Our pool consisted of Stanford A, Red Fish, Europe, DF and Hulaguns. Weather was about 80-85 degrees, sunny (mostly).
We started off playing the Fish. They zoned us continuously (to protect the 2 ladies they always have on the field). For some reason, even though we'd run a GOTO drill beforehand, we had troubles in the first 5 points hitting a target and got way down quickly. We more or less traded points after that, but it was too late and we lost 13-7 or so.
Next was Stanford A. We had heard they were hot on D, but their O was suspect (compared to last year's edition). We zoned them and got up 4-0 (to their horror!) and played them hard to 9-8 just before cap. They tied at 9. The skies opened with a tropical downpour right then. They took both points and won 11-9. We played really well in that game. Towards the end, they were breaking our zone, but I thought we used our heads and resources well. (Stanford cruised through the pool otherwise)
A bye was followed by a game with Europe. The fields were bogs after the downpour. At one point it became difficult to differentiate the teams as most everyone was a uniform brown. Europe had 4 really good players and kept ahead of us most of the game, but with some stellar D towards the end, we caught up to 11-9 and won 13-12 at cap. We have photos of the mud-bowl, we think.
That was it for the day for us. Next morning we had Hulaguns in pool play and played a tight game with them all the way through to 10-10 at cap and then pulled it out 12-10 to make our record 2-2.
It was great to see the determination of the team towards the ends of the games.
In other play, Stanford Alums (including Kevin) handled the Spin Doctors easily in quarters; Nektar Haagen dispatched the Fish; Stanford A beat Williams College(?); and The Tour (a collection of fine players from all over, including Gus) won theirs.
Semis saw Stanford Alums against Stanford A. A semi-religious experience for all the players, it seemed. Very close all the way to a (surprise to me) win by the kiddies 17-16 or so in a marathon. At one point it looked liked the Alums would pull away after building a three point lead, but the kiddies fought back to take it.
The best game I saw was The Tour vs Nektar Haagen in their semi. Not so unusual was to see a point with a dozen passes up the field, all of which involved layout catches or defensive bids. Inspirational play.
In a bit of anticlimax in the final, Nektar Haagen built up a quick 7-1 lead and kept the differential at 5 or 6 throughout for an easy win over Stanford A. Stanford played very hard and well. Azran looked like a projectile much of the time as did many others. I saw one guy pull himself from the game after his 4th injury timeout call.
Mike was awarded the team Spirit Award (a necklace, not a grass skirt this time).
SO, as always, an excellent tournament. Aside from the disappointing start (and its consequence) in the first game, I thought we did well on the weekend and it augurs well for the spring series of tournaments coming up (Fools & Davis in April; UCSC and UCSB in May).
Richard