Boston Invite

4:15 to get up there, nice hotel. Couldn't sleep at all Friday night--between the A/C unit and the snoring teammates, I don't think I got more than one hour of uninterrupted slumber. That didn't help much for Saturday, where I made poor breakfast decisions that included some kind of egg/bacon/cheese monstrosity and a cup of yogurt with fruit. I think the combination upset my stomach. In any case, we got up for our first two games and built leads but had trouble finishing the door, winning 15-8 and 15-9 against Medicine Men and Brooklyn respectively. Next up was Providence Pack Dogs, where I'm pretty sure we built a lead and then let Josh Ziperstein run all over us. It was frustrating that we couldn't stop a team whose offense basically depended on big deep shots, but our offense wasn't on point enough to prevent our 12-15 loss.

We started our crossover game against Sons of Liberty and traded to 3-2 in what would have been a very upwind-downwind game, but forced a turn on the goal line right before the game was postponed to Sunday due to lightning. Chipotle and "White Men Can't Jump" rounded out the night. The next morning was a little wet as we got off to an early start, 8am gametime so we could finish the crossover before the other rounds. My knee was really bothering me in warmups, so I guess it was a mixed blessing that I didn't get any playing time against SoL. We quickly went down a bunch of breaks, started to climb back and brought the game to universe point but couldn't seal the deal. That sent us down to play DoG where we built a 7-3 lead before shitting the bed and letting them take half. Game ended 13-15. That sent us down to play Roots of Rhythm...I think it was tight at first, at some point we pulled away by several breaks and then gave a couple back, but I believe the game ended 15-8 (score reporter says 15-13?). We then played Mephisto for 13th place and stomped our way to 8-2 at half. But the trend continued and we blew our lead in the second half to lose 13-15.

I built some confidence and learned a few things. Playing time was slim to none in some games, but I think/hope I started to earn more by the end of the weekend. Like last year, I played mostly D points. I was better prepared for that this time, though, and I think it showed. I did get beat a couple times, but handled my business much more of the time. For the few O-point I got, I did good things if I got the disc. Only one turnover all weekend, in the Roots game when I second-guessed myself and held back a throw to Bill on an open in-cut, then threw it anyway into the dirt behind him. Execution error, throw to the open man when he's open, simple fix. My huck to Jake the Jake for a goal against Mephisto left a much better taste in my mouth.

Lots to work on. We'll see within a few days if I get the chance to continue working with Pike this season.