The Series Preview

This year has been interesting to say the least. From the best rookie turnout we've ever seen to the best rookie retention rate we've ever seen to losing 2 of our top players to injury and another to ineligibility, it's been a rocky road to the series with lots of ups and downs. From the high of rolling the competition at Knox to the lows of losing our legs in the championship game, and seeing our teammates go down in games, it's also been probably the most emotionally taxing season of ultimate I've ever played. Although I'm sure you all know this already, I'll say it anyway--there's nothing I'd rather do this weekend than play at sectionals with the Gnomes. I'll leave it at that. Now I'll give a little preview of the weekend. Hopefully it won't be my last.

The format for this weekend is very forgiving, in my opinion. Here's the breakdown:

• 7 bids to regionals
• 2 paths to 7th or better place
• 1st: take 1st or 2nd in your pool, win 1st or 2nd game on Sunday, or your last 2
• 2nd: take 3rd or 4th in your pool, win out Sunday

Pool Play

Round 1: Gnomes vs Notre Dame
Notre Dame is the top seed in our section, and they deserve it. They have an outstanding regular season highlighted by wins against Colorado, Iowa, and Illinois - 3 teams with a pretty good shot at Natties. We'll fight for this game like we always do, but it would be a huge upset if we pulled it off. Enough about that.

Round 2: Gnomes vs Bradley
Play our game, run our systems correctly, and this game should be easily won. We haven't played Bradley yet this year, but our D team has beaten them twice (once mixed at Knox).

Round 3: Gnomes vs Western Illinois
If you weren't there for last year, you've heard about it. I won't go into detail. This game should be hard fought and, due to some of the struggles we've had this year, winnable for either team. The key here will be shutting down their 4 main players - Doc, Garrett, Hastings, and Greg Jr. and making sure we don't give them easy goals via turnovers near the goal line, lazy defense downfield. Expect to run hard downfield. Their cutters will be fighting for every disc. This game will be important in our road to 2nd in the pool.

• Keys of the game for Western: Shut down our main players - Steve, Crack, Shane, Cole, Trevor, Tom, ROOKIE, Peteo, Goober, Wildo, Samsicle, Greg, Pat, JGraham, Teleport, Corey, and Afryl

Round 4: Gnomes vs Wheaton
We haven't played Wheaton once since I've been at ISU. I don't know what to expect. Wheaton is traditionally a good team and regularly qualifies for regionals although I don't know if they've ever made it past that. This game could be the difference between 2nd and 3rd in our pool.

Round 5: Gnomes vs Southern Illinois
Frenchy's out, Ktan's out, Mojo's out, Flounder's out...I feel for these guys and if we weren't playing in this tournament and I wasn't injured I'd love to give them an extra pair of legs for the weekend. God knows they probably wouldn't need it anyway though because they always seem to find a way to win games even if they're playing savage. This should be a fun game and even if we lose it we can still remind them of that one time they got naked lapped at 214 W. Willow.

Remember that with such parity after the 1st seed point differential could make a difference in placement after pool play. We'll have to finish hard. Luckily games are to 11 so we shouldn't have too much opportunity to slack off. Best of luck to everyone playing this weekend and I wish everyone a safe weekend. p.s. I've never been to Detroit...