Rippit  11 - 9   Mischief (South Bay)
         13 - 8   Santa Crucial (Santa Cruz)
          8 - 6   Solid Gold
         14 - 13  Maquina del Fuego (SF)   semis
         11 - 15  Mischief (South Bay)     finals

Great comeback from down 7-9 in semis to tie it at 12-12.
Callahan goal by Alan to give us the lead at 13-12; they tied it back
up but we won the double-game-point calling the "bread and butter" play
and completing a 3/4 field huck with rolling layout catch from Keebler
to Kevin.

Spring Fling

 Rippit  11 - 4   Frizbee Nation
         11 - 5   Commanding Moses
         11 - 8   Blubber (SF)
          9 - 11  Mischief (South Bay)  semis

Game with Blubber was close all the way; strong finish to win 11-8.
Semis with Mischief we went down 1-6 and then tied it at 9-9, but gave
up the last 2 goals.

Fall Series Regionals

Saturday
 Rippit  15 - 14  PIMP (South Bay)
         11 - 13  Feral Cows (South Bay)
          6 - 13  Shazam (Seattle)
Sunday
 Rippit  13 - 9   Psychic Friends Network

Fall Series Sectionals

First game of pool play was against SACK from Sacramento.
Our defense came out fired up and we scored the first 4 points each
with a block and converting for the score.  Won this one 15-6.

Second game was the big one for the day.. Maquina del Fuego.
Although we beat them twice this season they were both close games.
Both teams were determined to shutdown the other's offense; at the
start of the game both teams were successful.. 3 of the first 4 points
were long with a number of turnovers by each team.. we were down 1-2
going into the fourth point.. after six turnovers by each team (and
blocks by Will, Max, Will) Maquina turned it once more and finally
we got the goal from Max to Jo.  We gained some momentum by winning
the hell point and also started playing straight-up-to-middle on defense
which caused them great problems.  We rapidly rattled off the next two
goals and never looked back.. we scored eleven in a row to take a 12-2
lead before Maquina got back in the game.. final score was 14-6.

Last pool play game was against Bling.  They kept it close early by
converting on some long passes and cuts up the line, up to about 6-4.
But once we learned their playing style we went on a 9-2 run, finishing
up at 15-6.

(6-6-6 for our opponents' scores!)

Saturday
 Rippit  15 - 6   SACK (Sacramento)
         14 - 6   Maquina del Fuego (SF)
         15 - 6   Bling (SF)

We won our pool so we got a bye through the prequarters round into
quarters.  We faced off against Grind, who were seeded above us due to
their 1 point win at Labor Day two weeks before, but lost to Clear the
Room in pool play.  It was even up to 3-3.. six turnovers by each team
in the next point and we scored from JT to Shane to win that hell point.
Again after winning a hell point we quickly scored two more with no
turnovers and continued to build on our lead, this time up to 11-4.
This time our opponent fought back.. Grind went on a 6-1 run and the
timecap saved us at a final score of 12-10.

This put us in semis vs Donner Party.  The wind was really picking up
at this point.. both teams played a mix of man and zone, but the wind
was a factor either way.  We traded goals up to 7-7; most of this time
between the ties we had the 1 goal lead.  But Donner took the next one
to win the half 7-8.  The points continued to be fairly long, but Donner
started getting most of the goals.. ended up at 8-13.

3/4 game against RFBF.. close all the way up to 9-8 with 3 lead changes.
But the fish closed out this one.. they scored 3 in a row to make it 9-11.
We closed to 10-11 but missed the chance to tie it.  This put us out of
reach at the hardcap, and gave up the last goal to finish at 10-13.
This put us in 4th place overall.

Sunday
 Rippit  12 - 10  Grind (EastBay)       Quarters
          8 - 13  Donner Party (Tahoe)  Semis
         10 - 13  RedFish BlueFish      3/4 Game

Labor Day

Saturday
Rippit  15 - 2    12 Miles Out (San Diego)
        13 - 11   Maquina del Fuego (SF)
        14 - 7    Clear the Room (SouthBay)
        14 - 5    Big Wreck All Stars (SF)
Sunday
Rippit  10 - 11   Donner Party (Tahoe)
         9 - 10   Grind (EastBay)      Quarters

Hot Valley Classic

Saturday
Rippit   13 - 4   Pac Disc
         13 - 8   Ketchup (Davis/Sac)
         13 - 2   Thin Air (Tahoe)
          9 - 13  Big Wreck All Stars (SF)
Sunday
Rippit   13 - 5   Commanding Moses (SF)
         10 - 12  Rogue (Davis+SF)      Pre-semis

In the last game at 6-6 we scored on a pass from
Mike to Alan... this was Rippit's 3000th goal!

Revolution

It was cloudy and quite windy on Saturday.. lots of zone.
First game was against a reunion team of Sassy Sassafras Lollipop
Experience.  We went up 4-0 to start but allowed Sassy to close
within one at 5-4 and 7-6.. then we took over and finished up
12-6.  Many long points, but we did score 3 of those last 5 goals
with no turnovers.
Notables: In zone d Lisa got a mack-block that ended up being caught :(

Second game was against a team called Sangria from Phoenix, AZ.
They were an intermediate level squad and the wind wasn't helping
them much.. we won 15-1.
Notables: JT volleyball-spiked a pass but it was caught by the thrower!
          On zone d, Dave skied for a callahan goal.

Third game was against Thunder Grind who were seeded at the top of our
pool.  We were psyched up to take the top spot in our pool and came out
strong.  We played mostly zone and also punted a fair amount on offense.
We took the first half 8-3, scoring on a mix of working it all the way
up the field, completing punts and getting zone d's near the endzone
and following up for a quick score.  We continued our run into the
second half, up to 11-4.  We gave up the momentum here and gave up three
straight, but finished off the game at 12-8.
Notables: 8 blocks in the game on zone d.

Final game on Saturday was against Freestyle Replay, a high school team
from Claremont, CA (a bit east of Pasadena) with some additional pickups.
We won 15-6.
Notables: After we gave up the first goal of the game our opponents
            declared "we're ahead by infinity!!"
          Game winning callahan goal by Evan.

Saturday Summary:
Rippit  12 - 6          Sassy Sassafras (SF)
        15 - 1          Sangria (Phoenix)
        12 - 8          Thunder Grind (East Bay)
        15 - 6          Freestyle Replay (Claremont, CA)

We won our pool and qualified for the upper bracket on Sunday.
Our point differential was good enough to earn a first round bye
into quarters.  We showed up about 10am and found the first round
hadn't started yet.. and didn't until nearly 11am.  Games were
capped at ridiculously low scores all day...
Still some wind, but not as strong as Saturday.  The sun came out too!

Quarters vs Maquina del Fuego.
Maquina narrowly defeated Big Wreck in the first round.
We started out well and went up 4-0; then traded to 6-2.
In the next point they worked it up to near the endzone and called
timeout.  They tried an iso play for Alan's man, but he shut him down
and then got a layout block on a short swing pass.  Unfortunately we
hucked it away and gave up the goal.. we hucked it away 3 times in the
next point before giving up the goal.. Maquina kept the momentum and
scored one more, closing to 6-5.  Then the hard cap went on so it was
the last point if we scored next but we would play one more if they
tied it at 6.  Despite hucking it away once more we got the disc back
with zone d and worked it up the field, scoring the game winner with
a nice high release from Mike to Libby.  7-5.

Semis vs Sponge.
This team looked like some form of Venceremos.. they were misseeded as
third in their pool on Saturday, but ended up winning the pool.
The wind was still swirling, but it calmed down enough that a bit more
person defense was played in this game.  This time we didn't start out well
and went down 0-3.  But then we beat their zone to score one and got our
defense going with a handblock by Evan and a sky block by Alan in the
next point to close to 2-3.  Our defense continued to work but our offense
struggled and we gave up two more, 2-5.  Then our offense was back on as
we worked the disc the whole field two times to close to 4-5.  We got
possession on the second of those with a sky-no-look-head-block by Alan.
And like a lightswitch our O went back off.. with six possessions we could
not score and gave up 3 goals, dropping to 4-8.. a huge margin in the short
games for this day.  We regained some momentum, scoring two goals and
gaining possession in the next point.. but the hard cap went off and at
6-8 we couldn't tie it up to keep the game going.. but we forced it up the
line for an endzone turnover and gave up the last point anyway, finishing
at 6-9.  A good (and fun) game but one we could have won if we capitalized
on a few more opportunities.....

Agate Gray lost in the other semifinal to Shazam (from Seattle).
Rather than play a 3/4 game Dave accepted a wrestling challenge from
a woman on Agate.. Dave won the match 1-0 giving us 3rd place in the
tournament!   Shazam went on to beat Sponge to take first.

Sunday Summary:
Rippit   7 - 5          Maquina del Fuego (SF)          Quarters
         6 - 9          Sponge (Bay Area)               Semis

Potlatch

Saturday.. good weather; two easy games against washington teams
followed by two losses.  Put us in the B bracket for Sunday.

Sunday.. occassional sprinkles, but not too bad while we were playing.
We played Volare in prequarters.. a tight game, but we held onto a 1-3
point margin through most of it.. they tied it at 1, 2, 8, 11 and 12..
12-12 was at the cap, double game point.. tragically we didn't manage
to score with three possessions and lost 12-13..

Down to B consolation.. we played two more Seattle teams, beating Jersey
Fresh 9-6 and then losing another double-game-point, 10-11 to D'oh!
Then we watch some of semifinals, featuring Team USA (Bullseye).
As that game ended the rain really started coming down and we fled
the scene.. as we ran we looked back to see D'oh still playing the
B-consolation-finals......

Our gift was the "Disc-er" game, ie ultimate twister, created by Lisa.
It was well received by all our opponents.. nice job, Lisa!  We received
some fairly disappointing gifts.. I think the best was from D'oh, who
had us play a limbo contest and the winners got to cast the "fishing pole"
(stick with string and a clothes pin) behind a sheet and reel in a gift,
brownies, cookies, ..   :)


Saturday summary:
Rippit  15 -  4         Walla Walla Sweets (Walla Walla, WA)
        15 -  2         Karmic Bliss (Seattle)
        10 - 15         Ducks (Portland, OR)
         7 - 15         Bandwagon II (Seattle)

Sunday summary:
Rippit  12 - 13         Volare! (Houston, TX)           B-prequarters
         9 - 6          Jersey Fresh (Seattle)          B-consl-quarters
        10 - 11         D'oh! (Seattle)                 B-consl-semis

Davis Ultimate Invitational

First game vs Mountain Ultimate Disc (MUD)... 13-1.

Second game vs Machine, a new team from Sacramento.  Each team started with
zone and failed to prevent the other team from scoring.. on to person defense
and a number of points with inconsistent offense from both sides.. we went
up 3-1 but they tied it at 3-3.  Back up 5-3 and then a block by Kevin gave
us back the disc and we extended to 6-3.  Machine closed to 7-6 and the time
cap was approaching.. with good execution of the pull play we scored the next
point on a full-field huck from Eric to Alan.  Kris ran down on the next pull
and blocked their first or second pass, giving us the disc and good field
position.  We converted to take a 9-6 lead.  The game was capped and actually
over at this point, but we played one more and ended with a final score of 9-7.

Third game vs Feral Cows.  After our loss to the Cows at Spring Fling we were
determined to win this one.  We traded the first couple points; Alan got our
defense going with a layout block on their first pass to setup our 2nd goal.
In the first half our offense was a well-oiled machine as we turned it over
just once and scored all our goals on the first possession of each point to
take a 7-4 lead.  In the second half we turned it over a little bit more,
but our defense allowed only one more goal.. we finished off with Kris
getting a point block on an attempted huck setting up our last goal.  13-5.

Game 4 vs Commanding Mozez, the latest in a long line of Ebb&Flow spinoffs.
They were sporting some long beards and interesting other costumes.  13-4.

Saturday summary:
        Rippit  13 - 1  MUD             (Quincy, CA)
                 9 - 7  Machine         (Sacramento)
                13 - 5  Feral Cows      (South Bay)
                13 - 4  Commanding Mozez (South Bay)

Sunday.. quarters vs PIMP.  On Saturday PIMP employed a strategy of using
their tallest player (Mark) almost exclusively to score their goals.  It
worked well enough to get them into quarters and leave Venceremos out of
the running.  It was clear that trend would continue into quarters as we
setup a zone early in the game and they scored with one pass.. a huck to
Mark who caught it over Eric.  We struggled a bit with our own offense
while we tried to find the best defense to play.. we traded up to 4-4 with
PIMP going up each time.  Then with a sky catch by Lisa to save a bad throw
and a layout catch for the goal by Tommy we got our first lead at 5-4.
Later we beat the only zone they attempted to take the first half 7-5.
Alan started the second half by getting a sky block on a huck to Mark,
but PIMP still ending up getting the goal.  At 8-6 there was a long point
with 5 turnovers (2 by us).. we managed to score this point but then gave
up two and PIMP closed to 9-8.  We scored the next and then a block by
Kitt helped get our lead back to 11-8.  We got possession in the next point
and Kevin took Mark on a full-field cut, further tiring out PIMS's star
player who had played almost the entire game.. Kevin caught the goal on a
huck from Will.  We closed out the game for a 13-8 win.

Semis vs Clear the Room.  We traded to 2-2, but our south bay buddies
clearly started getting back into shape earlier in the spring than we did..
our offense struggled to find options other than the kag and we were unable
to put much of a stop to their flow on offense.  We dropped to 2-5, closed
to 4-5, but they fell all the way to 5-10.  Momentum finally started going
our way, but the time cap cut off our run and the game ended 7-10.
CtR went on play RFBF in the finals and the fish took the tourney.

