Polar Bears vs. District 5 in Mixed Division Finals
Posted: October 30, 2010 08:55 PM
2010 USA Ultimate Club Championships
Day 3 Recap
Mixed Division
By: Matt Spillum, special to usaultimate.org
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – MIXED QUARTERFINALS
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – MIXED SEMIFINALS
Saturday in Sarasota: grass silvered with dew, a steady breeze from the east-ish and teams warming up decide who will play for the crowd on Sunday. This particular season, the morning found eight teams with very little separating them. No one had truly dominated all the way through. Each of our contestants could boast of many strengths and a few weaknesses, leaving each game a matter of which aspect would be predominant in any given game. Would Chad Larson Experience, for example, be the team that swept pool play Thursday, or the same team that struggled with execution all Friday long? Would we see the District 5 that played with wildly inconsistent effort on Thursday, or the gritty, athletic team that ground out a tough win against CLX? Those were the kinds of questions that Saturday’s games were going to answer for us.
With such a wild reorganization of the seedings after two days of play, the quarterfinal rounds offered a couple of matchups that seemed more suited to the semifinals, or perhaps even the finals. One such game would have to be Slow White against Chad Larson Experience. Slow White’s Mike Miller, talking before the game, said, “going in, we hadn’t seen them yet this season, but we knew we’d have to go through them. Might have thought it would be later on, but it’s better to get them now… they are a team that is willing to take chances, and fight to get the disc back if they turn. Our D line is really good at offense, though, so we are looking to get some of those breaks.” Chad Larson’s Ben Lyons kept the steady mantra that his team has had all weekend: “Our overall plan doesn’t change, we just put our intensity on D, try to be efficient on O and grind them down under our pressure.” Getting the early break had been a priority for Slow White all tournament, and after a CLX turn, Rusty Ingold-Smith’s layout catch for the first point seemed a good start. The teams traded breaks then, before Evan Patistas found Liz Hand to take a 5-3 lead. At this point, the Slow White game plan looked like a good one, though certainly the game was still tight to half. The second half saw both teams settle down into an offensive groove, while applying pressure on D as much as they could. Chad Larson Experience, however, stayed out of the kind of risky turns that had plagued them the day before, instead smoothly cutting apart a visibly tiring Slow White team, taking their place in the semifinals. “Chad Larson had no real breaks in the second half… they played like the World Champions they are. Slow White’s defense couldn’t put enough pressure on them to get back in it,” said Hall of Fame player and proud father Harvey Edwards of his son, Cassidy ‘Bluto’ Edwards’ team’s effort.
Another odd quarters matchup pitted sixth overall seed Polar Bears against the eighth seed Overhaul. An-Chi Tsou of Polar Bears put her keys down as “getting an early start and finding our flow and focus. We need good chemistry from the first pull and we want to keep upbeat sidelines. From what we’ve seen, they play a lot of vertical stack, so we want use our D to figure out poaches and defend the dump.” Overhaul’s Colin McIntyre wanted his team to learn from their loss against Bucket: “we were more aggressive and less disciplined than we wanted to be. Bucket was the first team that we’ve seen that just seemed more athletic than we were. Fatigue played a role as well; we did have some key injuries. For today, Polar Bears are a fast team rather than a tall team, so we’ll look to stay close on D and force the throws into the air.” The game began with both teams having opportunities to get breaks, and the score would shift in small runs, two or three points at a time. Both sides had some success with their D looks, and Polar Bears were able get a break to stick before taking half 8-6. The second half, on the other hand, was decidedly less even, and Polar Bears kept up the hustle as they converted turns on the excellent play of Clay Miller and Jacob Serrano. And while Overhaul did not lack for desire, the fatigue and shortened roster began to tell as the game progressed. By the time Overhaul’s Colin McIntyre managed to throw the score to make it 12-7, Polar Bears’ D was looking too much to handle.
Polar Bears would ride that intensity and focus to the semifinals with a comfortable win.
