Women's Outdoor Nationals Report 2008
Congratulations to WOW! players for a stellar performance this weekend at Women's Uni Nationals! To summarize how amazing we are, one need only mention that we started seeded 10th out of 14 or 15 teams, and ended up in 3rd Place! Major props to our nine stalwart women, who played seven great games with only one sub on Saturday and two subs on Sunday: Nancy, Susan, Lianna, Andrea, Laura, Marie, Lizi (joining us from Oxford Brookes), Kate from Kent (a valuable ringer), and myself.
Day 1
Saturday we surprised everyone (including ourselves) with a perfect 4-0 record with an almost unprecedented point differential.
Game 1 - versus Squaw (6-2) we discovered that our kick-ass zone defense could totally shut down our opposition.
Game 2 - versus Cambridge (Default win 11-0, friendly game score 11-1) was an official forfeit since they could only field 6 girls, but Cheesey joined the opposition for a friendly, but we gave them a little payback for the indoor varsity match with a spaghetti win (although, to be fair, many of their better players were missing).
Game 3 - versus Scruff (11-0) they just couldn't handle our quick conversions on the turn-overs and we bageled them solidly.
Game 4 - versus Subchi (11-1) we played hard for the victory, even though we were tired after a long day; the score represents how we never let up on defense.
Party!
Big shout-out to Susan for being the costume mastermind and executer; her hard work shopping, cutting, and painting (with some help from Chris Hollindale) and then a group effort on Saturday evening with the finishing touches resulted in a full team of identically outfitted super-hot super-women (and super-Chris x2). We rolled into the party amid general wonderment and proceeded to bust it out on the dance floor (led by Laura and Lianna). We won that party hands-down.
Day 2
Sunday, sore and tired, we nevertheless mustered our reserves to play 100% awesome ultimate, with a record of 2-1 and a 3rd place finish.
Game 1 - versus Jedi (8-3) was our cross-over game, and we came out to strong for the win; although they made a come-back late in the game, we stayed mentally tough and stuck it out to make it to the semi-finals.
Game 2 - versus Blaze (5-8) was our hardest match of the weekend. We finally found a team to play at our level and we pulled out all the stops. For most of the game the score was even, and we played incredibly intense defense to keep them at bay. Nancy showed us the way on offense with several high grabs in the endzone. We played our hearts out and were only defeated by a narrow margin.
Game 3 - versus Skunks (7-6) we determined to have a lot of fun while clinching 3rd place. Three of us donned our super-hero capes and with hard zone defense we took a substantial lead in the first part of the game. Our opponents were not to be discounted, however, and they made a late come-back. Not to worry: we called on our super-hero powers and won the game on universe point for a great end of the tournament!
Special thanks to:
Chris Lucchese for driving and cheering and generally being a great help.
Lizi for hosting us at her parents' very lovely and comfortable house, and provided us with plenty of tea and porridge.
Nancy for organizing the weekend.
Susan for being a costume diva.
Everyone for spectacular play and spirit!
YEAH WOW!
Rachel.