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2011 Olympia Co-Ed Traveling Team |
In a new twist, instead of playing Tacoma in semis, we played them straight out of the gate. While Logjam did its best to beat THAT in the precipitation competition, O battled Tacoma from the first pull. The rain daunted us not, as Aaron sent a solid forehand long to Hannah, who sent it up the line again to Mia. Mia surprised herself and her defender with a snazzy snag, and it was 3-4. Tacoma relentlessly scored points it had no business scoring, including two in a row on hammers. Wynne headed north for airmail from Andrew, and she sent it to Lisa who had a "ahem, that's mine, thanks" grab against a poaching Jerry. With time winding down, Todd made a sneaky handler cut to break the stagnation and fed Aaron, who hit Lisa with a breakmark backhand for 9-10. Hard cap took effect at 9-11, in the middle of a beautiful Oly Hoosier point. 10-11 Tacoma, with a little help from the air horn. OUCH.
We were not so challenged against Golden Robots in the next match. 13-2 O, including this stuff:
The gods of ultimate bestowed a lunchtime bye, and it rained on, so we adjourned to the Country Restaurant & Lounge for our second hot meal of the day. In keeping with the total luxury theme, the smartest carpool secured a room at the Red Fox Motel, which boasted all the requisite amenities--roof, walls, beds.
Keggers, of Portland, waited on the legendary hill field behind the baseball diamond. We went up early as Corey's handblock in the cup set up 2-0. Will made a spectacular move to keep us moving--a layout snag on D. . . then he put on the Hannah goggles and threw it away. We agree, Will. Hannah is a sweet target. Before we knew it, Keggers were up 2-4. Wynne and Andrew cooked up a momentum-changer, with Wynne laying out uphill for the score. Our zone kept us in it, as Hannah laid out for a subtle but effective tap of the disc. Chris donned his superhero gear at 4-5 with two rescues of discs in peril, one for the score. Wynne chipped in another cup handblock, and assisted Corey for 6-5. We took half, and battled to 9-7, which is where we stood when hard cap happened. Air horn on our team this time.
Bush League, the reigning Logjam champions, awaited, and we left no doubt that Oly can go round for round with Salem. The fairy delighted in a poached D, and Corey delivered it to Wynne for 4-5. Wynne kept rolling, collecting a long one from Aaron and hitting Corey with a breakmark backhand for 5's. Mandy hauled down a hotly contested put from Corey and sent it to Lisa, who pulled her lefty trick breakmark forehand around to the fairy for a score. 7-6 O. Chris made it 9-7 on a twisty dive that would have made a splash with the judges at the Olympics. The judge from Idaho gave it a 9.7. At 9-9, Liam notched another layout D, upstaged only by Mia's D in Bush League's endzone. With the disc back again, the ladies worked the disc up the middle, and Hannah ended the point with a toes-in, body out grab. Bush League came back to 10's. . . then it was 11-12, and the air horn entered the game again. 11-13 on a gutty last point, and OUCH, The Sequel.
Moments worth remembering for the evening:
In the morning, a little slow to arrive, and even slower to warm up, we lulled Jeremy Clark and his Gravyrobbers into a false sense of security. [Public Service Announcement: this portion of the recap will be longer than usual. This is because this was one of the best games the fairy has ever seen Oly play. Also because we only played one game on Sunday. Thank you for your patience.] Aaron wins the first mention for his layout D of a backhand with help from his talking teammates on the sideline. 5 minutes later, after much tenacious D, Aaron hauled it in long from Corey. 2-0 O. For 3-2, Mia made an improbable catch of a diving disc. The next point was an endurance race (that we lost by a nose). Kathy Young: "Man, that was a long point, 'cause I had some awesome D like 20 minutes ago." Indeed. [We have now come to the Hannah Heroics portion of the program.] Todd, busting forward on the line, collected a feed from Liam and sent a smooth and instant upline huck to Hannah. The Gravyrobbers were sure Todd had overthrown her; she proved them wrong, wrong with a layout snag. 4-3 O. Hannah added another feather to her hat with a heads-up follow behind an overthrown Will for 5-4. Mia got steamrolled by a guy twice her size in the endzone, and he called a foul on her. Booing ensued. The gods of ultimate were all over it, though, for an immediate turn, and a huck from Andrew 3/4 field to Wynne. Will, as he is wont to do, helped the fairy with this one: "that was Winnie the Pooh quality honey right there." Dispite another layout by Mia, Gravy took half at 7-8. . . and came back a-theiving to make it 7-10. For 9-11, Oly brought out its crazy hands on an all-touch for Chris's score against Mr. Clark himself. Aaron hit Hannah cross-field, who fed a hungry Mandy for 10-13. Liam laid out for a hammer and was tackled--too bad he forgot his pads and helmet. While Liam iced, Chris laid out for Todd's hammer for 11-13. O got as close as 12-14 again, but ended the game at 12-15. OUCH Part III: Can't Blame the Air Horn. Because the fairy usually doesn't focus on f-ups, one fact may not be clear from this paragraph: no one dropped the disc. No one. Like no unforced turnovers ever. Awesomeness abounded.
Captain's awards to Todd for letting Hot Rodd Todd out of the cage and for Mia for joining us for the first time and rocking it. Honorable mentions to Chris and Aaron for the aforementioned good stuff.
Epilogue: Gravyrobbers embarrassed Dog Fight in the next game-- it was 11-6 last time the fairy looked. If y'all care to recall, O scored 3 points on Dog Fight two years ago at Spawnfest. Some might say that's because J.Clark plays for Gravy these days. RF would say that's because O has come a long way, baby.
POTLATCH! Onward and upward!