Bucket and District 5 would also have seemed more suited to the semifinals, but the respective third and second seeds had, like everyone else, upended their expected order in the very even field. District 5’s John Korber continued to cite his team’s game plan as if by rote: “we know we have to bring it and work hard. If we play hard every point, we win, if we play every other point, we can lose, and every third point, we get embarrassed. We just have to focus on playing our game every point.” Bucket’s Chris Goodson acknowledged what every team already knew about their game plan: “this is a good matchup… depth will be key. We enjoy hucking, of course, but we are going to try to work a little bit more under game, not forcing the bomb so much.” The game started with District 5’s focus on shutting down easy long looks paying off as they took an early lead, 5-3. The teams would trade from there, with many turns and D’s on both sides along the way to an 8-6 District 5 lead at half. All weekend, District 5’s big athletes dominated the stat sheet, but one of their unsung keys has got to be the handling of Liz Middleton, whose endless supply of automatic resets kept that offense flowing against every team in the field. The game in the second half remained close, with Bucket going over and over to the huck and bringing down their share of them, often to Sam Gainer. The aforementioned mingling in of a short game really only materialized in a point that saw Mira Walker find Colin Bellair to tie the game at 13-13. After District 5 answered, Bucket was the victim of a Kendra Fredrick D, giving D5 the disc close to the goal, where Liz Middleton was able to hit John Korber for the goal that booked them a spot in the semifinals.
Drag’n Thrust met Mischief in the fourth quarterfinal. Mischief’s Mark Smith told me “we’re really glad to be playing an unfamiliar team… all weekend, we feel we’ve been playing at or below the level of our opponents, so maybe a new face will help us get out of this funk. We just need to execute and take care of our short turns.” Drag’n Thrust’s Dave Klink joined the chorus of team spokespeople to go with repetition for his keys to the game: “For us, it’s still about our depth on D. We have four D lines; they have one O to solve. We will just keep putting those lines out there to get pressure and turns.” It’s good to see the American tradition of sports cliché sound bites finally taking root in Ultimate. This game stayed close for much of the way, with neither team able to establish any real momentum despite having opportunities. Mischief, of course, had to like their chances in a close game, as all their successes had been near things, while Drag’n Thrust had really not had to go to their O line as regularly in any other game of the tournament. When Andy Fisher found Matt West to give Mischief half 8-7, Drag’n Thrust’s occasional miscues began to loom large. Championships are where teams find out who they really are, of course, and the tide began to turn back after Josh Hemmesch reeled in a Dave Klink huck to bring Drag’n Thrust back level at 11-11. Alex Delagard’s big D the next point set up Missy Klajda’s throw to James Hron, giving Drag’n Thrust a lead they would not relinquish. Despite the efforts of Sarah Carnahan, Andi Coleman and Mark Smith, Mischief could not pull back in range, and Josh Hemmesch’s score to Laura Steinkraus sealed Drag’n Thrust’s place in the semifinals.
After the quarters’ dust had settled, only the four teams from power pool F remained, giving us two rematches of the previous day’s action. Whether that pool was truly stronger top to bottom is a matter for debate, but the results certainly suggest they were better Saturday morning. The rematches one day later provided some intrigue in a division with so much parity and talent. Which teams would make the adjustments from the previous day’s game? If the 2010 Mixed Division has taught us anything, it is that the teams that can adapt to their immediate circumstances are the ones to survive.
