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Sectionals 2005, Day 1

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What a ride!

Mischief finished second in the (full title here) Ultimate Players Association Club Championship Series Northern California Mixed Sectionals (whew!) in Santa Cruz this past weekend.

Second! Whoo!

Here's how Saturday went:

We started off seeded fifth. Fifth, and lacking a whole lot of our usual Mischief love. I'd guess the problem was essentially high expectations (and the pressures associated with them) and accumulating injuries. Throw in a little personality conflicts, a bit of differing priorities, an overworked leadership structure, and you have a whole little love.

We started off rough on Saturday morning against Blammo. We had last played Blammo in Ashland, Oregon, at Cramp-Up in May, and had a rough time playing them then, too. Admittedly, we had our B roster at Cramp-Up. But, truly, that's just making up excuses. We started off very slowly against them on Saturday morning, dropping throws, throwing away discs, and miscommunicating everywhere. Sheer athleticism enabled us to win that game 10-6.

Our next game against BTP ultimate was much easier. We had warmed up and were ready to play. The score was around 13-3 -/+, us, when the game was over.

After our next round bye, we played the Naturals of San Diego. One of our teammates, Chucky, who attends UC San Diego recognized 3 of the players as ex-captains of the UCSD Air Squids, the open college ultimate team, so we weren't sure what to expect. The 13-4 win was good.

Our last game was against Bender. Bender. Bender, who we seem to play at every tournament. Either Bender or Beer Run, every tournament. It gets tiring playing the same team all the time. We were very, very amped for this game. Not only were we gunning for the top seed in our pool, hence the easier run on Sunday, but we were seeking redemption on their insistence on being the 4th seed at the tournament, bumping us down to 5th from 4th.

Kris correctly rationalized the two games - bye - two games format the 5th place team had on Saturday was much better for our team than the bye - four games format the 4th place team had, and didn't contest the switch of us to 5th place. 4th and 5th played each other in the final round of the day, so why not take the bye?

From the chatter on the sidelines, it was clear that Mischief was hungry, and Bender wasn't going to win this one.

We ended our 4-0 day with a 12-6 trouncing of Bender, and celebrated at 99 Bottles.