Sunday, March 25, 2007
league finals yesterday. 4 intense games, and vm fought for every single one.
lying third in the table meant we would have to win 2 out of 3 games-- the last one against the undefeated (for 8 weeks running) women's league champs.
first game was bad. getting up at 6am doesn't do much for anyone's mood anyway. tempers frayed and words were exchanged. lost by 3? points.
second game was against charis' team, and we finally got into our stride-- good passes and good cutting. beat them pretty comfortably by 2 points. sideline support meant we didn't make bad moves, and i think we woke up a hell lot after the shock loss of the first game.
it came down to the third round-robin game.. lose and we played the consolation 3rd/4th placing. win, and we moved on to play for the championship. the one-hour delay to the final, crucial match against the table-topping champs, double c7, was nerve-wracking. lots of sipping of green tea, water, and aimless playing with mud.
1145am: game on. double c7 with 5 experienced ultimate players (freakshow, shiok) and fielding their best lineup.
we got pummeled the first 10 minutes with long points that pushed our stamina to the breaking point-- frustration abounded, especially for me (a designated deep runner who can't run, in jac's words, screws the team. no fitness. no fitness. no fitness.) two throws swung all the way down, with me running and laying out in frustration, and another one with the "up" call, which featured me running uselessly in front of the disc, scanning the skies for nothing as the disc flopped gut-wrenchingly to the ground. the last layout was particularly infuriating-- i ran so hard and my marker wasn't even close-- and as i dived to the ground the disc fell agonisingly-close to me. i felt like stamping on the goddamn disc. shit.
then the psychological barrier broke when we scored against them for the first time (did amanda catch that one?). after that, we had hope. and that hope was enough for us to play hard, play slow, and play carefully. we managed to work our way up to a tie at 5-5 in a game that ended at 11 points. and we held it so long that we hit our time cap, and we played a universal point.
that last point lasted ten minutes. the lineup had been on the field for the past ten. anyone who's ever watched a game of ultimate would know how dog tired everyone must have been at that point in time. we dropped the disc within 5 metres of our endzone at least 3 times, and each time VM switched quickly to defense, forced them to make stupid passes, and moved the disc upfield. and after ten grueling minutes, when carrie laid out beautfully for that last, game-deciding point, thumb and finger grasping an inverted disc millimetres from both the end marker cone and the muddy, weedy, stony field-- roars of joy and stupid grins all round. back-slapping. tears, almost ( the latter also apparently true for double c7)
kudos to the heroes who held the VM line for that universal point-- quite obviously i wasn't one of them-- you played damn bloody well. that was the best game in the league. VM was the first to beat double c7 in all 10 weeks of play (lady vesper, who we lost to, would then go on to beat them in the finals.)
we missed out on the finals due to point difference, but i don't think anyone in VM was upset at all. we played our hearts out.
last game was again against charis' team, the shaken martinis. we drank 'em for lunch. 3rd-- not too bad.
of course the free flow of beer (brewerkz pale ale!) definitely helped assuage the injustice of losing-via-statistics, as we all sat roasting in the afternoon sun and watching the guy's finals-- drunkenness ahoy! awesome play, insanely-great forehands, unbelievable jumps and Ds... their level of play really has to be seen to be believed.
quotable quotes:
"when i'm on the field, i don't recognise mother, father, sister, brother, or friend. that's who i am."
"frankly speaking, third and fourth placing means nothing to me."
after double c7:
"girls, i don't care what the results are. that was the best game of league i've seen."
i went home and showered and found scratches all down my right side (arm, ribs, leg) from that last, excruciating, missed layout. but i'm happy they're there: they remind me that i tried my best, played my hardest, dared to try it, and had fun. just like everyone in VM.
VAGI VAGI VAGI MIGHT!!!
CRUCIAL NOTE: all events are delivered through the rose-tinted glasses of poor memory and nostalgia (yes i tend to develop warm fuzzy feelings for "the past" rather quickly-- that tends to happen when your long-term memory extends to the misty epochs of one-month-ago.) so don't murder me if some of the details are wrong. feel free to correct and modify as you wish.
choy: don't be so upset... give yourself time. you'll improve eventually. you put in the effort.
amanda: you gotta teach me how to cut and move... i think you caught the most discs in the endzone that day besides like suli, carrie, jac and joyce.
pam: who knows! i may head down in april to dive the great barrier reef! if i don't have to retake my papers. haha.
STUDY HARD EVERYONE. SEE YOU GUYS SOON.
Leave your disc with us :P