Sunday summary:
        Rippit  13 - 8  PIMP            (South Bay)
                 7 - 10 Clear the Room  (South Bay)

Spring Fling

Rippit	 9 - 0	The Curve	 (South Bay)
	10 - 12	Grind		 (SF)
	 4 - 9	RedFish BlueFish (All over)
	 5 - 9	Feral Cows	 (South Bay)

A tough early season warmup.. Grind and Fish went on to play each other
in the finals, with Fish taking the day.

Fall Series Regionals

Saturday
Rippit  13 - 2  PIMP             (CA)
        11 - 9  Power Tuels      (UT)
        11 - 10 Vicojim          (OR)

Sunday
Rippit  10 - 8  BST              (UT)
         6 - 13 Donner Party     (CA)
        12 - 6  Venceremos       (CA)
         7 - 13 RedFish BlueFish (CA)
        11 - 13 BST              (UT)

Fall Series Sectionals

UPA Fall Series, Northern California Sectionals, Mixed Division...
Davis, CA   September 15-16, 2001

The pools:

Donner Party      RedFish BlueFish     Rippit    Bumpy Knuckles
Feral Cows        Clear the Room       Grind     Venceremos
Sassy Sassafras   Hot Valley of Love   Butter    Big Wreck All Stars
Ebb 'n Flow       Frizbee Nation       PIMP      Monterrage

Game 1 vs Butter.
Off to a slow start.. Butter went up 0-3.  But we climbed back up to tie it
at 4-4, including three layout blocks and finishing on a huck from Keebler
to Alan.  Butter called timeout.  We discussed our strategy which would
apply in every game on saturday.. with the level of defense we faced in
these games we should be able to get open, so don't turn it over!  We went
on to win the half 7-5 and hold onto a 1-2 point lead up to 9-8.  Then
Butter came out with the first (and only) zone of the game.. miscommunication
on our side and we turned it over.. Butter tied it at 9's.  In an encore
performance of our game at Labor Day we took the last four goals to win 13-9.
We had only one turnover in this stretch and converted goals after getting
a stall (when they were near the endzone) and after blocks by Tommy and Alan.

Game 2 vs Grind.
In a reverse of game 1 this time we started up 3-0, playing zone in the
third point and getting the turn.  But they got their zone O going in the
next point and scored, making it 3-1.  We traded up to 5-3 playing man..
then a handblock by Mike setup a quick goal and another successful zone
to take the half 7-3 and receive the pull.  Now Grind put on the zone..
we worked it up to the endzone but turned it over.. they turned it and
played the zone again.. again we turned it and this time they scored, 7-4.
We traded up to 11-8 with just a couple zones by us (successful, but we
turned it over again), and a couple long points with many turnovers.
Finally we broke the cycle and scored the last two to win 13-8.

Before the next game we learned that Clear the Room beat RedFish BlueFish.
We then determined that:
A) Donner Party, RFBF and us would be in the same half of the playoff bracket.
B) The unusual tournament format allowed losers of quarterfinals to finish
   no higher than 5th place (no backdoor).
C) If we finished second in our pool instead of first we could go into the
   other half of the bracket.
D) We had already won the pool!  Throwing the game wouldn't help..

Game 3 vs PIMP.
Some zone to open the game.. they beat our zone, we dropped it in theirs
(down 0-2), then we beat their zone.  Now to man defense for both teams and
we pushed up to a 5-3 lead.. we went on to win 12-5, scoring 10 of our goals
with no turnovers.

In the break before the scheduled crossover game we brought up the
format issue (no backdoor for losers of quarters), but after a vote
the schedule was unchanged.

Game 4 (crossover) vs Bumpy Knuckles.
The wind was picking up a little bit in the afternoon so we opened with
zone.  It was quite successful, but our offense took a few attempts..
after getting three turnovers with our zone we scored.  Man defense and
we traded up to 3-2.  Then two successful zones, each converted for goals
with no turns.  In the next point Alan caught a breakmark pass and sent
a long backhand to Margie for the upwind goal.  Back to zone.. Shane zipped
past a popper to get the block and we scored to take the half 7-2.. Bumpy
called a timeout.  They came out with their first zone of the game, but we
worked it up to score again.. perhaps we got a bit lazy with our 8-2 lead
as we gave up a couple in a row, but Bumpy didn't make a strong effort to
come back either.. we finished off with a strong 13-5 win.

Saturday summary:
        Rippit   13 - 9   Butter          (SF)
                 13 - 8   Grind           (bayarea)
                 12 - 5   PIMP            (SouthBay)
                 13 - 5   Bumpy Knuckles  (bayarea)

We headed to Dos Coyotes for some grub and then retired to our hotel
(nice party suite with couches and a few connected rooms!) to play
schieze and watch "Grease".  We earned a first round bye for Sunday,
so we got to sleep and have a leisurely breakfast at Bakers' Square.
At the fields we had a nice surprise as the semifinal matchups were
swapped to be the standard 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, putting us on the opposite
side of the bracket from Donner and Fish.  We got warmed up and even
scrimmaged ourselves a few points to make sure we were ready to play
quarterfinals, as our opponents were playing prequarters and would not
come out cold.

Quarterfinals vs Clear the Room:
In this game we had a mix of seemingly easy goals (successful pull plays and
a strong deep game) and points where we struggled on offense and had multiple
turnovers.  CtR always worked hard for their goals as we got them to many
high stall counts and gave up very few hucks.  But CtR was tireless and
managed to keep scoring.. we started out going down 1-3 but tied it at 4's
with hucks from Kevin to Sarah, Max to Donna, and Dave to Alan.  Margie
blocked their huck in the next point, but then got to watch as her person
laid out to catch the mack for the goal.  Later, a block by Bernhard followed
by a nice crossfield flick to Alan in the endzone gave us our first lead, 6-5.
We traded goals until we won the half 8-7 and got to receive in the second
half.. CtR called a timeout.  In our pull play Ron looped a visionary flick
to Keebler, over the middle of the field to the sideline far from our stack.
Keebler promptly hucked it down the line to Sarah, increasing our lead to
9-7.  We traded a pair and then with a huck from Mike to Max we increased
our lead to 11-8.  But then an unsuccessful zone by us and a long point
where we turned it over 3 times and they closed back to 11-10.  Three points
in a row with no turnovers by either team, 13-11.. then a block by Max gave
us the disc and we worked it up for 14-11.. a huge goal in a game to 15.
Donna got the block in the next point, but we didn't get the goal.. CtR
scored, making it 14-12.  Then we dropped the pull and CtR closed to 14-13!
We received the next pull and worked the disc up the field.. with a nice
swing and continue we got the disc to Sarah, trapped on the sideline just
5 yards out from the endzone.. Alan cut from behind the disc on the far side
of the field and caught the game winner, 15-13.

We gathered in the shade of a nearby tree to rest and watch the end of the
quarterfinal with Feral Cows playing Grind.. we would play the winner in
semis.  It was a close game and it ended up tied at the cap, game point for
either team... what followed was one of the most amazing hell points ever..
at least 6-7 turnovers by each team, many of them in or near the endzone..
exhausted players lying down on the field on turnovers (no timeouts in the
cap!)... in the end the Cows got the goal and moved on to semis.

Semifinals vs Feral Cows:
Since we knew at least 7 of the cows were very tired and the cows have a
pretty good zone O we decided to stick to man defense for this game.
Watching that last point of the previous game was somehow contagious and
we started the game with very sloppy offense.  In the first phase of the
game there were 3 points with 2-3 turnovers by each team.. fortunately we
ended up scoring a couple of them, so we got up to a 3-2 lead.  But now
we got our offense back into good form and scored our next 5 goals with
no turnovers, taking the half 8-4.  The was one more sloppy point with
4 turnovers by each team and the cows scored to hang on at 10-6, but we
rattled off 4 more with no turnovers climbing to 14-6.  It took a couple
possessions in the last point but we got the goal on a cut up the line
by Alan identical to the end of the CtR game, catching the pass from Kate
this time.. 15-6 win and on to finals!  We got 9 blocks in this game and
scored every time we received the pull.

Finals vs Donner Party:
Donner Party lost to RedFish in the saturday crossover game but advanced
up past Venceremos in quarters and then won the rematch with Fish in semis.
There was a decent crosswind and we opened the game with zone.. but with a
long series of short passes they worked it up to score.  After we hucked it
away against their zone and dropped it in the next point they converted each
to score and take a 0-3 lead.  They ran an O using a lot of short swings and
dumps and a lot of hucks.. they were successful with many hucks, even jumping
to catch some that we covered pretty well.  They ran hard on D.. our offense
was not clicking and we were dropping the disc and putting up passes that
Donner was able to D.  But their offense was inconsistent as well.. in the
next two points we had 7 chances on offense but didn't score either goal..
On our third possession in the next point we finally got on the board, 1-5.
We tried our first zone since the opening point, and this time got the turn
close to their own endzone and converted for the goal, 2-5.  Another zone
got us the disc but Kevin twisted his ankle and was out for the game :-(
This time we turned it back and gave up the goal.  They tried a zone but
we worked it up to score, 3-6.  Then our offensive troubles returned and
our defense couldn't get the disc back.. in the next six points Donner
scored with no turns after we gave up the disc.. in the other point we had
3 chances on offense but still did not score.. Donner blazed ahead to a
huge 3-12 lead.  We fought back a bit and scored the next 3 goals with no
turnovers, but the hole was too deep.. in the end Donner took the section,
9-15.

A tough finish, but overall an excellent weekend.  This is the first season
(ever) that Rippit has added a significant number of new players in a single
year.. six new faces: Max, Mike, Margie, Kris, Kitt and Bernhard.  Despite
playing only a few tournaments this season we really came together as a team
for sectionals.. everyone seemed to find their role on the team and played
it well.  Over the past couple seasons the mid-level teams have been raising
the bar, making sectionals much more challenging and exciting.. way to come
through and finish up at second place!  Yay Rippit!

Sunday summary:
        Rippit   15 - 13  Clear the Room  (SouthBay)        Quarters
                 15 -  6  Feral Cows      (SouthBay)        Semis
                  9 - 15  Donner Party    (Tahoe+bayarea)   Finals

From Jennifer Lee, sectional coordinator:
Here are the final standings from this weekend:

1. Donner Party
2. Rippit
3. Red Fish Blue Fish
4. Feral Cows
5. Clear the Room
6. Venceremos
7. Grind
8. Bumpy Knuckles
9. PIMP
10. Sassy Sassafras Lollipop Experience
11/12 Hot Valley of Love/Butter
13. Big Wreck All-Stars
14. Frizbee Nation
15. Ebb &  Flow
16. Monterage

It was a very exciting weekend with lots of close games and upsets -
not one single team went undefeated.  Congratulations to Donner Party,
Rippit, Red Fish Blue Fish, Feral Cows, Clear the Room, Venceremos, and
Grind for making Regionals.  Good luck to all of you in Blaine.

Labor Day

This year's labor day tournament had open, womens and coed divisions.
There were 8 teams in the coed division:
        RedFish BlueFish                Rippit
        Bumpy Knuckles                  Donner Party
        Venceremos                      Butter
        PIMP                            Grind

Saturday pool play.. we had three games in a row on the same field,
and we were done for the day around 2pm.

Game 1 vs Grind:
We struggled quite a bit with our endzone offense in this game.  We
traded goals up to 3-3.  But as the game went on we found that they
wouldn't huck the disk, so we fronted more and more on defense and were
able to force a lot of turnovers.  We got 9.5 blocks in the game and
finished off with a 13-6 win.

Game 2 vs Butter:
Close in the first half.  They took a 3-5 lead, but we caught up and
after a block by Aruna we went up 7-6 to take the half.  It stayed close
up to 9-9 (two lead changes, no more than one turnover in any point).
Butter threw a zone but we worked it up to score.  Kitt got a half block
in the next point, and Bernhard picked up the disc and hucked it to the
endzone as Alan ran deep.. despite Dave's "right! right!" calls Alan
found the disc (on the left) just in time and caught the goal.. we were
up 11-9.  We didn't score on our first possession in the next point, but
a layout block by Dave got us the disc and we scored again.  And a half
block by Kevin got us the disc in the next point.. Kate threw a high
release to Kevin over the middle of the endzone, right near Kris and his
defender.. Kris used jedi mind tricks to keep his man occupied, allowing
Kevin to sky for the goal.. game, 13-9.  Good defense to finish off this
game!

Game 3 vs Donner Party:
We'd been hearing Donner put together a good squad for this year, and
now faced off to win the pool.  The game was tight all the way, with
good offense and defense from both teams.  We scored first, and converted
after a block from Keebler to go up 2-0.  We held this lead up to 6-4 but
they tied it at 6-6.  An interception by Sarah right on the endzone line
and quick goal to Alan gave us an 8-6 lead, but some glitches on offense
(including a "3T" point for Keebler, doh) and they climbed back to tie it
at 8's.  We traded up to 10-10 with no turnovers by either team, and the
game was capped at 12.  We turned it over and gave Donner their first
lead at 10-11.  We tied it up at 11 and pull for the final point.  Donner
worked it up past midfield and we halted their flow.. Alan made a layout
bid on the dump pass but missed, allowing topher to send a bladey forehand
up the line to their fastest player for the win, 11-12.
(note: neither team played any zone defense)

Sunday playoffs.. we finished second in our pool, so we faced off against
Dave Hammond's team who lost to redfish and bumpy in pool play.

Quarters vs Venceremos:
We pulled to start the game and opened with zone.  We converted blocks by
Tommy and Michelle to go up 2-0.  We forced two turns with zone in the
next point, up 3-0.. finally they beat the zone, making it 3-1.  We held
this lead up to 5-3, switching to mostly man defense (we played zone 3 more
times and they scored on all 3).  Troubles on offense returned.. after a
long point we extended our lead to 6-2, but they closed to 6-5 before we
took the half.  We got to receive in the second half and scored with no
turns to go up 8-5.  Despite blocks by Michelle and Kris we gave up the
next goal, but then extended our lead to 10-6.  Venceremos turned up their
defense, not giving us many wide open looks.. even though we had many
offensive chances our lead faded to 10-9.  We traded a pair but allowed
them to tie it at 11's, game now capped at 13.  We scored with no turns
to go up 12-11.. after 3 chances on offense we couldn't take the game
and they tied it at 12.  Through our effort and/or their fatigue we were
able to get more open and we worked up to score (Keebler to Max), with all
nice safe passes.  Game, 13-12.

