USA Ultimate

Mixed Division South Regionals Recap

It is great to see the growth in Mixed in the South. This is only our second year with 16 teams at Regionals, and coincidentally our second in a row with 3 bids to Nationals. However, even with the growth, there is Bucket and then everybody else playing on the fabulous fields of Burns Park in North Little Rock.  Bucket opened up round 1 with a 15-0 beating of the Flying Dutchmen from Texas and never looked back from there. Every other game went according to seed.

The second round saw Bucket continuing to take care of business as they won 15-5 against the other Atlanta team, Mixtape (nominated for best mixed team name. ever). Chattanooga's Nooga by Nature used their athleticism to edge out Austin's Cosa Nostra on double game point. The other side of the bracket saw Florida versus Florida with Wavin' Flag unable to repeat their Sectional performance against Sabre Corp, but putting up a lot of fight in the 15-12 loss. The last game of the round was my own Tune Squad versus Florida's Jacks on Jill.

The game opened with Tune Squad sending an early huck sailing a bit short and JonJ capitalizing to go up a break. Tune Squad matched the break two points later putting the game back on serve with Tune Squad up 2-1. The Jacksonville O-line responded with a clean point to tie the game at 2-2 and a pair of poor throws in the next two points gave JonJ two more breaks to go up 4-2. Tune Squad offense worked the JonJ zone until the 10th throw caught the deep coverage sleeping with a huck for a goal to make it 4-3. Tune Squad defense turned up the heat and got three breaks in a row to take the lead 6-4. The next point would be one of a few pivotal points in the game. Tune Squad defense again came out on fire getting a block from 2011 SO FOTY, Abe Coffin, but followed the block with a dropped disc. A great lay-out from a poaching defender gave Tune Squad the disc again only to see a poorly executed throw give it back to JonJ who, on what was now their third possession of the point, put it in for a goal. Jacksonville defense then gets a break to make it 6-6 and back on serve. Each team traded points until a poorly executed flick from Tune Squad gave the disc to JonJ's defense who took the break and the half, 8-7.

The second half opened with the Tune Squad defense taking possession away from Jacks on Jill only to give it back and see the next few points traded between offenses. Jacks on Jill threw a zone again at 8-10 and after 19 completions, Tune Squad had the disc on the goal line only to turn it over attempting to score. Jacks on Jill got their 6th break of the game and went up 11-8. Tune Squad would answer with a huck goal and a break to bring the game to 11-10. Jacks on Jill answered with a score and their 7th break of the game to go up 13-10. The last four points had each team play clean offense against tough defense with no turnovers ending the game 15-12 in favor of Jacks on Jill.

In the semi-finals, Bucket defeated another East Coast team, Nooga by Nature, to secure their place in the finals. At the same time Jacks on Jill beat Florida rival, Sabre Corp, setting up a 1 versus 2 match in the finals Sunday morning and sending Nooga and Sabre home for the day knowing that they still had a chance to fight their way through the back door for second or third place and a trip to Nationals.

In the second place bracket, 8 teams were fighting to stay alive when only 2 of them would still be playing on Sunday. Mixtape knocked off Austin's Beta Iota Delta (BID) 14-11 and Cosa Nostra handled Cat 5, 15-7. Fresh off their loss from Jacks on Jill, Tune Squad allowed BOHICA three early breaks - giving the Dallas squad a 5-1 lead that Tune Squad could never fully recover. Tune Squad clawed their way back to trail by one point at 10-9, but two more breaks BOHICA gave them the win at 15-12. Wavin' Flag met New Orleans Party Posse in the final game of this round. Wavin' was up late in the game by 4 points, but a Party Posse rally saw the teams tied in the hard cap. At double game point a throw from Party Posse out the back of the endzone looked like the end, but the Greatest occurred for the goal and the win. The two remaining Texas teams, BOHICA and Cosa Nostra took care of business in the last round of Saturday to stay alive in the second place bracket.

Both BOHICA and Cosa Nostra lost their first round games on Sunday, to Nooga by Nature and Sabre Corp respectively. This put the two TX teams in a position to have to knock each other out of the tournament in the third place bracket. In the finals, Bucket opened up the game with speed and athleticism, capitalizing on JonJ mistakes to take a large early lead, 9-3. Jacks on Jill got fired up and played tough to get the next 3 in a row and it looked like it was going to be a good game, but the momentum did not hold for the talented and spirited Jacksonville squad. Both teams saw miscues catching the disc with no less than 6 two-handed drops distributed across both teams in the last 7 points of play, but more of these errors came from Jacks on Jill and when the veteran Atlanta squad did give the disc over, Jacks on Jill could not capitalize. Bucket finished the game with a 6-1 run to win 15-7.

In the other games that round, BOHICA stormed back late against Cosa Nostra to win the game on universe point with Cosa pulling to BOHICA. At the same time, Nooga by Nature edged past Sabre Corp, 14-12.  That set up Jacks on Jill against Nooga by Nature in the second place game and BOHICA versus Sabre Corp in the third place game-to-go-to-the-game-to-go. Sabre Corp had a slight edge for much of the game. BOHICA tied the game at 10-10 and soft cap went on during the next point. Sabre Corp's offense took that point to go up 11-10, game to 13. BOHICA's offense was able to answer to tie it at 11-11, but could not stop the Sabre Corp offense in the subsequent point and allowed Sabre's defense to get a final break to win the game 13-11. Jacks on Jill took care of business early against Nooga and it seemed that the Chattanooga squad decided to rest key players in the second half of the game. Jacksonville captains, Josh Shepard (Rook) and Daniel West, are leading a talented and very spirited squad to Nationals with the second place victory win.

In the final game of the day, Sabre Corp opened up with an 8-1 half-time lead against what looked like a tired Nooga team. The Chattanooga squad stood up and battled in the second half trading points with Florida, but they were unable to close the gap. Sabre Corp avenged their loss from two rounds earlier, won the game 15-8, and took the third and final bid to Nationals.

Congrats to all of the teams that competed last weekend.