Knox Review

This past weekend at Knox was pretty awesome for both teams. Although ISU D would only leave with 2 wins (I think), they were two pretty meaningful wins. They took Bradley (not a split squad) to universe point on Saturday and won with some last minute luck and hussle, and took it to Knox B on Sunday with an impressive 11-2 win. They got a bad (or maybe fixed?) draw in bracket play though and ended up playing ISU in quarters, where they made their exit. It was awesome to bring two teams to a tournament and have both of them make it to quarters. Good job Gnomes.

Round 1: ISU vs Western Illinois
ISU couldn't have asked for a better draw on Saturday afternoon. After being eliminated from contention for a regionals bid by Western Illinois at CP Sectionals in April, the Gnomes had been anticipating this matchup for over 8 months, and it showed as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead, breaking Hysteria twice in a row to start the game. Western, to their credit, was able to bring it to to as close as 6-3 before ISU took it to half 7-3. Proud and still hungry for more, ISU took a breif half to regroup and point out some of their weaknesses before taking to the court again to finish off the game 9-5 ISU. The story of the game was all about ISU's intensity throughout. There were up calls from the sideline after every throw and no one saved anything for later. We played that game like it was our last and it showed. It seemed like the top 7 matchups were close, but ISU was able to put in 3 separate lines without a dropoff in level of play, and that's something that's hard to compete with. I could be wrong, but I think that's how the Hodags won two national championships in a row...

Round 2: ISU vs Sasquatch
Sasquatch was not who I thought they were according to my Knox Preview post. Apparently I was thinking of Yeti from UW-Stout. That said, Sasquatch appeared similar to UW-Stout in a lot of ways. They were made up of a lot of young, inexperienced players with a few fairly talented throwers. ISU came out strong against Sasquatch and jumped out to an early lead but as the lines got a little looser, Sasquatch stole a few points and brought themselves to within 3 before ISU took half at 7-3. The second half would not be so close. After a quick look at the scoreboard, and the realization that this team had scored the same amount of points as WIU (a clearly superior team) had against ISU in the first half, Doug challenged the team to bump up their game in the second half and Sasquatch wouldn't score again. 12-3 ISU.

Round 3: ISU vs Lake Forest
After going 2-0 so far in pool play, ISU needed to win this game to guarantee themselves 1st place in Pool B. Maybe it was the sun beginning to set on the T. Fleming fieldhouse, or perhaps the huge turkey dinner that our team had between rounds, but ISU came out sluggish and slow against Lake Forest in the first half. I had planned on not playing this game because of my knee injury, but after the score was knotted up at 2-2, I decided to take an O point in an attempt to calm down the team and get us to play our game. The next point we would work the disc up the court like clockwork, the cutters running hard through their cuts and the handlers making smart, crisp throws to space. After that point it seemed that ISU remembered that they were the 1 seed in Pool B, and quickly took half 7-4. During a short half ISU talked about how we were disappointed with our performance during this game and that it was our worst half of the tournament so far. After a quick break ISU proceeded to take the game at 12-6 and guarantee a 1st round bye on Sunday. On a different note, Hollywood went down with a knee injury in the second half of this game, and we've now learned that he'll be out for the season with a torn ACL. He'll be missed on the field and I'm already looking forward to playing with him after he's all healed up from his surgery and back on the field.

Sunday Elimination Play

Quarters: ISU vs ISU D
Perhaps we should start sending our split squads to different tournaments because no matter what we always seem to meet each other in bracket play. I wouldn't be surprised if we somehow end up playing our women's team in Naperville this April. Props to ISU D for coming out with fire in their eyes in the first half of this game. Although the score at half was 7-1 ISU, the game was much more highly contested than that score makes it appear. The first point was both sloppy on offense and highly contested on D. There were multiple turnovers but in the end the Circus Shorts were able to put it in to take the first lead of the game. The story of this game was experience. The athletic matchups were rarely uneven, and in some cases even favored ISU D. Erase 1 or 2 poor throws or bad offensive decisions per point on the part of ISU D and the game may have ended differently. That's an encouraging outcome for a captain, and I'm proud of the way both teams played during this game. ISU would take the game at a score of I believe 12-4.

Semis: ISU vs Western Illinois, again...
I guess the first round didn't count, because Western came back for another match against ISU in the semis. I'd love to write another elaborate paragraph about this game, but you can pretty much just scroll up to the summary of the first game and re-read that because it went almost exactly the same. ISU got pumped up and they never came down, running tight lines and playing tight O and even tighter D. Western came hard but it wasn't enough as ISU wouldn't give them the disc to do anything with and when they did, they'd just take it right back. The only real difference between the two games was that ISU scored two more points and Jeff Reed hit an 18 yard field goal at 9:50 into the 1st to take the lead. 11-5 ISU.

Finals: ISU vs Northern Illinois
The semis and finals were the first two games that ISU would play back to back all weekend, and it showed. We're about 3 weeks into our conditioning program and it's definitely helping but looking at this game from the sideline one could see that we still have a lot of work to do. Nothern received the first half pull and after 3 passes they put it in the endzone to take the lead with ease, 1-0 NIU. This was a shocker for ISU who had scored the first point in each of their games so far and never been trailing. Another quick break and Northern was up 2-0. ISU regrouped, put in a fresh line, and was able to get on their horse to eventually bring the score to 6-3 ISU. Northern took a time out at this point and showed that a time out used correctly can truly change the tide of a game. After the time out and a hell point Northern would begin a little run of their own, scoring 3 before ISU could take the half at 7-6. Two more points for NIU after the half and ISU was now playing from behind, a position that doesn't favor us. There was a clear shift in our mindset when NIU captured the third lead change of the game. It was now as if we had begun playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Our crisp, efficient offense gave way to poor clearing cuts, a crowded force side and stranded handlers. Our defense struggled to contain Northern's 2-3 stud cutters per line and Northern's women seemed to step up their game considerably, although they had been having their way most of the game anyway. All of this led to lengthened points, and, as a result, sloppy offense. We would end up getting broken twice in a row (broken as in losing our O point, and also our force), once because I couldn't get the mark on fast enough after being beaten on an in-cut, and the other because of a sloppy mark. Northern took the game 13-11. Congratulations and kudos to them on playing a great tournament and having awesome spirit throughout the finals. Also a special thanks to Jorge for finally giving me my glasses back.

...Anybody excited about Chicago Invite?