Semis vs RedFish BlueFish:
The first meeting with our old nemesis since sectionals last year..
We played man defense and they played a lot of zone, but some man as well.
It took us a long time to work it up against their zone as we stuck to
safe passes, even though it wasn't windy.. it took time, but we were
effective at scoring.  It was tight all the way to 7-7 when the fish
gained a 2 point edge at 7-9.. this grew to 9-13 and the game had been
capped at 14!  We beat their zone three times and closed to 12-13, the
last after a sky block by Dave.  Blocks by Mike and Aruna in the final
point, but we gave up the goal.. game, 12-14.

Donner went on to beat Redfish in finals to take first.
Since we lost by 1 and 2 to the teams above us we can claim 3rd place :-)

Saturday:
	Rippit  13 -  6  Grind         (SF/Eastbay?)
	        13 -  9  Butter        (SF)
	        11 - 12  Donner Party  (Tahoe)

Sunday:
	Rippit  13 - 12  Venceremos        (Bay area)       Quarters
	        12 - 14  RedFish BlueFish  (Bay area/DC..)  Semis

Mini-NCUL

The cows organized a mini-ncul at Palo Alto high school.
First we played the Feral Cows, a lean squad of 5 men and 5 women.
We traded points, with a couple lead changes, up to 5-6.  Our first few
goals weren't pretty (one macked but still caught, another went over the
intended receiver, but still caught).  Half the points in this stretch
had at least one turnover by each team.  Finally the cows took a 2 point
lead, up 5-7, and we traded up to 7-9.. no point in this stretch had more
than one turnover.  We scored to make it 8-9 and the game got capped at 11.
We managed to rattle off 3 more straight to win 11-9.. scoring on our
first possession in each of these points.

Then we played Sassy Sasafras.  We were able to make more plays on defense
(10.5 blocks in the game vs 1.5 against cows), but our offense was
struggling and it took multiple tries to score each time.  Still, we
worked up to a 7-1 lead.  Our offense continued to struggle, but now
Sassy started scoring.. they scored 4 straight, each on their first
posession of the point.  A few more long points and we traded up to
9-7.  Then Sassy closed the gap and tied it at 9's, game capped at 11.
We still couldn't score reliably, but we did get the last two goals
after blocks by Tommy and Kevin; 11-9.

	Rippit  11 - 9  Feral Cows
		11 - 9  Sassy Sasafras

Potlatch

First game of the tournament was against the Canadian National Team
headed to the World Games in Japan the following month.  The built up
an early lead but we showed them we could play and ended up losing
9-13.  Second game was against Santa from Alaska.. they were unable
to break our zone and we cruised to a 13-3 victory.  Then two very
close games against strong teams (our pool was tough!).. we played
well and managed to win both, 13-11 vs Octowookie and 13-10 vs Backyard
Ultimate.  Our 2-1 record and respectable score vs Canada gave us a
6th seed overall after pool play!  Sunday morning we faced "Some Pig"
(Davis) in prequarters.. they didn't have very many players, but they
were very athletic and they would use their best matchups to complete
a lot of hucks.. we made a few too many errors on offense and couldn't
stay in the game.. we lost 7-13.  We dropped into quarters of the 9-16
bracket against the Oregon Ducks, who just lost a very close game in
their prequarters.  We played some good zone points and capitalized on
a few errors they made near the endzone and sped off to a 13-4 win..
Seemed like the Ducks may have put all they had in the previous game.
With this win we would place at least 11th overall, thus guaranteeing
improvement over our last Potlatch ('99, 12th place!).  Our final matchup
was against Stanford (who we faced in this round in '99 too).. it was
a good game but neither team was playing all-out.. we lost 9-13.
So we finished up in 11th place out of 80 teams!  Nice job, Rippit.
We also had fun making balloon animals for all our opponents (thanks
to Margie for teaching us the technique!).

Saturday:
	Rippit	 9 - 13  Touque		    (Canada)
		13 -  3  Santa		    (Alaska)
		13 - 11  Octowookie
		13 - 10  Backyard Ultimate  (Los Angeles)

Sunday:
	Rippit	 7 - 13  Some Pig	    (Davis)  A-prequarters
		13 -  4  Ducks		    (Oregon) A-consolation-quarters
		 9 - 13  Cussins	    (Stanford/Carlton) A-consl-semis

Davis Ultimate Invitational

From Alan:

DUI Coed Division Champions: RIPPIT!!

Congratulations everyone for a stellar performance this weekend in Davis;
despite some adverse conditions we held our top seed and emerged victorious!
Here's the full story....

It begins with the weather... hot and windy, right?  Not this time!
After weeks of pleasant weather a storm blew into California just in
time for the tournament, bringing rain and cold temperatures but only
moderate winds (in Davis anyway.. apparently it was very windy in the
bay area).  Our next plot complication involves getting enough players
on the field... we had 11 women play at Spring Fling (trying out some
new players, plus most of our normal players present), but this time all
our potential pickups were trying out with Fury in the womens division
and we only expected 4 women for each day of the tournament!

The coed division had 14 teams split into 2 pools of seven.  Pool play
consisted of a full round robin extending into sunday with games to 11..
the top two teams from each pool then proceeded directly to semifinals.

The tournament began with a first round bye for us... it wasn't raining
much when we got out to our field, but it sure was cold!  Our first game
was against MUD (Mountain Ultimate Disc).. a friendly bunch from up in
the Sierras north of Tahoe (we also played them last year at DUI).
We played zone and quickly finished off this game 11-1.  Kate had not
arrived so Sarah, Aruna and Michelle had to play the whole game!

After some scheduling confusion we determined that we had another bye for
the next round.. the timing worked out well as the hardest rain of the day
came down during this round.  Many of us retreated to our cars for shelter,
others watched a close game between Butter and Clear the Room.. there were
a few brief showers during the remainder of the day, but it wasn't too bad..

At 1:30 the tournament really got started for us.. we began with Butter
(formerly known as FAA).. as you might expect they were wearing yellow,
including one guy with yellow pants.  They also had few women so we agreed
to 2-3 women instead of 3-4, allowing a tiny bit of rest for our women
(still no Kate!)  Butter pulled out a one point win at the cap over Clear
the Room in the previous round.. we were fired up to come out strong (and
glad CtR tired them out), and did just that.  We opened up a 3-0 lead before
they scored.. a couple points later Butter put up an errant forehand huck..
Alan jumped up and D'ed it... but then got completely sandwiched between his
own man and some other Butter player running in without looking... luckily
Alan saw him coming at the last second and turned his back side to the brunt
of the collision, so he suffered only a nicely bruised ass.  We continued our
solid play up to 7-1.. in the next point Max got a huge block, laying out
side by side with his man and Max ended up _catching_ the disc.  We converted
this to go up 8-1.  After this we relaxed a bit and gave up a couple extra
goals, but still finished with an 11-5 win.  In the second to last point Peter
was turning to cover his man in the endzone, but slipped and did something bad
to his knee :-(

Kate showed up!  Yay!  The next game was against a new south bay team called
PIMP (Party In My Pants), formed largely from winter league players.  We
started out with box zone but they showed good patience and throw selection
and slowly worked it up the field to score first.  We got a couple blocks in
the next few points, but still managed only to trade up to 3-3.  Finally our
zone started coming together and we pushed forward up to an 8-3 lead.. just
2 turnovers for us in this stretch.  A couple long points followed, but we
traded goals up to the end, 11-6.

The last round of the day was against the Feral Cows.  We pulled to start,
but even after sky blocks from Will and Sarah we gave up the first goal.
We turned it over in the next point but after a block by Keebler we tied
it up 1-1.  The Cows played solid offense and scored 4 goals with no turn-
overs.. in this stretch we got only 1 goal on a huck from Alan to Max.
This put the score at 2-5.  Finally the Cows started making some errors and
we were able to capitalize.. we scored 4 in a row to take the half 6-5 with
only one turnover (and we got that one back with a layout block from Dave).
We received the pull to start the second half.  Ron had to sub out and JT
came in..and threw it away twice.  Luckily the Cows gave it back once more
and we were up 7-5.  Perhaps fatigue began to set it for both teams now,
as the last three points of the game we _long_ (and each one got longer).
After 2 turnovers by each team the Cows close to 7-6.  During the next point
the hard cap went on.. if we scored we would win 8-6.. if they scored it
would be tied so we'd have to play one more point.. game to 8 either way.
This time each team threw it away 3 times.. but after one more huck TO by
us the Cows tied it at sevens.  What followed was an amazing hell point.
It almost ended quickly as Alan completed a huck to Michelle.. but the throw
was too long, just a few feet out the back of the endzone.  The point went
on and on; on nearly every possession the Cows worked it up very close to
the endzone.. we turned it over mostly near midfield, or on hucks to the
endzone.  Our defense was fired up: we got 3 blocks within 5 yards of the
endzone: a sky block and a layout point block from Alan, and Dave got a layout
block.. after _five_ possessions from each team Alan got the disc.. and put up
a huck to Michelle that was absolutely identical to the one near the beginning
of the point.. again it was complete, this time only one foot out the back!
And once again the Cows worked it up very close to the endzone.. this time
a poach block from Alan kept us in it.. on O Alan caught the disc near mid-
field and heard Dave yelling for the huck.. clearly lacking enough oxygen to
the brain for conscious though (or to hear the screams of "NOOOOOOO!!!" from
our sideline!) Alan put up the bomb (this time in bounds).. Dave skied over
his defender and came down with the disc (thanks dave!).. game, 8-7.
(Alan's 3 throwaways in this point were his only 3 of the day.. saving them
up for the end?)

Saturday summary:
	Rippit	11 - 1	MUD		(Quincy, CA)
		11 - 5	Butter		(SF)
		11 - 6	PIMP		(SouthBay)
		 8 - 7	Feral Cows	(SouthBay)

A good 4-0 start to the tournament, but we knew we had 2 tough pool play
games to go.. our saturday-only players (Michelle and Ron) plus injured Peter
headed home.. fortunately our sunday reinforcements Shane, Leslie and Steve
were on the way.

We had to get up for the early morning 9am round this time.. after another
scheduling mixup we eventually got to the right field.  Our first matchup
was Bumpy Knuckles, seeded 2nd in our pool, 4th overall.  We started out
pulling the disc and played man defense, hoping they'd make an error while
not yet warmed up... but our defense wasn't warmed up yet either, and they
scored on a forehand down the line.. we did the same and scored on a fore-
hand up the line from Alan to Sarah to tie it 1-1.  Again they scored with
no turns, and then capitalized on our first error to go up 1-3.  It was
clear that whichever team could wake up and get their defense going first
would have a big advantage.  We scored the next and then Max got us started
with a block in the next point, leading to a tie score of 3-3.  We switched
to zone and scored three more to take the half 6-3.  At some point they
started breaking through our cup so we switched back to man.. but by this
point we were outrunning them pretty well and continued to dominate through
the second half, featuring a block from Keebler and two more from Max.
We took the game 11-5, scoring 10 of our 11 goals with no turnovers!
(they gave us a great phil collins medley cheer)

Our last game of pool play was against Clear the Room.  They had been
playing very well, their only loss in the rain against Butter.  They also
beat Bumpy by a large margin.  Even with that one loss both of our teams
had clinched spots in semis, so we were playing for seed.  CtR has come a
long was since DUI last year..
We started the game on defense.. our opponents were athletic, so zone was
one good option.. but we had also observed in previous rounds that they
broke the mark less often than some teams, so we started out trying man
forcing flick.  It worked well in the first point and we got them trapped
up against the line, stall count up to 9.. they threw the disc in desperation
to the endzone, but in the pileup actually came down with the goal.  We
turned it over in the next point, but again applied pressure on defense..
then sent a pass to the endzone but JT was there to smack the disc.. (catch
those!).. after JT D'ed it his man ran it down and laid out for the goal..
In the next point we dropped it and CtR scored again.. we were down 0-3.
Finally we got on the board in the next point, but then they scored again..
1-4.  I'm not sure what happened next.. perhaps our greater experience kicked
in, or tuned our defense against their O.. we went on an 8 goal scoring streak,
winning the half and continuing to push our lead up to 9-4.  We played a bit
of zone, but found they had good patience and it still took a lot of exertion
to get the turnovers so we mixed it up with man defense as well.. their
defense still gave us trouble as we only scored 2 goals up to this point
without turning it over at least once.  Finally the broke our run and beat
our zone to make it 9-5.  They closed the gap to 9-6 but as the next point
began we got hard capped.. we worked it up and got the goal, winning 10-6.

6-0 for pool play!  One more round of pool play remained, but we had a bye.
We learned that in the other pool the top 3 teams all beat eachother and
that the point differentials were consecutive.. Magic Bus won the pool by
a single point and Bad Larry missed out on semis also by a single point!
The meant our semifinal matchup was Backyard Ultimate (from Berkeley).

