So, Ultimax

It wasn't as cold or windy as it is in Salisbury every year, but it was cold and windy. It rained a lot. We got to the fields in time to look out in lust at the gorgeous grass that was supposed to be our field site, but the rain was coming down in sheets so we stayed in our cars as the TD scrambled for backup fields. The backup fields were crappy--short, graded, lacking grass--but we were happy (sort of) to at least have somewhere to play. We warmed up for the first game, and I was not enthused. It would be a day of dealing with discomfort, and while that kind of opportunity is expected and even welcomed by the mind, the body grumbles nonetheless.

Game 1 vs Kenyon, we received with wind and they immediately threw zone. I catch the swing, break the cup to a popper who drops the catch, Kenyon scores. Something else happens against wind, they score again. The D team goes on and gets scored on at least once, maybe twice, and then I think we finally get on the board. At some point in this game we abandoned the O/D split and caught up a bit, but things didn't go well overall. We lost at the cap, 5-12 according to the score reporter.

I don't remember the order in which we played Duke and UNCG, but I do remember what happened in each game. We sucked. Drops after drops, and though there were some times where we played solid D--enough to force turns with the help of the weather, anyway--for some reason we struggled even to score with wind. Upwind breaks were few and far between, but we got a couple against Duke and a couple more against UNCG, and basically both games were shitshows. We lost 4-7 to Duke--who, by the way, has an average height twice ours--and beat UNCG 8-4. Man, we had a lot of drops. I think I dodged most of them myself, maybe had one on the day, but I definitely threw some garbage--including one awful backhand to Growney, who saved it with a spectacular layout for the goal. I don't remember much else about the games overall, except that Duke had some unspirited play...nothing too incredible, but a bad call here and there and a sideline that for some reason thought it would be fun to celebrate every Rutgers mistake with drawn-out howls of "OHHHHHHH!"

Then we had a bye, during which we all huddled in the locker room of whatever building that was. I spent almost the whole time pouring hot water from the handheld showerhead over my hands and feet, trying to trick myself into believing I was in a hottub. We wrung out our underarmour, beat the water out of our jerseys, noshed on Chex Mix and then put our wet shit back on so we could play Pitt.

I don't know how much I want to talk about this game. They were in control from the beginning, and though it might have been closer than the 2-13 score, between the weather and their pressure we were overmatched. We never got much going on downfield, and stagnant cutting probably made it that much easier to shut down our offense when it was already difficult to put a forehand more than fifteen yards. The most frustrating thing, though, was how unspirited a number of the Pitt players were. It felt like there were more bad calls in this one game than I've seen in whole tournaments, some of them completely unjustifiable. I mean straight-up bullshit, as opposed to the standard arguments you might get when two people have different perspectives on what went down...it felt pretty egregious, and entirely unnecessary given the circumstances. As for the way some of their players disrespected my team from the sideline, or when they were chatting on the line waiting for the pull, all I can say is the game overall left a bad taste in my mouth.

But it ended, we went back to the hotel, waited entirely too long before eating, then watched movies all night. I made a run to the laundromat to dry the team's wet crap, we were woken up at 5am by the worst car-alarm episode of my life, and in the morning we decided to bag. Just bag all of Sunday. Cool, cuz the whole tournament bagged, but it was good that we got out of there early. The drive back was fine, definitely improved by the visit to our captain's parents' house for a home-cooked dinner, but a 10-hour drive is still a 10-hour drive. I had a lot of time to dwell on the Pitt game between naps.

Cool, HOTI was cancelled this year. I'm not surprised, because there's no way that event could have happened in nice weather. It would ruin its reputation.