardis Gras, finishing the regionals tournament with only 14 points scored against us, and great play at nationals in Seattle. We also had a great time at President's Day and Stanford Invite on the west coast as well as at home for CenTex and back in Baton Rouge for Southern Collegiates. We were led by coach John Kidd who joined us from Seattle on his way to Atlanta. We benefitted greatly from his experience and great attitude towards ultimate.
The 2004-2005 season was a great year for Mélée. We got a new coach, Scott Berens, and made it to Semis at Nationals. We went undefeated at Pres. Day, made it to Semis of Mardi Gras, and Easterns, and Finals at Centex.
There was a lot of growth during the 2005-2006 season. Mélée graduated many players the previous season and we were a very young team, and the young players stepped up. Mélée grew a lot throughout the season and attended top tournaments such as Mardi Gras, Stanford Invite, and Centex. We again finished at the top of our region and performed well at Nationals. The University of Texas Women's Ultimate Program also had a lot of growth. We did a lot of recruiting and were very excited to establish a second team named Aikona.
2006-2007 brought many challenges. With the help of Lady Marmalade alum Cindy Stowell and Reid Smith (yes, that Reid Smith) Aikona became a full fledged ultimate team. The name was changed to Mayhem, logos designed, and uniforms purchased. The hard work of the team payed off with their first victory of the year at the painful and windy Texas Sectionals tournament in College Station. Later that day, with the hard-cap on, the Mayhem ladies were one point away from upsetting the solid A&M Sky U in their home town.