The wind was picking up a bit and the skies were threatening to start
raining again as semis began.  We started out with a downwind zone hoping
they would get impatient and we could get the first goal upwind.  They
showed us the game wouldn't be that easy and with great patience they
worked it all the way down to score the first goal.  We turned it over
in the next point, but a handblock from Kate got it back and we tied it
1-1.  We got the turnover in the next point and scored upwind.. on our
4th possession in the next point we finally converted downwind to go up
3-1.  Our zone continued to give us opportunities, but we had trouble
scoring and we gave up 3 in a row, now down 3-4.  Again another long point,
including 2 ugly hammers from us, but on our 5th possession we tied it 4-4.
But our troubles on offense continued.. they played a very tight trapping
cup.. although we could usually break out of it we couldn't find good options
to move the disc upfield.. another 3 in a row and we were down 4-7... on our
3rd possession in the next point we closed to 5-7.  We got warning that the
time cap would be coming soon.. our backs were really against the wall.
(Will said, "we _must_ scored this point, and even if we do we still might
lose")  Desperate to force the issue and get turnovers quickly we started
trapping in our zone both upwind and downwind.  We were still down 2 upwind
goals with the timecap approaching.  Our strategy worked in the next point
and we got the disc near midfield.. Dave got the disc near the endzone..
after a pick call he put a nice forehand over the top to Sarah.. zone again
and we converted downwind with no turns to tie it 7-7.  Now the soft cap came
on, game to 9.  In the next point we missed one chance to score, but got it
back again.  Their tight trapping cup finally started to show some holes and
Alan broke the mark repeatedly to Keebler as we worked it up the field,
finally scoring on another pass from Alan to Keebler.  Up 8-7!  Now Alan sat
out (after being in 4 in a row, not wanting a repeat of the end of the Cows
game).  Again we failed on our first chance to score, turning it over in the
endzone.. but we got it back once more, just 10 yards out.  Will picked up
the disc and called for Sarah to cut.. he put up a high release backhand and
Sarah made a great catch right up next to the sideline for the game winning
goal!  We scored 5 in a row to take us to finals!

Our finals matchup was Magic Bus.  They were missing some players since
DUI has open and womens divisions, but still put together a strong squad.
They beat CtR about 10-6 or 10-5 in semis.  We started the game pulling
upwind and they scored first with no turnovers.. it was fairly windy so
we started our strategy of punt-and-zone which we used throughout the game.
Although our first few punts were not successful we were able to get it
back and get the goal.  However, our downwind zone was not stopping them
as they worked it around and through our cup with lots of short passes or
give and go.  We traded points all the way to 4-4.  Now we adjusted our
strategy for upwind points and tried straight-up on defense.  They got off
a long pass down the line but Steve, while twisting in the air to read the
disc, manage to jump up and bat it away.. we then got the first upwind goal
of the game on a pass from Dave to Max.  A block from Aruna and we converted
downwind.. then a block from Keebler and we worked it upwind to take the
half 7-4.  Now we got to receive going downwind... again it was punt and
zone, but this time our punt was completed as Will caught the huck from
Dave in traffic.. up 8-4.  Finally the Bus broke our run and scored, and
then put the pressure back on as they scored upwind (when we didn't punt,
and turned it over near midfield), closing to 6-8.  But we answered back;
Alan broke the mark to Dave who sent the upwind huck to Will.. we converted
the next to go up 10-6.  We traded a pair, getting our goal on our second
completed punt, from Alan to Dave.  Next we got the clincher, an upwind
goal giving us a 12-7 lead in a game to 13.  The last point was ugly, but
on our 5th possession we finally got the tournament winning goal.. 13-7.

Sunday summary:
	Rippit	11 - 5	Bumpy Knuckles	(EastBay)
		10 - 6	Clear the Room	(SouthBay)
		 9 - 7	Backyard Ultimate  (Berkeley)	Semis
		13 - 7	Magic Bus	(SantaCruz)	Finals

Yeah, Rippit!!!!!  It was very satisfying to win this tournament, after our
long string of 2nd and 3rd place finishes last year.  This is only the
second "major" tournament we have won, the other being sectionals in 1998.
We lived up to our name this weekend, especially in finals, as we were
ripping it left and right... momentum was also big for us in this tournament.
In our games against Butter, PIMP, Cows, Bumpy, Backyard AND Bus we had a
run of exactly five goals.. against CtR our run was eight goals!  We gave up
3 in a row to CtR and Backyard(twice), but no other team ever scored more
than 2 in a row against us.  And finally, comebacks: we were behind at some
point in all but our first 2 games... just 0-1 vs PIMP and 3-4 vs Bus, but
we came back from 2-5 vs Cows, 1-3 vs Bumpy, 1-4 vs CtR and 4-7 vs Backyard!
Made for a very exciting weekend :-)  It was fun to be part of it!

From Ron:
since i scooted my bootie back home after day 1 (too much work piled
up), i can give an update to those of you who didn't make it to DUI.

we went 4-0 today.  
- beat MUD 11-1. they were incredibly friendly, nice folks. but not very
good, though.
- bye; some of us watched FAA (now calling themselves "butter") beat CTR
by one at the hard cap. it was raining, so some of us retreated to our
cars. i took a nice nap in my car.
- beat FAA relatively easily, 11-5.
- beat PIMP ("party in my pants" -- winter league team with some pickups),
11-6
- beat Feral Cows by one at the hard cap. last point was a point from
hell: they pulled to us, we turned it 6 times; they turned it 6
times. then we scored. or rather: we threw it away either deep out of
bounds or into coverage, and then we got *huge* layout/sky
blocks. finally, dave busts deep, yelling, "Alan! Do it!". the *entire*
sideline yells out an agonized "No!!!!" but alan doesn't hear us
(selective hearing?), hucks it deep, and dave pulls it down in traffic
for the game.

tomorrow: bumpy knuckles (who lost to CTR 11-4), then CTR.

injury report: peter did something uber-bad to his left knee. the
trainer said potential meniscal tear or MCL; peter came back home
tonight and will likely see a doc first thing next week.

no-women report: sarah, aruna, and michelle were savage for the first
half of the day. kate showed up for the PIMP game, and then they could
start subbing. w00t! (well, actually, we played 5/2 with FAA for several
points.) we did see donna, playing with fury, and trying to hide from us.
unsuccessfully.

From Sarah:
the small but mighty squad of rippit managed to overpower all the
competition, winning DUI!!!  very exciting.

I won't bother trying to fill in any exciting details, most of them are a
blur for me anyway.  I'll let someone with a better memory (or palm pilot)
do that job.  suffice it to say, in spite of the small numbers, it was a
great tournament for us and I hope that everyone there had a super time.
winning certainly helps.  I do remember that the last two games were a tad
stress-filled towards the end...maybe just for me as I remember yelling
(robert says whining) a lot when I was in.  oops.  to everyone who heard me
(ie everyone at the tournament), sorry about that, I'll try and keep those
externalizations better internalized.  so I never feel the need to bitch
about it in a game again (ha ha ha)....

1.  a stack in the end zone is good
2.  walking it in...a good strategy.  perhaps better than JACKING IT UP THE
LINE.

but since I, too, tried unsuccessfully to jack it up the line to tommy in
the end zone, perhaps I'll be quiet on point number two. 

special thanks to max for playing with us this weekend and catching
practically every swilly pass that was hucked to him in the end zone.  

so a great weekend except for peter's injury.  peter, let us know when you
find out your real prognosis (ie not what the trainer on the field
said...we hope she was wrong).

Spring Fling

From Alan:
Hi all-
Ben, Lisa and Special K have brought back the Spring Fling tournament!
It was Saturday, March 24th at Independence High School in San Jose.
Unlike last year at DUI where we seemed more prepared than most teams
for the start of the season, this year we were slow to get started,
slow to get our offense going, and.... slow.  But we still had a good
time and enjoyed the nice California spring weather..
We also enjoyed playing with some potential new recruits: Kimber, JD
and Mara played with us all day, and Janet Wong and Dave Bailey played
with us in the last game.

We had a first round bye in the jam-packed seven round format.
Unfortunately our first matchup was against Sassy Sasafras.. a team
that runs.  We started out fine, pulling the disc and capitalizing on
their throwaway to score first.  On the next point Dave got a block,
but forgot to tell everyone he had sprained his thumb and had no
forehand... doh, he got stalled right on our endzone line!
Sassy scored on this one and then rattled off two more goals after our
throwaways.  In the next point we turned it over 4 times before Sassy
got the goal... then they racked up two more after our throwaways...
We were down 1-6!!  We took a timeout to regroup... we came back out
and scored on a pull play with a huck from Alan to Mara, then we slapped
on the zone.  Dave got a block, but we turned it over again.. they broke
it through the middle of our zone and hucked it to Ozzy, their tallest
guy.. Alan was deep-deep, but Ozzy had position.. Alan tipped it just
enough and the disc fell to the ground... it didn't take long for us to
score on a rip from Keebler to Sarah.  Finally some momentum on our side.
However, with the short rounds we didn't have time to play zone and wait
patiently to get turnovers.. we switched back to man... Sassy got one more,
but then we got two more before the round ended.. we closed the gap to
5-7 for the final score.

Next we faced Frizbee Nation.. we rolled to an 11-1 victory.
In one huck from Keebler the disc was just falling into Mara's hand...
when Tommy came streaking into the endzone and skied over her, practically
stripping the disc from her hand!  Tommy was promptly heckled and booed
off the field! :-)  After the game we put in an all-women line and played
zone.. we scored twice before they scored.

Our third game was vs Mixed Plate.  Again we had some trouble getting a
good rhythm on defense or offense.  Despite starting out going up 2-0 we
slowly fell to a 2-5 deficit.. no goals on 16 possessions in this stretch.
Alan decided to turn things around and went in for the next five points...
we scored all 5 and Alan threw 4 of the goals.  We traded the last pair
and won the game 9-6.

Despite our loss in the first round we managed to advance to a"semifinal"
game against Bumpy Knuckles.  (Sassy lost to Clear the Room at some point).
Last year we had 2 close games with BK, going 1-1 during the season.. then
at regionals we had a decisive victory when our track workouts seemed to
give us a good edge.  We didn't have that edge this time, and it was another
close one.  We started out well and worked up to a 4-1 lead... we mixed up
zone and zone-to-man on defense.  But they slowly climbed back and tied it
at 6-6.. then took the lead 7-6 when the cap went on.  We tied it at
7's but then gave up 2 straight to lose 7-9.

	vs Sassy Sasafras	 5 - 7
	vs Frizbee Nation	11 - 1
	vs Mixed Plate		 9 - 6
	vs Bumpy Knuckles	 7 - 9		Semis

From tournament directors Ben, Lisa and Bridget:
Hello Captains and Pickup Players,

First of all, thanks so much to all of you for showing such great spirit
throughout the day.  The tournament directors appreciate your flexibility
to change schedules and trust our decisions regarding who made finals.
(You know how hard it is to rank teams when doing a scramble format in
order to give everyone lots of playing time).  Spring Fling has
traditionally been a mellow tournament, and true to form, I think we all
had a ton of fun.  Every team got at least 4 games...and at least one of
them for each team was a close one as far as point differential.    

A special hip hip hooray to Bumpy Knuckles for winning the tournament...as
well as to runners-up Red Fish Blue Fish who always put on a good show.
Also, kudos to third and fourth place (Rippit and EZ Living).  Also,
honorable mentions to That's what SHE said (who was undefeated for the
day) and CTR (who only lost one game during the day).  Collectively, these
6 teams definitely raised the level of play at Spring Fling.  Finally,
three cheers to P.I.M.P. (the newest co-ed team of our region) for putting
in some great games at their debut tournament.  You guys did a great job
out of the gates, and we expect to see more from you at future
tournaments!  Way to go!

Also, thanks to all of you who participated in our crazy fundraising
schemes.  You were part of the first ever officially monitored fantasy
ultimate game (woo-hoo - anyone have a contact at the Guiness Book of
World Records?).  Also, proceeds from sales of pizza/drinks really helped
support Peninsula Bridge.  

In short, thanks to everyone for making the Sixth Annual Spring Fling
tournament a COMPLETE SUCCESS!  
- We had 17 teams competing and having a lot of fun - most of them from
  the Bay Area, but some players traveled from as far away as Las Vegas and
  Reno.  
- Your anti-rain dances worked!!!  The rain gods listened and cooperated.
  The weather forecast called for rain, but it wasn't until 7:00 in the
  evening, as I was locking the gates to the fields that we felt a little
  sprinkle and realized how blessed we'd been - especially since we had no
  contingency plan for field space on another day.
- Kelly (the representative from Independence High School) sent us an email
  today thanking us!  She said that we did a great job of cleaning up, showing
  positive spirit, and behaving appropriately (guess she missed that special
  game of ultimate spear-headed by EZ Living that involved balancing cups of
  some sort of liquid)  ;-)  Thanks everyone for being so good on school
  grounds.  We appreciate it, and we are welcome back next year! 
- Perhaps most importantly, the tournament raised approximately $800 for
  Peninsula Bridge.  Yay!!!  

Humboldt Harvest

From Alan:

Nearly came back but lost to a (poor sprited) Oregon team on Saturday,
but won the other games.  Won our prequarter game Sunday and had a rematch
with the same Oregon team, this time with a decisive victory.
Advanced to semis against Sticky Wicket (Davis).. played ok but couldn't
quite hang in there and lost about 8-13.  Davis went on to win finals.

Saturday:
	Rippit	13 - 0   It's Six Degrees and Kevin's Bakin'
		12 - 4   Emerald City Avengers
		12 - 6   Betty Goodlove
		12 - 13  Crusty Udders (Corvallis)
Sunday:
	Rippit	13 - 9   Big Cave All Stars (SF)
		13 - 8   Crusty Udders (Corvallis)	Quarters
		 8 - 13  Sticky Wicket (Davis)		Semis

Bago!  Of course, the most memorable part of this trip was that we
rented a winnebago and brought nearly the entire team up in it.
One pitstop on the way up after we drove over planter and knocked
the muffler off, but we made it up the Humboldt county.. the Bago
was margaritaville central for the duration of the tournament.
Keebler and Chad kept us all entertained at the saturday night party,
dressed up as Clinton (Chad in tight pants) and Monica (Keebler in a
blue dress and kneepads).. yikes!

