USA Ultimate

2012 US Open -- Open Day 3 Recap

 

"You’ve got to have a team identity for when you’re in a tough spot," said Riot’s Gwen Ambler at this morning’s Building a Successful and Enduring Program, a presentation at the US Open Organizer’s Conference. "When it rains, when you’re down a few breaks, when things are going wrong, you need something to fall back on and rally behind."

 

I wonder how often Gwen ponders lightning delays. 

 

For the second day in a row, the tournament was postponed due to a lightning storm. While there wasn’t much more than some rain and distant strikes yesterday, today’s hail and heavy thunder was more intense. Again, players took refuge in the host site’s gymnasium. While some played basketball and others played flutterguts, Ring of Fire realized the pool was accessible and that, once the lifeguards eased up a bit, unsuspecting teammates could be pushed in. Fun, but not as good a time as their scheduled semifinal against Chain Lightning would have been. 

 

Truck Stop’s only game of the day was against Chain. We knew that both of us, along with Ring and Johnny Bravo, were locked into semis, but the result still mattered for seeding. For us, a win by three or more would match us up with Ring, a win by less would require point differential to settle the matter, and a loss would mean playing Bravo. 

 

 

 

We lost. Though we went up 5-2 and 6-3, we started missing on deep throws and allowing them to go deep on us. Chain clawed back to take half 8-7, and after a score to go up 9-7, called a time out. On the next point, they called another timeout after forcing a Truck turn, and though we got the disc back, time had run out. We scored the final goal to lose 9-8. These are the early season losses that you hope build character and provide motivation for the rest of the summer. 

 

The Open semifinals are at 9:30 tomorrow, and the final is at 1:30. Until then, it’s off to dinner, an appearance at the tournament party, and into to bed in preparation for our earliest and most important morning of the weekend.