*This post is heavy UNC. Sorry. It was the best I could do.
About two months ago, I wrote about Brian's "Exceptional" speech to the UNC women's team. At that time, Brian was speaking to the girls about NYNY and their first trip to Nationals. At some point during NYNY's regular season, the team got together and decided that to make Nationals, they would have to do something more, different, rare....exceptional. Therefore, the team started practicing at 6am. They made Nationals that year for the first time ever.
Now, for all I know, Brian could have been bullshitting me and the girls. Either way, it got the girls taking exceptional measures to accomplish what was so uncommon - a Nationals birth. They had already traveled to two Cultimate tournaments when the funds were not there and some members of the team were upset about the money. In retrospect, they probably did not even need to go to those two tournaments to make it to Nationals. But, they wanted to be sure. Each individual player began putting in extra time outside of practice. I would end practice right on time and players left and right would drop to the ground and start doing planks, pushups and situps. I would begin to walk to my car, and would take one last look down at the turf, and there they would be, still doing their conditioning. Brian and I both offered to stay late, come early to practice, to work with girls individually on skills. Many took us up on those offers. They took exceptional measures. They truly deserved to have accomplished something that UNC has not done since 2001.
Sorry this is a biased review of AC Regionals. People can feel free to make their own comments.
Pool Play
Our first game was against Duke. Oddly enough, even though they are only 20 minutes away from us, this was the first time we played them all spring. Brian and I decided to throw as many zone looks as possible at them and then go man when it went to swing handler. It basically worked beautifully and we won the game pretty easily. Our second game was against UNCW, which was after a bye. It was hilarious to me that one of UNCW's best players traveled every time she hucked a forehand and then complained when we called it. But, the observers did not over turn any travel calls. My first real tournament ever, back when I played with Michigan State (which, congrats Infamous ladies), was Terminus in 2002. We played UNCW first game on Sunday. Michigan State was basically a new team. I think a women's team competed the year before at Sectionals...but, most of the year they played on the guy's team. Anyway, EVERY throw we made they called a travel. Even when they were up like 10-2. I will always remember asking their captain to lighten up a bit. I am not saying that we should have been allowed to travel, but seriously? Anyway, it just made me laugh inside so much to see these UNCW women traveling so much, getting called for it, and then throwing a fit.
Well, we beat them, but I must admit it was tight in the end. Lia English is a pretty damn good player from UNCW and we gave her too many backhand hucks. For the most part, UNC runs two teams (one offensively focused and one defensively focused) and at the end of the game, I had to call lines. The line I called in worked it up the field for probably almost 50+ passes and then turned it on the endzone line. It was not on a greedy look, just a poor execution. They got it right back, scored, and then pulled. We got it back again, and scored. 15-12, game over. UNCW must have spent everything in that game because they lost the next backdoor game 15-8.
Semifinals
We played Florida in the semifinals. I was interested to see how Florida's best receivers would do as handlers, and they did just fine. Unfortunately, they did not have the supporting cast necessary to match us, so the game was somewhat of an "easy" win. The girls stayed in their teams most of the time and I remember that our "D" line really, really worked hard out there. The points they were in created LOTS of turns and exhausted FUEL. I was always tempted to put in Janna or Kate Scott on those "D" lines to give them more offensive help, but honestly, they were doing a better job by turning it and playing hard D on the UF ladies. The best players on UF were exhausted after our "D" was in there and our "O" line had no trouble marching it up the field. Later in the game, I began to give our "D" more offensive power, just so we could end the thing. I distinctly remember players like Lauren Edwards and Lisa Kirkley from the "D" line playing exceptionally well. They were constantly open and making cuts and grabs that they have not made all season. Also, we have a wonderful freshman named Maquire who was always making the right cuts and completing very perfect reads on the disc.
Finals
Wake Forest. Man, we can not get our heads around Wake Forest's defense. Also, I think I made a coaching mistake when it came to guarding Kennedy. They went up 3-0 on us, we called a time out, tried to adjust, called lines, and got nothing. I think the score was 5-1 at one point, Wake, and Brian and I both looked at each other. Either A) we had to go on one hell of a run now or B) we had to start thinking about the game to go. Half time was approximately 9-1 (yes, we were playing to 17) and we both agreed that plan B was the better option. Surprisingly enough, when we went with plan B, the girls started scoring and the second half was much more even. Leslie Peck had a really nice layout D during this run and the girls just were not going to give up. The score of the second half was 8-6 Wake and that was with everyone playing evenly and Janna Coulter not playing. Wake has a starting seven and definitely two of the girls (Lucia and Kennedy) hardly ever come out. What I really like about our team is that we do not have to depend on any one or two people that much and everyone plays. I can not handle calling lines, it makes my head spin. Long story short, we lost, we moved on. Congrats Wake Forest.
Game to go
Vs. UGA. I have never in my life seen that many lay out Ds by a women's college team in my life. The rain started falling and the girls were bound and determined to go to Boulder. Jill Simmerman, Julie Ellison, Heather Zimmerman, Erin Wiltgen all hit the ground. Jill Simmerman had three lay out ds with one of them being exceptionally sick. I do not think Heather had ever laid out on D before this game. Erin did not get the layout d, but she had also never hit the ground before on D. Kelly Gillis made a sick layout grab in the corner of one end zone toeing the line. Julie made 2 incredible bids with the disc coming to her player on a deep shot, about shoulder height, and she would get the D. I think both times the UGA player called foul. First time, the UGA player retracted her call I believe, second time, we did not go to the observer but should have as he later admitted he would have ruled it as a clean D. Somewhat of a coaching mistake because that D happened right before the lightening delay and Julie wanted the Observer to rule on it when we got back to the field. She talked to Brian and I about it during the lightening delay (which was about an hour and we were up 5-1) and we said to not go to the observer as they did not have the best angle. We resumed play, UGA kept the disc but went back to thrower and they scored. And they scored again. 5-3 now and probably would have been 6-1 if we would have let Julie go with her gut. But, no worries, the girls took half 9-4 I believe. The layout Ds kept coming, the rain kept falling, and Lynn Pudlo, Kaitlen Baden, Karen Kimel got multiple run through Ds. Suzanne Willis and Sarah were getting hand blocks. Claire never stopped running. Janna was pulling end zone to end zone in shitty weather (and did I mention she is a freshman? I can not tell you how nice it is to have a player on a women's team that can pull like she plays open. It really helps your defense). Julie Ellison was bombing 60 yd flicks around four person cups to Ashley Barfield streaking deep. Dorothy Scott was the ever consistent, smart, solid handler. Kate Scott never stopped running. I kept yelling to her - "Kate Scott, get the disc in your hands, now!" She did, and that was exactly where we wanted the disc. In the hands of our 5th year veteran.
We won that game 17-7. If you were there watching it, you would probably agree the the girls played every point like it was double game point. The girls played every point like it was their last. They played like if they lost that point, the "curse" would creep in.
After the game, Lisa Kirkley, one of our seniors and someone I played with during my two years on the team, came up to me and said, "Thank You." I responded with a quick "No. Thank YOU."
Looking forward to Boulder. Good luck to all participants. Thank you Rachel Joffe for a well run Regionals. And, Thank YOU Pleiades 2008.