Coed Nationals

	vs Bad Larry		15 - 2		Denver, CO
	vs Ralph		15 - 8		Chicago, IL
	vs His & Hers		12 - 13		Washington, DC
	vs Spear		 2 - 15		North Carolina
	vs TnT			11 - 12		Dallas, TX
	vs Holes & Poles	 9 - 13		Baton Rouge, LA
	vs Salsa		15 - 14		Albuquerque, NM
	vs Crunch		12 - 13		Atlanta, GA

This put us in 11th place.
2nd place overall in Spirit of the Game.

Coed Regionals

From Alan:
Northwest Coed Regionals 2000 was held in Vancouver, Washington on
August 12-13.  Being the first coed series held separately from the
open/womens fall series we expected there might be a few "ringer teams"
with players from top level mens and womens teams.. although there were a
LOT of very talented squads out there, we found that the top seeded teams
were familiar names from last year: Trigger Hippy from Big Sky, Naughtybear
from Seattle, Pigs in Space from Portland; Magic Bus from our section was
the top seed overall.
The first issue for the tournament was adjusting the pools because EZ Living
(nocal #4) was a no-show (too many injured players, and most of them were
driving not flying so it was easier to bail).  EZ was originally seeded
9th, so the top 8 spots were unaffected.  The rest of the slots shifted up
one.  This moved Feral Cows out of our pool (so we didn't have to play them
at *every* tournament we both attended this season) and left us with a pool
of only 4 teams.  Bumpy Knuckles was then shifted down a couple seeds so our
pool wasn't 75% from Oregon.  We were left with this:

Team (seed, section/place)  nc=northern california          bs=bigsky
                            wa=washington,british columbia  or=oregon

POOL A                      POOL B
Magic Bus       (1,nc1)     Trigger Hippy     (2,bs1)
Kibosh          (8,or3)     Army of Darkness  (7,or2)
SOLD            (9,bs2)     Mystery Machine  (10,or4)
Skin & Bones   (16,or6)     Porn Stars       (15,bs3)
Vincelot Link, (17,wa3)     Sassy Sassafras  (18,nc7)
   Ultimate Chimp              Lollipop Experience

POOL C                      POOL D
Naughtybear        (3,wa1)  Pigs in Space    (4,or1)
RedFish BlueFish   (6,nc3)  Rippit           (5,nc2)
Snatch 'n' Tackle (11,wa2)  Bumpy Knuckles  (12,nc5)
Special K         (14,nc6)  Velvatone       (13,or5)
Feral Cows        (19,nc9)        Jiggy Jim

We had expected a first round bye, but with a pool of 4 we had no byes.
Starting late was ok because we had only 3 rounds to complete over the
course of the day while the other pools had 5.  We played games to 15
instead of 13.
The weather was excellent.. not too warm and just a slight breeze.
The fields were surrounded by tree covered hills, except for a wide
chopped-down strip for power lines that stretched out far into the
distance.. they also went directly over some of the fields.. low enough
that we wondered about discs hitting them, but I never saw it happen.


>>> SATURDAY -- Pool Play <<<

Game 1 vs Velvatone Jiggy Jim (Portland)
It was nearly 11am before our first game got started.  Even though our first
round bye was gone we took our time to get properly warmed up.. our opponents
had been warming up for over an hour.  This team had decent skills but
couldn't stop our offense.. all except one of our first 7 goals we scored
with no turnovers.  We only allowed them to score twice in this stretch,
putting the score at 7-2.  Our second point was a layout grab by Kate on
a pass from Dave.. we figured out later that this was Rippit's *2000th* goal.
Offense continued to be the name of the game.. more points with zero or one
turnover up to a score of 11-6.  Finally our defense started to get in gear
and Kate and Alan each got a block, our first blocks of the game, and we
built up our lead to 14-7 (Sarah also got a block in the endzone, but it
went back to the thrower for some reason).  We gave up a couple goals before
getting the game winner, 15-9.  The home team gave us a Britney Spears cheer
with excellent choreography.

Game 2 vs Bumpy Knuckles (Bay Area)
With Bumpy added to our pool we knew there were 3 teams fighting to win the
pool.  We finished our first game and went over to watch the Knuckles playing
Pigs in Space.  The Knuckles took the game, playing lots of zone defense..
they took a very long time finishing up their cheer and moving over to our
field, trying to get in some rest before our game.
We received the pull and scored the first goal.  A block by Alan on the
first or second pass in the next point and we converted it for a 2-0 lead.
We scored 2 more with only 1 turnover of our own.  Another block by Alan
in the next point, but he subbed out with bruised elbows (great weather,
but the ground was a bit hard!).  A long point ensued, but finally after
a block from Kate we scored (our 5th possession of the point).  5-0!
The track workouts seemed to show in this game, as we were running harder
on O and D.  Their zone wasn't too successful so they didn't use it as
much as they did against Pigs.  We traded goals up to 9-4 and then went
on another run.. 3 in a row made it 12-4.  We allowed them to make a small
dent in our lead, but still won with a very comfortable margin: 15-9.
We scored 11 of our 15 goals on our first possession of the point.  That's
tough to beat!  They scored 6 on their first possession.  They gave us a
great cheer to "Beat It" including a simulated arms-tied-switchblade-duel
at the end as in the video.
We were playing well and running hard, ready to face Pigs in Space..
a rematch from pool play one year ago..

Game 3 vs Pigs in Space (Portland)
Our game in 1999 was the last round of pool play, each team undefeated up
to that point.. we had traded up to 7-7 when we discovered that straight-up
defense caused a lot of problems with their isolation type offense, and we
rattled off 6 straight to win the game.  We also had seen Bumpy have some
success with zone defense.  We started off the game showing we could still
shut down their offense by playing good defense on the players around and
behind the disc: with Jen marking we got a stall.. however, we turned it
over and they got the first point.  The following progression then happened
three times in a row: we scored a quick goal with no turns, followed by
trading a pair of goals on long points with many turnovers.  The first
iteration had 1-2 turnovers per team per point, the next had 2-3 (but we
scored 2 goals before trading this pair) and the third had 3-5 turnovers each!
The Pigs seemed a bit inconsistent on offense, and their pressure on defense
was giving us some problems.. the combined result made for some long points
with many turnovers.  Fortunately we did mix in some good offensive points
in there, so we built up a lead to 7-4.  A few of the shortest points of
the game followed, and a block by Keebler allowed us to extend out lead by
one more, up to 9-5.  We traded with us up by 4-5 points up to 13-8.. in one
point Dave skied their 6'+ (5"?) player to block a huck (but they ended up
scoring that point).  On the last point in this stretch Keebler caught the
disc just in front of the endzone and Dave ran ahead uncovered.. but Keebler's
marker went straight-up and was able to stop any easy straight throw.. so
Keebler put up the scoober.. way up!  It went past Dave but he laid out and
made the grab.  After this the Pigs made a small dent in our lead, scoring
two in a row and closing to 13-10, but we finished off the game in good form:
a block by Alan set up the goal from Alan to Dave, and a block by Kate set up
the game winner from Keebler to Sarah.
In this game we turned it over 26 times.. more than the previous two games
combined.. however, we did score 9 of 15 goals on our first possession of
the point while they only scored 2.. since we scored our fare share of the
longer points we came away with the win, 15-10.
Embarrassing side note: since Bumpy beat Pigs by only two and we beat
Bumpy by six, Alan had figured out we could lose the last game and still
win the pool.. we needed to score 11 or more goals.  With all the turnovers
in this game Alan somehow flipped out on the point where we failed to score
on five possessions, and got the idea we were behind.. from the point he
started keeping track we traded points so he never realized he was in error..
at 14-10 when Alan thought we were losing but could win the pool with one
more goal was when he was finally informed we were ahead.. doh!  All this
and then Alan got the spanking machine from both Rippit and the Pigs
(a Rippit birthday+tournament tradition?).
So we won our pool!  With 5 teams advancing to nationals they had an
unusual format with pool winners advancing directly to semifinals.
Magic Bus held their #1 seed in Pool A so they would be our opponents..
a rematch of sectionals finals where we lost by only 1 point..
After our last game we caught the end of the game to take Pool C,
Naughtybear vs RedFish.. RedFish kept within striking distance, but
Naughtybear held their narrow lead to win by a couple goals.


>>> SUNDAY -- Playoffs <<<

Semifinals vs Magic Bus (Santa Cruz)
We got to the fields bright and early for semis at 9am.  It was a bit cooler
than saturday and almost no wind.. prime conditions for ultimate.  Just
before the game Keebler suggested we play games to 3.  Instead of tracking
the real score we would keep track until one team got 3 points and then
start over at 0-0.  The point is to keep us motivated to play hard even
when ahead.. good strategy when playing against a team that is very capable
of coming back.  Also good when playing a long game to 17..
We started off a bit slow.. we pulled the disc and they worked it up for
the goal.  The next point had a few turnovers including a block by Sarah,
but the Bus scored again.  Down 0-2 in our first game to 3... it took two
possessions but we scored our first point on a nice long flick from Libby,
over the poaching guy to a wide open Keebler.. then our defense started to
kick in (but our offense wasn't there yet).. after a sky block by Kevin,
a block by Eric, and a layout block by Tommy we still didn't score.. luckily
they turned it over one more time and we tied it up at 2-2.  We capitalized
on their error next point and took the lead 3-2.
They tied it back up at 3-3.. now we got our offense into gear as well as
our defense and started racking up the goals.  We scored five in a row,
four of them on our first possession of the point!  On the middle goal of
this run we had a nice long pull to the back of the endzone.. Keebler
hustled down on defense and made a bid at blocking the first pass, still in
their endzone.. it was a swing and a miss, but the defensive pressure caused
them to drop it.  Keebler grabbed the disc, ran back to the endzone line and
threw the one foot pass to Alan for the goal.
After this run of five goals the score was 8-3.  Kevin got a block on the
next point, giving us a chance to keep pushing forward, but then he threw
it away and our run ended.. they scored two in a row, making it 8-5.. also
2-2 in the current game to 3.. after Hank kept our possession alive many
times by catching dump passes to the kag we managed to close out that game,
9-5.  Then two more stuff-and-score points, up to 11-5.  But again they got
two in a row, for 2-2 in the game to 3.. a handblock by Kevin gave us
possession and we won that game to 3 as well.
Again we gave up two in a row, this time down 0-2 in our game to 3.
Alan hucked a goal to Kevin to start our comeback but this time we were
unsuccessful and lost our first game to 3, 1-3.. this made the score 13-10
and the Bus were making their first real surge into the game.  It was crunch
time and suddenly 17 seemed so far away... but we rose to the challenge and
scored two in a row, then gave up one.  A block by Hank setup a huck from
Dave to Kevin to get us to 16-11.  In the next point our defensive pressure
cause another quick turnover near their endzone.  We setup our stack and Alan
picked up the disc, calling the play.. Donna and Sarah cut from the back,
one to each side.. Alan threw a breakmark flick to Sarah for the game winner.
This was a great game for us.. we kept up our highest level of play for a
full 28 points with good defense (10 blocks!) and solid offense (11 goals
on first possession of point).  And best of all, we qualified for Nationals!!

Finals vs Trigger Hippy (Big Sky)
With our bid to Nationals secured and just one more game to play for the
rest of the day, we took some time before the final to rest and watch other
games.  Finally we regrouped and took the field to play the final.
Trigger happily agreed to play to 13 instead of 17.
As in semis we started out slow and went down 0-2.  Both teams played solid
offense as we traded two goals each, neither team turning it over at all.
That streak ended abruptly.. the next point had five turnovers by each team.
After a layout block by Dave, Alan got a hat trick of throwaways.. but we
still got the goal as Alan tried to make up for his errors by catching the
goal from Keebler and getting a block in the following point.  Unfortunately
we gave up that goal, but we turned on the defense to get us back in the
game.  Layout blocks by Dave and Tommy in the next two points each led to
goals for us.  The game was tied at 5-5.  Eric strained his back in that
last point and was out for the rest of the game.
We played decently well for the rest of the game, but Trigger slowly built
a lead and we couldn't climb back again.  They scored two in a row to 5-7
and we traded up to 7-9, as a block by Aruna kept us in it.  Then they got
two in a row to 7-11 and we traded to the end 9-13.  This time our opponents
scored 10 goals on their first possession of the point and we scored only 4.
The guy with flame shorts sucked, er, I mean, got a bunch of Ds ;-)

So we finished in 2nd place in the Northwest Region!!  This is a great
achievement, especially considering the huge number of strong teams in our
region.  We watched for a while and then headed off to the Belltower to
eat and celebrate.. afterwards we returned to the fields to observe the
conclusion of this amazing story:
Magic Bus and Naughtybear both won their pools but lost semis.
*Both* of them went on to lose in the 3/4 bracket semis (Bus to Redfish and
Naughtybear to Kibosh(oregon #3), allowing each of those teams to advance to
Nationals... then they both went and lost AGAIN in the 5/6 bracket semis
(Bus to Pigs in Space and Naughtybear to..... Feral Cows!)  The Cows were
nocal #9 and only made regionals when Alaska dropped out, nocal got an 8th
team and a davis team(Mirage) declined the bid... they were seeded dead last,
but managed to make 3rd in their pool and squeeze into the upper bracket.
They lost in the first round, but went on to beat Sassy Sassafras, then Army
of Darkness (oregon #2; Redfish beat them by only 1 pt in the previous round)
and then Naughtybear to advance to the 5/6 game, the "game-to-go".
Unfortunately they lost to Pigs in Space (lost 3 players leaving for flights,
and 2 others stayed and missed their flights!), but it was very cool to see
the Cows advance so far on sunday!