Chad Larson Experience would definitely have to be feeling better about their chances against Polar Bears in the semifinals. While Friday had been a day of maddeningly inconsistent play and at times jaw-dropping errors, the quarterfinal had been a display of the best of their athletic prowess and ability to move the disc around defenses as though they were pylons on an obstacle course at times. Likewise, Polar Bears had to like their position after their commanding victory over Overhaul. Over the weekend, it had been noted that, as Michael “Bob” Liu goes, so goes Mischief. When he hits his throws and gets the disc in power position, the team hums like a fine-tuned engine. When he forces the issue and tries to thread too fine a needle, opponents get opportunities. The sidelines for both teams started the game really involved, and both teams got out of the gate fast, with CLX getting an early break to go ahead 3-2 following a Jeremy Meyer to Blake Larson score. The teams then embarked on a twenty-five minute adventure of a point featuring five D’s, several other turns, an injury, a time out and many calls before Bob Liu could find Daniel Naruo to bring Polar Bears level. From there, the teams traded after a Polar Bears break following a Robert Gormley D brought the game back on serve, with Bears taking half, 8-7. The second half saw Polar Bears tighten their grip on the disc and the game, giving Chad Larson very few opportunities for breaks, while the Polar Bears pressure collected a couple of discs from CLX and converted them. Despite the efforts of Kevin Seiler, Chelsea Twohig, Doug Jacobs and some truly vintage play by Jon Staron, Chad Larson Experience could not find a way to get the disc away from Bob Liu, Greg Marliave and An-Chi Tsou. When Ernst Westphal claimed a D and called a quick time out at 14-12, Polar Bears, it was the beginning of the end for the Iowan team. From there, Robert Gormley hit Greg Marliave for the point that sent the sixth seed to the finals.
In the first meeting between Drag’n Thrust and District 5, it had been the Minnesota side that had managed to dictate the game on D, getting a quick break and putting more and more pressure on to take the game. Drag’n had looked far less in control in the quarterfinal, where they had to rely on their offense to get them back into a game. Meanwhile, District 5 had really only had fairly close battles in the later round games. They had definitely focused more and more on staying in games and taking the opportunities presented. Both teams looked built to battle in athletic games, but it seemed that Drag’n Thrust might be better served with an early lead to get their D lines involved, whereas District 5 at their best was as confident on O as on D. Drag’n Thrust got that early break, getting a turn on the goal line to set up Alex Baker’s throw to Robyn Fennig to open the scoring. District 5 answered immediately, Zac Roy to Justin Segool, and out came the zone. The wind remained a presence by this point, but it was certainly not strong, and the District 5 zone featured a loose, downfield cup, and tight wings to deny short swings up field. Drag’n Thrust struggled to find a consistent popping pattern against it, however, and the D bore its first fruit when a short pass sent awry opened up James Korver to haul in a Jeff Ho pass to get the break back for D5. The game stayed close for the rest of the half, when Alex Morrone claimed a D for District 5 and then caught Nick Schiener’s pass to take half 8-6. Drag’n Thrust looked more fluid against the zone in the second half, but never really managed to break it open, leaving them to get any points from their O line after many, many passes. Alicia Carr, Dave Klink and Alex Baker would work and work to get an opening to find Josh Hemmesch, Lindsey Pastor and Jaime Glader downfield.
John Korber kept the deep zone sealed, while Alex Morrone and Dwight Harris looked for discs floating too long in the center and wings. The game went into soft cap at 12-11, and Drag’n Thrust finally closed to 12-12 on an Alex Baker to Robyn Fennig score. District 5 was fortunate to have Brandon Redding pull down a floaty pass that could easily been a crucial turn, allowing them to get another Zac Roy to Justin Segool score. On the ensuing point, Liz Middleton came up big once again with a critical point block, and Jeff Ho converted to Alex Morrone to send District 5 on to the finals.
And then there were two. Congratulations to our finalists, Polar Bears of Castro Valley, CA, and New Haven, CT’s District 5. Also, congratulations to Drag’n Thrust, winners of the VC Ultimate Green Initiative Award, for bringing in a staggering sixty bags of recycling under the fierce determination of defensive stalwart Martha Harris. Sunday’s final between Polar Bears and District 5 looks more and more like the match up of the two teams that can not only adapt to adversity best, but can keep themselves together and focused no matter what the situation. Which one will bring it when it really counts? We’ll find out Sunday afternoon.