USA Ultimate

		2011 Club Championship Day 4 Recaps: Mixed Recap (Ziv) Open Recap (Toner) Women's Recap (Levine)

The Mixed Division Finals was an amazing game. Though the wind was strong enough to potentially play a factor, teams scored both upwind almost as much as downwind, and there were very few turnovers as a result of the weather. Both the Polar Bears and Blackbird played fantastically, as evidenced by the close score. In the end, it’s hard to tell what made the difference, but Blackbird was able to close it out, winning 17-16. 

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

The game started with two breaks from Blackbird. The Polar Bears quickly re-evaluated, scored a point, then rallied off two breaks of their own. Dan Gillick then threw a high stall open side throw to Whit Clark just inside the endzone, and when the observer overturned the stall call, Blackbird tied up the game at 3-3. The next point, Jimmy Chu skied Tyler Grant in the endzone, and the Polar Bears pulled ahead. Blackbird ended up playing catchup in a similar fashion until Polar Bears pulled ahead 7-5. After a high stall turn from Lisa Pitcaithley for the Bears, Brian Garcia laid out for a score. A throw into the ground from Eli Kerns for the Bears led to another score for Blackbrid, and in the next point, Tyler Grant had a huge grab through a group of people which led to Blackbird taking half, 8-7. 

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

The second half was just as exciting as the first, yet it was the Polar Bears turn to chase after Blackbird. Blackbird received coming out of the half, and scored after a long point. The Bears answered with an amazing inside break through from Daniel Naruo to Adam Raty, who dished the disc to Eli Kerns for a Polar Bear point. The next point, the Polar Bears were fighting up wind, but ended up with a break to tie the score at 9. The Bears rattle off yet another two breaks to bring the score to 11-9, working upwind as if the gusts had no affect on their throws.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

Blackbird answered, yet couldn’t catchup until Dan Gillick laid out for a break to tie the score again at 13. At this point, Brian Garcia, who had been a huge thrower for Blackbird, had come down from a jump with a dislocated shoulder, and walked off the field with an injury call. The Bears didn’t allow another break from Blackbird here, as Lucas Dallmann had a huge sky over Tyler Grant to make the score 14-13. Blackbird ties it up, but in the next point An-Chi Tsou burns her defender deep into the endzone to make the score 15-14.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

Anna Nazarov had an amazing layout grab just outside the Blackbird endzone and led to another point, the score now tied at 15. This point saw a contentious call, as Jimmy Chu threw to Marie Madaras on the open side, who hucked to  a teammate for the score. However, a travel was called on Chu, so the disc came back. The observer then overruled the travel, but because of the continuation rule, the disc stayed with Madaras and the score did not count. Polar Bears would then turn the disc over, and Blackbird scored to bring the count to 16-15. After some great work from the Polar Bears offensive line, a huge outside in huck was thrown to Lisa Pitcaithley streaking deep. She effectively bodied out her defender, and laid out to catch the disc on her finger tips. The score was now tied at 16, universe point. Though Blackbird was moving upwind, Nick Slovan put up a huge outside in huck to Adam Scow just outside the endzone, and with an easy open side shallow throw to Anna Nazarov, Blackbird won the game, 17-16.

San Francisco’s Blackbird is the 2011 Mixed Division Champion, and qualifies to represent USA at the 2012 Worlds games in Japan.