Summary
=======

Saturday:
	vs Velvatone Jiggy Jim          15-9
	vs Bumpy Knuckles               15-9
	vs Pigs in Space                15-10

Sunday:
	vs Magic Bus                    17-11   Semifinals
	vs Trigger Hippy                 9-13   Finals


Final Standings
===============
1  Trigger Hippy	Big Sky
2  Rippit		Bay Area (south)
3  Kibosh		Eugene, OR
4  RedFish BlueFish	Bay Area (allover)
5  Pigs in Space	Portland, OR
6  Feral Cows		Bay Area (south)
7  Naughtybear		Seattle, WA
7  Magic Bus		Bay Area (santa cruz)
9  Army of Darkness	Corvallis, OR
9  Bumpy Knuckles	Bay Area (east)
11 SOLD			Big Sky
12 Sassy Sassafras	Bay Area (SF)
13 Skin & Bones		Portland, OR (beer bracket winner)

Yay Northern California coed!!!  6 of the top 12 are from our section,
finishing in a nice even spread: spots 2,4,6,7,9,12.  Also Magic Bus was
the only one of these teams to finish lower than original seed.
Rippit, RedFish and Bumpy all moved up 2-3 spots.. Sassy moved up six
(18->12) and Cows moved up 13!!! (19->6!)


From Lois Maykut (regional coordinator):
The 2000 Northwest Coed Regionals was held on August 12-13 in Portland, OR. 
The top 5 teams have qualified for Nationals in Blaine, MN. 

Getting a bid to Nationals was all about "proving it". There were a
couple of upsets - both Magic Bus and Naughtybear won their
pools, yet did not make it to Nationals. The teams that came in
second in their pools, Kibosh and Red Fish Blue Fish, both
qualified. I suppose it just goes to show that there are a lot of
strong coed teams in the NW region.

The amazing story of the tournament, though, was Feral Cows.
They came in 9th in the Northern California sectionals... winning the
beer bracket. There were 7 slots for No. Cal teams, and they were
disappointed not to have made it. Then Alaska dropped out of the
tournament and there was another bid awarded to the No. Cal
section. The #8 team declined the invitation, and the Feral Cows
were excited to make the trip. They started out ranked last, but
played amazingly all weekend. They lost to Naughtybear and RFBF
in pool play, coming in 3rd in their pool, and advancing to the
A-bracket. They lost one game, but then continued to win and
win... beating Sassy, Army of Darkness, and Naughtybear. They
lost 3 people to early flights and had 2 others miss their flights in
order to play in the back door game to go. They lost, partly because
they were exhausted and had few subs... that last game was a
huckfest. But it takes nothing away from their amazing rise through
the ranks from 9th in their section and 20th at regionals to finish up
6th!

Final rankings of the top 12 teams:
1   Trigger Hippy
2   RippIt
3   Kibosh
4   Red Fish Blue Fish
5   Pigs in Space
6   Feral Cows
7   Naughtybear
7   Magic Bus
9   Army of Darkness
9   Bumpy Knuckles
11  SOLD
12  Sassy Sassafras Lollipop Experience


From Swayzilla (post on rec.sport.disc):
I've admired those posts that are bold enough to predict the top coed teams
at Nationals based on their region or whatever local club teams their players
came from, especially that one that just took 4 of the 5 NW teams and the top
seeds from the other Regions.  While arguably the strongest coed region, the
Northwest teams remain largely unknown, with the exception of 2 perennial
Bay Area favorites, RFBF and RippIt.  So to help all you Fantasy League Coed
players, this is a brief preview of the teams coming out of the NW Region. 

5. Pigs In Space:  The Pigs make it to Nationals through the back-back door
by beating Feral Cows in a huckfest of epic proportions that I'm sure will
instill fear in the hearts of their enemies.  I don't doubt that more than
one spectator wondered how these two teams managed to beat NaughtyBear and
Magic Bus.  The question is, which Pigs will show up at Nationals?  The Pigs
that took their 12 team Section 8-0 (albeit without playing Kibosh!) and
finished top 8 at Potlatch or the Pigs that stunk up the field Saturday at
Regionals?  Some key players are rumored to miss Nationals, most notably 2
from Schwa, perhaps feeling the pressure or disappointment from Schwa Captain
TrayC.  Regardless, the Pigs and their funky German-style offense that
sometimes works/sometimes doesn't, still has a very solid core that can play
D and score.

4. Red Fish Blue Fish.  The former National and World Champion Fish surprised
many by taking the 3 seed out of their section behind Magic Bus and RippIt
which earned them a 2 seed at Regionals in NaughtyBears pool.  The final pool
play game between NB and RFBF was one of the better games of the weekend with
no shortage of disc waggling and spikes.  NaughtyBear took that close game
12-11 or 12-10.  Instead of dwelling on the loss, they showed up Sunday to
play and advance.  Similar to the posts on the Coed Revolution, most teams
that play them feel they can (and should) beat them.  However, the Fish work
very well together, control the disc efficiently, and capitalize on mistakes.
I'm sure that whatever their seed will be, you don't want them in your pool.
They can be beaten but don't be surprised to see them hanging around Sunday
night or even Monday morning.

3. Kibosh!.  Of the teams out of the Northwest, Eugene-based Kibosh! has the
highest percentage of open club players, including Aaron 'which team am I
playing for this year' Talbot.  They played extremely solid all year winning
a few local tournaments but dropped the 2-3 semifinal game at Sectionals to
Army of Darkness.  In addition to their 2 seed behind Magic Bus in their pool,
they received a scare when Portland Men's Captain, Brian Linkfield, put the
foot down on the coed hooligans and threatened the P.T. of those who played
coed.  In addition to benching players one day for every day they played Coed,
he also held a double practice the Saturday night and Sunday morning of Coed
Regionals.  Herr Linkfield, thinking that Bonzi/PDX has a shot at Nationals
after beating Sockeye at Solstice (hint: they don't), is rumored to enforce
this 'suspension' during the Emerald City Classic next weekend in Seattle.
Should Kibosh! show up full squad to Nationals and not throw too many
scoobers, look for them to seriously challenge for a 2nd place spot. 

2. RippIt:  The 2 seed from the Bay Area seemed to play with more focus
towards winning this year at Regionals.  Perhaps they weren't seriously
challenged by Bumpy Knuckles or the Pigs in pool play but they looked real
good and certainly earned their 2 seed Sunday.  RippIt will play an efficient
game with a new (?) iso-offense set that they'll run off a pull or turnover.
Most coed-only teams have been trying to develop offenses that minimize the
cross gender poach and take advantages of mismatches.  Theirs isn't much
different.  It's hard to D and they exploit poaches well.  Similar to RFBF,
they capitalize quickly on turnovers.  If they play like they did at
Regionals, they could easily be playing Monday morning.

1. Trigger Hippy.  Many of the predictions thus far have focused on the
Mid-Atlantic or NY teams as finalists and have quietly passed over NW Champions
Trigger Hippy, which I'm sure is fine by them.  They've boosted last year's
semifinalist roster with more strong, hard runners than last year and upped
the intensity.  Their style is pretty straightforward; run hard and run fast.
I'm sure there are starting 7's that can be better than them but for a full
squad, look out.  I think the longer a game/tournament goes on, the harder
they'll be to beat.  If you play them, be ready to run because both genders
can and will get D's.  They made semis last year and I'd assume they'd reach
at least that this year as well.

Coed Sectionals

From Alan:
The first "summer coed series" northern california sectionals was held in
Davis.. the weather was hot as 17 teams fought it out for 6-7 spots at
regionals.  Saturday was pool play and prequarters (pool winners got a bye
and 2 vs 3 crossover games played to advance to quarters).  Sunday was a
double elimination playoff bracket for the top 8.

>>> SATURDAY -- Pool Play <<<

Game 1 vs Sassy Sassafras Lollipop Experience.
As usual Sassy was full of energy and ready to play for the first round of the
day.  This was our third meeting of the season.. previously we had beaten them
11-1 at DUI and 13-9 at CalStates.  At DUI they tried an isolation type offense
with a couple players very deep, a couple swings and dumps, and a single player
right in the middle of the field.  We shut this down by poaching and went on to
an easy victory.  At CalStates they seemed to have given up on this offense,
but scored 3 in a row at the end of our game to show they could play when given
the chance.  However, at sectionals their iso offense returned, this time in
better form.  They only used their tallest guy as the isolated player and
were very effective at finding continuations once they got the disc moving.
We capitalized on a couple of their errors early in the game to go up 3-1,
but this is as big as our lead would get.  Although we had very few turnovers
Sassy's effectiveness on offense kept them in the game.  We tried zone a couple
times and both times they put a floaty throw up to the middle of the field,
baiting our deep-deep to go for the block (once for Alan, once for Eric)..
however, both times we did not get there in time and the pass was caught and
then sent to the endzone for the easy score.  These results kept us from
playing zone any more, but in retrospect we probably should have given it
another try as those were both lucky plays.  We took the half having only made
4 turnovers, but they had only made 5 and the score was 8-7.  We traded a few
more and after an unsuccessful huck attempt by Alan they worked it back and
scored to make it 8-9, Sassy's first lead since 0-1.  The game stayed within
one point and had 4 lead changes, eventually reaching 13-13.  Both teams
continued to have success on offense, but fortunately Sassy made the one extra
error at the end of the game, allowing us to take our 14-13 lead and turn it
into a 15-13 win on a goal from Will to Tommy.

Game 2 vs Not Milk.
After facing Sassy we had a bye.  We retreated to the shade as the temps
continued to rise.  Next we faced Not Milk, the bottom seed of our pool.
We opened up with zone defense and found they couldn't handle it.. we shot
up to a 3-0 lead.  To make the game more interesting we switched to man
defense, but then we made some mistakes on offense and they tied it at 3-3!
After that we mixed up our defense and bit and slowly increased our lead to
win 15-8.

Game 3 vs Feral Cows.
As with Sassy, we played the Cows at both DUI and CalStates this season.
Previous results were 11-7 and 13-7.  This was possibly our most comfortable
game vs the Cows as we were never behind and the only time they almost caught
up was at 5-4.  However, it was good preparation for Sunday as we started to
get our defense in gear, with 8 blocks in the game.  We ended up winning 15-9,
holding our 3rd seed overall giving us a bye until quarterfinals on sunday
morning.  Notable point: Sarah got a block in the endzone to stop a score,
caught a huck to get us near the endzone, dumped it and then ran and caught
the goal too!


<<Other pools and Prequarters>>

This year's sectionals featured an amazing number of close games.
The competition to qualify for quarterfinals was fierce.
In pool A #1 seed Magic Bus was challenged by #8 seed FAA, but they held
on for a 13-11 win and this pool stayed as seeded.  Pool B had some big
surprises.. RedFish BlueFish clearly had not recovered from their poor
performance at CalStates and lost 2 games in pool play.  First to #15 seed
(not well seeded) called The Mirage (or Davis B; many college players,
quite athletic, especially the women).. this one was 15-12.  Next the fish
played Special K.. apparently after getting a few lucky catches to keep the
game close the cereal squad decided they had a chance at this, and with some
inspired play them pulled out the 16-14 win.  But despite their 3rd place
finish in the pool, RFBF easily qualified for quarters with a 13-3 win over
Hot Valley (Davis).  Special K on the other hand had another nail-biter in
their prequarters matchup with FAA.. a 13-12 finish put Special K into
quarters.  Finally, in pool D the Special K splitoff/stanford squad (Clear
the Room) upset Bumpy Knuckles with a 12-11 win to take second in the pool,
EZ Living came out on top.  This setup Cows vs Bumpy and Sassy vs CtR for
the prequarters matchups.. both were very tight games.  Sassy and CtR was
a race all the way, similar to our game with Sassy.  At 11-11 this time it
was Sassy who reeled off the last two goals for the 13-11 win.  Cows and
Bumpy had an even first half, up to 7-7.  Bumpy then got 3 in a row.. they
traded to the end, but the Cows couldn't close the gap and lost 10-13.
For pools C and D it was the 3rd place finisher that made quarters, not the
2nd.  In pool B both 2nd and 3rd made it.  A lot of great competition!
Disappointing for some very good teams that did NOT make quarters:
Feral Cows(coming off a 4th place finish at CalStates), FAA,
and Clear the Room.


>>> SUNDAY -- Playoffs <<<

There was some debate about how to do the initial seeding for quarters.
The 1 vs 8 and 4 vs 5 pairings did not create any rematches, but the 2 vs 7
would replay Special K vs the Mirage.  Captains voted whether to swap with
3 vs 6 so we would play Special K and Mirage would play Bumpy Knuckles.  We
voted for the swap, but Bumpy voted to go with straight seedings and play us.
Jo (sectional coordinator) broke the tie and made the swap, stating that
pool B had some misseedings and the strength of the pool needed to be tested
against other teams.. so:

Quarters vs Special K.
The cereal crew couldn't find the magic they had on saturday and we saw a
repeat of our score from CalStates, 13-3.

This put us into semis and ensured us a spot at regionals (we could finish no
lower than 6th).  Kevin's back was still not doing well, so he started icing
and would probably be out until part way into the next game.  Our quick
quarters game also gave us time to watch Bumpy vs Mirage.. we would play the
winner in semis.  That game was close all the way and had a number of long
zone points with a bunch of turnovers.. (sunday was cooler and there was a
pretty steady breeze).. we hoped this game would tire out both teams as we
waited to see who our opponent would be.  In the end it was Bumpy Knuckles,
winning by just a point or two...

