Kleinman Shadrach Results

By popular request, or rather, that of Joaquin, I will now discuss the recent tournament results of my mixed team, Shadrach. I will stick to Kleinman tonight and detail Spawnfest later this week.

We traveled two weekends ago to Kleinman Eruption in Portland, Oregon. We were ranked 6th in the tournament and 2nd in our pool, behind CTR from the Bay (alright, I'm done linking to every single UPA Score Reporter page: find it yourself). Our squad was tight, only 16 players, and afforded much opportunity for playtime. I am a confidence and rhythm player; I need to get on the field and play and run to get my A-game engaged. So, I was quite happy with the plentiful points and my resulting prowess on the field. I was getting open in and out and throwing relatively few turnovers.

We beat the three lower teams in our pool, despite a few scary enemy comebacks when we lacked discipline and resolve during second half leads. CTR was not such a thrilling success. They had an impressive mix of veterans and young athletes, all of whom moved the disc comfortably and quickly. They were very dynamic on offense and defense. We were stifled. Their poaches and layouts earned breaks over and over and we could just not get rolling, ending at a disappointing 15 - 7.

Sunday morning, after a late night of drinking and dancing, we showed up to quarterfinals against Horde. We had nothing to lose: this was a team we would have to beat on the way to Northwest mixed 4th place. They had probably been warming up for a good hour more than we had but it didn't really show in the first half. We scored the first point on their zone without a turnover---I outran their deep deep on a fast low huck---and then our defense exploded into a three point lead. All of a sudden, we took half 8 - 3: I had scored as many points in the half as their whole team had. We were all fierce on defense and chill on offense and everyone on Shadrach was contributing. Horde just kept misfiring.

And that's when we crumbled. We were, perhaps, too confident, too certain that we had Horde's number? I can only imagine their halftime pep talk but I experienced first hand their renewed on-field vigor and the energy of the Horde sideline---they had nearly twice the players that we did. Their top defensive line was playing fullcore hardon (wait, is that how that goes?) and we obliged them by throwing away and offering discs for blocks and watching in amusement as they scored on us. Oh, it's 8 - 8? We should maybe take this more seriously. Wait, it's 8 - 11 and the time cap is coming. When did that happen? Huh. 8 - 13, you say, and the game is over? How about that.

This loss was by far the most absurd and demoralizing I have ever experienced. There were a few lessons in that game and we tried to focus on those during consolation semifinals against Shotgun Rainbow. We were also a bit upset, I think, and we actually channeled that energy into a commanding win. There was just no way that Shotgun wanted it as much as we did: 14 - 7, Shadrach, outperforming on all fronts.

Our team was somewhat tapped at that point, and we forfeited the 5th place game against Grits, a Eugene team we had beaten the day before. I stuck around to watch finals, in which CTR, after having dispatched Horde in semifinals, played Flycoons to the tune of 15 - 11. Watch out, Northwest: the Bay is going after the fourth bid real hard and they are looking GOOD.

I drove home to Seattle with Sarah and Becky, with a slight detour for some surprisingly good old-people small-town dinner at Mary McCrank's restaurant in Chehalis. I was happy with the weekend, for the most part, satisfied with our team's overall performance and with my personal play. Spawnfest did not have such a happy ending...