Semis vs Bumpy Knuckles.
We were 1-1 vs Bumpy this season, losing 10-15 at CalStates and winning just
11-10 in Livermore.. each time their squad looked a little different and at
sectionals again we saw some different people.  Kate got them to volunteer
for dark shirts (yay!) but then Jimmy came over and tried to flip for color.
Kate said no and we stayed white.. Keebler said something like: "never, ever,
flip for what you already have."  The wind was blowing and both teams played
a lot of zone, both for upwind and downwind points.  We started out up 2-0
after a block by Michelle, but after a few more long points we discovered it
was 2-3.  More zone, this time we were on O going downwind.  Alan threw a fake
and got their middle-middle to dive to the ground.. Alan saw the opportunity
to make a longer pass out to Donna, but the disc only went about half the
distance before hitting the turf.  Bumpy setup their stack and Alan covered
that same defender who was called as their first cut.  He faked deep and got
open cutting back in, but slowed up on the very last step and Alan got the
layout block.  We scored this point, but continued to trade with the score
tied or us down one, up to 6-6.  Finally we scored upwind to take the half
7-6.  We got to receive to start the second half but Kevin threw a high
release over their cup that got blocked by a wing and the got the upwinder
to even it at sevens.  In the next point we worked it upwind very patiently
against their zone; Alan broke the mark repeatly for short gains to Will,
many times with help from Shane popping to create holes.  We got the goal
from Keebler to Eric and the time cap went on, 8-7 game to 10.  This time we
were able to convert out advantage and scored downwind to make it 9-7.  With
finals just a point away we fired up some good defense for the next point..
Tommy got a block, but Keebler turned it over.. then Keebler got it back for
us with a sky block.. a couple quick passes and Kevin zipped a forehand up
the line to Michelle and we won 10-7.  On to finals!

Finals vs Magic Bus.
Tested only by FAA on saturday, the Bus had greater challenges on sunday.
In quarters they faced RFBF and in semis it was EZ Living.. but they finished
off both without too much difficulty.. it seemed the Bus was stacked, as
expected.  For this game we moved to field 1 across the street, so now we
had a steady crosswind instead of up/downwind points.  For defense we played
some zone and a lot of force-downwind.  Fortunately we were not intimidated
by their previous results, we came out to play our game.  However, since we
were definitely in for regionals we told Kevin not to play this game and rest
his back.. we would all have to play just a bit harder, and Alan was stuck as
the only person to cover Cribber, their tallest player.
Like semis this game stayed very even through the first half.  It stayed within
1 point up to 6-6 with 3 lead changes.  We had the chance to take the half, but
turned it over and gave up the point.  For perhaps the first time all weekend we
had to pull after the mirror half and they converted to take a 6-8 lead.  A drop
by us on the next point and then it was 6-9.. the game was starting to slip
away.  The next point had 4 errors by each team; fortunately we came away
with the score to stop their 4 goal run.  Back in gear, the Bus scored the
next with no turns to make it 7-10.  Time was running out in this game to 13..
but we were up to the challenge.. Alan threw the next goal to Ron, and after
a layout block by Dave, Alan put in the goal to Shane.  The next point was a
long one.. the wind had picked up and both teams had trouble on offense.
We got very close to the endzone a number of times, but each time made a throw
that floated way up over the intended receiver.  About the third one of these
was a short throw from Will to Alan.. the wind caught it and the disc started
shooting up, but Alan jumped up and just barely got it on his fingertips,
landing just inside the endzone to tie it at 10-10.  Now it was anybody's game.
They scored the next and we worked it up against their zone trying to keep it
tied.. Keebler sent a forehand up the line to Eric in the endzone, but Cribber
got there in plenty of time to... completely whiff with both hands as he went
for the block!  Eric had almost no time to react as the disc appeared in front
of him, but somehow it stuck like glue to his fingers and we were at 11-11.
(Eric says "watching cribber slump over in complete disbelief was priceless")
Another long point was next.. we got *4* blocks on defense (Kate, Will,
Michelle*2), but couldn't manage to score the point, and we traded up to
12-12.  Here we decided to time cap the game at 14...  zero-zero, game to two.
Kate got a block and threw the goal to Keebler, putting us at 13-12!
A layout block by Tommy in the next point gave us the disc with a chance to
win it... we got the disc to Kate near the sideline about 10 yards out..
she broke the mark with a throw to the endzone but unfortunately the defense
was there and the pass was intercepted.. they worked it back and tied it up
13-13.  We were receiving the disc, next point wins.  The Bus worked their
Magic and sent us an amazing, bladey pull that we let drop.. it looked like
it would roll out the back, but it curved at the last second and came to
rest just a few yard from both the back and side of the endzone.  Kate had
picked up the disc and she was running out of time.. Alan made eye contact and
gave her a final option with a cut away from her running across the endzone.
Kate got just enough on this throw to get past Cribber and Alan caught the
disc.. but again running out of time Alan tried to put a little air bounce on
a short downwind pass to Will.. with no lift under the disc it fell short of
the target, turnover in the endzone.. the Bus ran their endzone O and got the
game winner, 13-14.  A disappointing loss, but we definitely gave the Bus 
a good challenge.  Chad (of RFBF) estimated a 13-9 win for us if Kevin had
played... other oddities in this game: a high number of our blocks or
throwaways by the Bus that went back to the thrower for various "reasons";
Gus can't remember the rules (wanted to pick both side and pull after
winning flip, and wanted to sub people during a timeout).

We had some time to rest before the last game.. our opponent would be
the winner of RFBF vs EZ Living who were coming up through the backdoor
bracket.  This was yet another very close game, but this time RedFish
finished off in their more typical fashion, and got the last couple goals
for the win.  We saw a lot of hucks in this game, and many not so good ones,
from both teams..

Backdoor Finals vs RedFish BlueFish.
Yup, our old rivals were back.  Despite their performance in pool play and
losing in quarterfinals to Magic Bus they had made it to the 2/3 game.
For once we felt like we had the upper hand, as we had played one fewer game
and had more consistent results through the weekend.  The fish set the tone
for the game, which would only affect seeding at regionals, by mocking our
warmup sprints with a slow, slow walk across the field to warm up..
It always takes some time to adjust to playing the fish with all their
different zones and their offensive style.  We went up 2-1, but then gave up
4 straight to 2-5.. we called timeout and finally started to get our heads into
anti-fish-mode, but could only manage trading points up to 6-9.. and this was a
game to 11!  We knew we could take this game, but we were really running out of
time.  Keebler was telling us repeatly how our man defense was all over them
and could shut them down.. now we started to really believe it and make it
happen.  We scored one, Kevin got a sky block and we scored another, then
we forced another turn and worked it up against their zone to tie it at 9-9.
They turned it over on the next point and surprisingly we faced man defense.
Alan ran a 50 yard cut pulling away from Scruffy and caught the huck from
Tommy for the 10-9 lead.  The final point was the Sarah and Tommy show..
Sarah got a block but a foul was called.. the same player cut again and
Sarah got the block again! (this time with no call).. this game us the disc
but we turned it over.. next a good mark by Sarah forced a high floaty throw,
and Tommy came down with the sky block.  Some patient work against their zone
and Tommy sent a pass to the endzone.. with a guy right on her heels Sarah
caught the game winner, finishing off our run of 5 goals for an 11-9 win.


Winning the backdoor final put us in second place overall!  (and just a
single goal from first..)  We played a lot of competetive and good spirited
ultimate.. we focused well and kept up consistent play to help us come away
with the win almost every time.. great job everyone!!

The final standings were:

1- Magic Bus
2- Rippit
3- RedFish BlueFish
4- EZ Living
5- Bumpy Knuckles
6- Special K
7- Sassy Sassafras
8- Mirage
9- Cows

Our game scores:

Saturday:
	vs Sassy Sassafras	15-13
	vs Not Milk		15-8
	vs Feral Cows		15-9

Sunday:
	vs Special K		13-3	Quarters
	vs Bumpy Knuckles	10-7	Semis
	vs Magic Bus		13-14	Finals
	vs RedFish BlueFish	11-9	Backdoor Final

Livermore NCUL

From Alan:
A one day, 7 team event at Las Positas College, hosted by EZ Living.
We used this day to practice some things like endzone offense and
cutting from the back of the stack, and still managed to get 2nd place:

	vs Frequent Flyers	11-0
	vs EZ Living		 8-11
	vs Project Mayhem	11-5
	vs Bumpy Knuckles	11-10  (semi)
	vs EZ Living		 5-9   (final)

CalStates

From Alan:
Here are the results from CalStates...

Saturday:
	vs FAA			12 - 5
	vs Sassy Sassafras	13 - 9
	vs Special K		13 - 3
	vs Feral Cows		13 - 7
	vs Magic Bus		11 - 13

Sunday
	vs Ripped van Winkle	12 - 9		Quarterfinals
	vs Bumpy Knuckles	10 - 15		Semifinals


Game 1 vs FAA.  The aviators came out running a little harder than we
expected and we traded up to 3-3.. as we got warmed up we pushed ahead
to win 12-5.

Game 2 vs Sassy Sassafras.  Tommy opened up this game with a layout block
on each of the first two points.  Both resulted in goals and we were up 2-0.
We took the first half 7-1 with NO turnovers at all! (capitalizing on blocks
by Sarah and Michelle and 2 errors by them)   We traded up 12-6 but then
gave up 3 in a row before winning 13-9.  In this game we had 7 turnovers
and they had 10.  Only two points included more than one turnover..

Game 3 vs Special K.  We got 7 blocks in this game and won 13-3.

Game 4 vs Feral Cows.  In the previous round the cows had a very close
game with Magic Bus.. tied 11-11 at the cap the bovines got the block they
needed but then turned it over in the endzone*.. the Bus worked it up and
after a few contested calls ended up scoring the winning goal.  So, heading
into our game we knew they were disappointed at the loss, but playing in
good form and charged up for a win...
We started off the game with a block by Keebler, a turnover, a block by
Libby and then we took the first point.. but the Cows countered with some
strong play and went up 1-3.  We called timeout to avoid digging ourselves
into any deeper hole.. it seemed to help, as we tied it up at 4-4.. we had
stolen the momentum and went up to 9-4 all with no turnovers (including a
huck by Hank right to a guy poaching deep on our pull play.. but he jumped
up and missed the disc and Michelle still caught the goal).  We mostly
traded for the rest of the game and won 13-7.
(Notable: Tommy(2TS/2CS), Kate(1TS/1CS), Michelle(3CS/2Blk) and
          Sarah(1TS/3CS) all had no throwaways and no drops)

Game 5 vs Magic Bus.  A rematch of semifinals at DUI back in April.
In contrast to the squad they had at DUI this time there were a number of
poor spirited players which made the game less fun.
The game started out with a *long* point (Kate got a hat trick.. no wait, make
that a four-bagger) but we did end up scoring first.  Kate got a layout block
in the next point (redemption?) and we scored to go up 2-0.  Now they got
their offense in gear and went up 2-3 after Kevin got handblocked and a
throwaway by Alan.  We played well in the first half and scored the first
in the second half to go up 8-4.. we got 5 blocks in this stretch.
At this point they stopped turning it over and capitalized on a few of our
mistakes to tie it up 9-9.  We traded to 10-10 with 3 turnovers from each
team but then they again played some solid offense and stopped turning it
over.  Eric made a layout grab on a low pass from Alan, but dropped it on
impact with the ground and they scored for 10-11, and Kevin turned it over
next as we dug ourselves down to 10-12.  We got one more to reach 11-12,
but couldn't find the defense we needed next point and lost 11-13.

So at the end of pool play we finished second in our pool, below Magic Bus
and above Feral Cows.  Bumpy Knuckles crushed RFBF to take the other pool,
followed by RFBF and then Ripped van Winkle, who would be our quarterfinal
matchup on Sunday morning.

*(One little note: if the Cows had scored that last goal in the game vs
  Magic Bus it would have put us 1st place in the pool..
  Rippit: -2 +6 = +4
     Bus: +2 -1 = +1
    Cows: -6 +1 = -5 .... Cows still would have been 3rd...)

Sunday - Quarterfinals vs Ripped van Winkle (or the "old cranky team"?).
This team had a bunch of older guys (including Loco :) and better women
than we had played against on saturday.  The game started off with each
team demonstrating offensive prowess (or lack of defense?) as we traded to
1-2 with no turnovers.  They scored the next to make it 1-3, but we climbed
back to tie it at 4-4 and traded to 6-6.  We took the half 7-6 after a block
by Kevin and went up to a 9-6 lead after two goals by Alan; the last on a
throw to the back of the endzone where Aruna jumped up and tipped it but
Michelle still made the catch.  Things were looking good, but the winkles
weren't out of it yet.. they closed to 10-9 as the time cap went on (in one
point Kevin went flying off the side of the field and down the hill on a
defensive attempt, and apparently came climbing back up with a big smile
on his face).   We scored the next point with no turnovers on a goal from
Keebler to Eric..  11-9 is much nicer than 10-10!  Right after the pull on
the next point one of their women put up a hammer to the weak side.. Alan
jumped up with the receiver and managed to make him drop it.  Alan then
caught a pass up the line and sent the disc to the far corner of the endzone
to Michelle on a nice S cut for the game winner.. 12-9.

Semifinals vs Bumpy Knuckles.  This team was put together by Dave Reiter
(of LoveGun) and included a lot of ShutUpAndKissMe players, plus some other
talent such as Eddie (Hwy 85) and Janet (Women on the Verge).
There was more wind than on saturday so both teams played some zone defense.
The first few points were *very long* as both teams also had very patient
zone offense and made lots of passes.  We had trouble with our poppers and
finding continuation passes in their widely spread zone.
The game stayed extremely close all the way up to 10-10.. our biggest lead
was 6-4 and our biggest deficit was 1-3.  Will showed up and got in the game
at 7-5 to provide some fresh legs.  Notable goals included a scoober by Kate
right over Kevin's head who spun around full circle and managed to find the
disc, and a high huck from Keebler to a wide open Alan who had lost his
defender by busting deep from the kag position on our pull play.
It seemed to be anybody's game, but at this point we had a total collapse.
We turned the disc over on a number of swing and dump passes, giving them
good field position to score both up and downwind.  Alan got a handblock on
the goalline to stop one such play, but this time we threw it right at the
defense in the zone.  They made quick work of us and finished off the game,
10-15.

A disappointing end but we still got a respectable 3rd place finish.
We made good use of our pull plays and played a good mix of defense.
Things that need work: man-to-man defense seemed to allow our opponents
to score too often, and the most basic strategy: don't turn it over,
especially at the endzone.

Davis Ultimate Invitational

From Alan:
We made it to finals!!!!!!
and then lost to (guess who...)  RFBF, 10-13.

Saturday
	vs Sassy Sasafras	11-1
	vs Hillary for Senate	11-1
		(^^this is the special-K splitoff/stanford team)
	vs Feral Cows		11-7
	vs MUD			11-0

Sunday
	vs Frizbee Nation	10-3
	vs Hot Valley of Love	11-3	quarter
	vs Magic Bus		13-7	semi
	vs RedFish BlueFish	10-13	final

We played extremely well.. as you can see from the scores we really shut
down some teams that could have easily scored more points on us.
We had a good game with redfish.. our offense looked great.. we continued
to work it both around and through their zone.. towards the end they were
playing some man-on-man defense.  We did have a number of unforced errors,
perhaps due to being nervous about being in finals and playing fish...
Our defense was solid, but we still allowed them to complete a few hucks
and quite a few break mark throws.  We lost the first half 4-7, and then
played even 6-6 in the second..

Great job, Rippit!!!

-----

Saturday, pool play.

Game 1 vs Sassy Sasafras Lollipop Experience (SF).
Sassy runs the intimidation factor with team jerseys and lots of team
warmup/drills (the whole team was there doing a warmup lap at 8:30am!)
But we came out strong and took the game 11-1.  We scored 6 of our points
with no turnovers.  In the longest point Ron, Alan and Bharat each threw
it away.. then the women showed us how it's done with Jen throwing the
goal to Shane to take the half.

Game 2 vs Hilary for Senate (SouthBay).
HfS is the splitoff team from Special-K, merging with a number of stanford
players.  This team clearly had more throwing talent than our previous
opponent, but they couldn't find the options in their offense (perhaps
they need more time playing together).  We came out strong and were able
to dominate the rest of the game.. we won 11-1.  We scored 5 points with
no turnovers.

Game 3 vs Feral Cows (SouthBay).
The Cows were seeded 2nd in our pool (#5 overall, we were #2).
In contrast to Hillary the Cows have been playing together as long as we
have, so their offense has a much better flow.  We wanted to continue our
solid play from the first two rounds and not give the cows a chance to get
into the game (which we have a habit of doing).  We pulled the first point,
Keebler got a block and then we worked against their zone.. Keebler found a
wide open Libby and hucked it for the first goal (Libby made a nice catch with
the defense rapidly approaching).  We continued playing well and ran up to
a lead of 7-1!  But then Keebler bobbled a pass from Kevin and strained his
back in an attempt to catch the disc as it dropped to the ground.  He sat out
for the rest of the game.  Coincidentally (or perhaps not?) this is when our
game began to slip a bit.  We traded the next few points up to 9-3 (Peter got
a *huge* layout block in the endzone to stop a goal, allowing us to get to
9-3).  The cows started coming back, finishing on a 4-2 run, but were too far
behind so the game ended 11-7.  Not the ending we wanted, but I much prefer
building a big lead at the beginning, rather than letting the game stay close
at the start and having to dig deep at the end to pull away.
5 points scored with no turns.. 4 of them in the first half (up to 6-1) and
then the last goal of the game.

Game 4 vs MUD (Mountain Ultimate Disc).
Not much to say here.  This was a fun crowd of people from up in the Sierras
north of tahoe.. but they don't know too much about ultimate.  We lost our
focus a bit in this jungle disc match, but still won 11-0.


Sunday, playoffs.

Our Saturday women (Leslie and Michelle) were substituted with the Sunday
squad (Kate and Donna).. however, we lost two guys to stomach flu (Peter
and Hank) and were down to just 6 guys.

Prequarters vs Frizbee Nation.
The tournament format only gave the #1 seed overall (RFBF) a first round
bye, so we had to play at 9am, and in a #2 vs #15 game.  My car arrived at
8:50 and we were the first people at our field site!  We were slow getting
started, and at one point I had to call timeout to get our heads in the
game.  After one point where we turned it over 4 times before they scored
(maybe this was when I called timeout?) we finally did get into gear and
rattled off the last 4 in a row with 2 blocks and no turnovers to win 10-3.

Quarters vs Hot Valley of Love (Davis).
The Davis folks gave us a good game at Sectionals last fall.  However, it
looked like this early in the season they didn't have the energy or motivation
to put up as strong a fight.  We continued to build up momentum and went out
to a 7-0 lead before they got their first goal!  We won the game 11-3.
We score 8 goals with no turns!

Semis vs Magic Bus.
Magic Bus is basically a pickup team for high level players.  They have won
at least a couple coed tournaments in the past.  They had cruised through
pool play on saturday, beating ShutUpAndKissMe.  We had made it to semis and
we knew there was no messing around from this point on.  We pulled to start
the game.. Kevin's defense helped force a turnover but we threw it away and
gave up the first goal (the first time all weekend we were down 0-1).
We tied it up at 1's with no turns.  The next point was a long one.. after
3 turns by us and 4 by them we finally scored.  We played box zone on the
next point.. rather than looking down the middle they kept throwing high,
floaty passes out to the sides... after seeing a few of these Kevin somehow
managed to poach in from deep-deep(!) and swat down the disc.. he was of
course running full speed towards the other endzone, so Alan (playing middle)
picked up the disc and hucked it for the goal.  Maybe this was a wakeup call
to the Bus.. at this point they buckled down on offense.  Our offense
continued to be on fire as well.. we traded from 3-2 up to 7-5, all goals
with NO turnovers from either team!  At some point in this stretch we played
box zone and they started running give&go right up the middle and scored..
I think we played mostly man from that point on.  So we won the half 7-5
and got to receive the pull (mirror half).  At halftime we discussed just
keeping up this level of play all the way to the end of the game.. we
executed this plan beautifully!  We scored 3 in a row to start the second
half, taking us to 10-5.  The women on their team were weaker throwers, and
good pressure on the mark from our women were forcing some turnovers.
Our offense continued to click and we sped to victory 13-7, finishing on
a huck from Alan to Kevin (4 of these in the game, plus 2 from Keebler to
Kevin... the KAK show combined for throwing 10 goals, catching 8!).
We scored *11* of 13 goals with no turnovers!!

Finals vs RedFish BlueFish.
Yup, our familiar foes cruised their way into finals, with a first round
bye on sunday and winning semis 13-4 over ShutUpAndKissMe.  We lost the
flip for shirts, but TK graciously allowed us to go white anyway.
We opted to play all man defense, and not allow them to simply survey the
field and find the open person against a zone.  We knew their break-mark
and huck offense, so we wanted to try to shut that down... unfortunately
they completed a huck on the first point and it was 0-1.  We traded up to
2-2, but a series of unforced errors on our part let them get up to 2-5.
To cut a long story short, the game was 8-8 from that point on and they
won 10-13... more comments: our offense against their zone looked great..
I can remember us breaking it in many ways (at least dump-swing, up the
middle, backdoor, over the top), with good use of fakes and both poppers
and deeps finding open space.  We did well enough that by the end of the
game they had switched to man defense.  On defense we still struggled to
stop the breakmark throws and hucks, even though we knew they were coming.
In the first half we played constant-force.. in the second half we switched
to force-middle.. we had some problems early with always calling out the
force, but once we got into it the FM definitely slowed down their offense.
Instead of 1 or 2 quick passes and an instant huck each thrower would end
up holding the disc for 4+ seconds against our FM, which seemed preferable
to them completing their hucks.  Our biggest deficit was down 4-8 and 5-9.
We picked it up a bit in the second half and started using Donna more in our
offense.. she caught two goals in a row and we closed to 10-11.  At this point
I should have burned our last timeout just to rest our guys, as it took us
about a minute to get a 4th guy out to the line (we had used another timeout
earlier to rest, after a point we had just scored!).  Not surprisingly they
scored that point with no turnovers.  In the next point we completed a long
pass to Aruna just in front of the goal line and here we did use our last
timeout.  We setup a dishy play, but they surprised us by switching markers
from one of their women to Gregg Wolff (this reset the count from 3 to zero,
but I guess they figured it was worth it for the wingspan).. unfortunately
the trick worked and their defense got the block.. they worked it down and
scored the game winner, 10-13.

Overall an *excellent* start to the season.. yeah, Rippit!
Our defensive pressure was good, and it will only get better as we get
back into shape.  Our offensive flow was great, although probably we had
an easier time this tournament because we were more organized that the
defenses we were facing (early in the season).
Things to work on:  keep our heads in finals and/or playing fish so we don't
make unforced errors.  keep working on our offense and make sure it continues
to flow well against more stifling defense.. at this tournament we could
simply rely on being faster to get us open.. against teams like Naughty Bear
we need to make sure we can beat the teams that are running really hard on D.

Fall Series Regionals, 1999

Saturday pool play:
	vs Barb, the Magic Carpet Man	13 - 5
	vs Santa Cruz FUN		13 - 9
	vs Pigs in Space		13 - 7
	vs Soap Dodgers			13 - 4		Quarters

Sunday:
	vs RedFish BlueFish		 7 - 15		Semis
	vs Naughty Bear			 8 - 13		Backdoor semis

Fall Series Sectionals, 1999

From Jen:
A quick Sunday morning summary - we went 3-0 in pool
play yesterday (yay!).  Games against Davis (12-7), Sassy
Sassafras (13-6) and Santa Cruz FUN (13-3).  The last
game was the most surprising - we went up 9-0.  We rocked!
(that was my Alan impression).

We played well yesterday and are looking forward to facing
the Feral Cows in the quarterfinals.

From Eric:
For those of you glued to your screens tonight, here's
the Sunday update: we beat Feral Cows in the quarters
13-9 (I think) and faced Shut Up and Kiss Me in the
semis.  It was nip and tuck the whole way, but at 11-11,
game to 12, Kevin got the D, and Alan threw the score
to a wide open Sarah in the endzone.  JT got a stat
(not sure what stat exactly) for sprinting onto the
field and giving Kevin a goo before the point.  The Ripp-It
zone was dominant in the second half of the game.  In the
finals we faced RFBF (surprise, surprise) and were
with them until 10-10.  In the end they pulled away and
won 15-11.  There was going to be a 2nd/3rd place game
against either Santa Cruz or Shut Up and Kiss Me, but
I didn't stay for that.

From Alan:

Saturday pool play:
	vs Hot Valley of Love	12 - 7
	vs Sassy Sasafras	13 - 6
	vs Santa Cruz FUN	13 - 3

Sunday:
	vs Feral Cows		13 - 9  (quarters)
	vs Shut Up & Kiss Me	12 - 11 (semis)
	vs RedFish BlueFish	11 - 15 (finals)
	vs Shut Up & Kiss Me	13 - 9  (2/3 game)

Top eight:
1. RedFish BlueFish
2. Rippit
3. Shut Up & Kiss me
4. Santa Cruz FUN
5. Dee's Belly
6. Davis Mixed Nuts
7. Feral Cows
8. Squeeze from the Bottom

World Ultimate Club Championships 1999

From Ron:
Day 1
-----
Conditions were very windy, gusty, and cold. 

1. RippIt over Gael Force (Scotland) 15-1
  I wasn't here for this game -- by the time Dave and I finished the
  2hr drive from Glascow, the game was long over. I only know that Gael
  Force held a brief lead at 0-1, and that local boy Max (picking up
  with the Scots) broke Kevin's mark for the score. Doh!

2. Red Fish over RippIt 15-9
  Painful, painful. We came out to a strong lead and took the half
  8-3. Unfortunately, we lost the second half 12-1. Alan sprained his
  hand (happily, the ONLY injury on the entire team all week) making a
  hot D just before halftime and was out for the rest of the game. In
  the second half, Detterman stopped throwing away his hucks, and they
  began to play well while we started making mistake after mistake.

Day 2
-----
Conditions were worse. It was really quite cold, and especially down at
the lower fields, tremendously gusty. Alan sat out the entire day to
rest his sprained hand. In the game versus Brazil we warmed up in a
sheltered section of the field and then got a rude awakening since the
rest of the field was windy.

1. RippIt over Aged to Perfection (Canada #3 team) 15-0
  Not much to say here. Everybody played hot. On one point we tried a
  downwind rolling pull that they failed to stop and so had to play from
  the back of their own endzone. Brutal.

2. RippIt over Brazil 15-6
  They played a rather physical game and weren't very disciplined about
  making safe plays. They ran a ton of picks, hacked and fouled a lot on
  the mark, Sarah got a goodly shove from behind while making a D, and
  so on. After playing down to their level for a while we picked it up
  and put the game away. Their post-game spirit was great, but their
  in-game spirit was awful.

Day 3
-----
Less wind today. We played the team seeded below and above us in our
pool, so we knew it was a big day.

1. RippIt over Blue Arse Flies (Britain) 15-10
  The Brits ran an offense that we saw from many of the European teams-
  handlers flat, mids and deeps toward the sides, and lots of cuts
  toward the middle of the field and reliance on inside-out throws. They
  ran pretty hard and had no qualms about jacking up the hammer. We
  traded points for most of the game before shutting them down at the
  end.

2. RippIt over Manitou (Canada #1) 17-15
  A *huge* game. The Canadiens (their name means "Great Spirit") were
  fun people to play against. They had height and speed -- one guy
  named Shaggy was their version of Kevin -- and their women were both
  tall and fast. One of their women made an absolutely sick catch for a
  score -- racing after a huck, she leaped while turning to get her
  hand on the leading edge and fell into the endzone. We were up by