Amish Paradise Recap (team listserve version)

AMISH PARADISE 2006 RECAP
Lancaster, PA March 25-26

4-2, 7th place out of 12 teams

SATURDAY
POOL PLAY

NYU 11, Messiah 6

We beat Messiah in the wind at Atlantis, and this weekend we beat them on the small fields at Lancaster. But they proved to be our toughest match up of the day. We started sluggishly, keeping the game unnecessarily close. With Messiah threatening to take a 4-3 lead, Veronica denied her girl a goal by stepping in front of her and getting a d in the endzone, sparking our 4-0 run to take half. Messiah scored the first two goals of the second half, but that was as close as they got. Mia had 8 assists and 4 d's. Krisztina led the team with 3 goals, and 8 different Femmes scored at least one goal.

NYU 13, Eastern 3

Eastern played a lot of zone d, and their offense wasn't good enough to punish us when we turned it over. We gained field position and forced them into turnovers, building a lead that was never seriously challenged. Between their weak offense and our strong marks, they continuously turned it near their goal. We had several opportunities for Callahans slip through our fingers. Mia had 6 assists, while Lisa threw 5. Linh scored 5 goals and Sarah scored 3. Krisztina tallied 4 d's.

NYU 11, Bucknell 3

This wasn't exactly the intense grudge match vs Bucknell we had anticipated. They only had 7 or 8 players and were forced to play a very loose zone all game. Despite being undermanned, they jumped out to an early 2-1 advantage. With her family watching from the sideline, Mia made a terrific layout d that fired us up. We took half 7-3, and we didn't let them score in the second half. Mia had 9 assists and 4 d's, Sarah caught 3 goals. Lisa and Claire each caught 2 goals.

NYU 12, Brown B 1

Brown was completely overmatched, yet we managed to play our longest, most frustrating point of the season against them. Leading 3-0, playing in minimal wind, we played a 30-minute, 20-turnover point, which mercifully ended when Krisztina hit Claire for a goal. Mia had a team-record 11 assists, throwing a goal in all but one of the points she played. She also led the team with 5 d's. Sarah scored 3 goals, while Linh and Marley each scored 2. Once again, 8 different Femmes scored.

SUNDAY

QUARTERFINALS
Northeastern 9, NYU 7

Due to an error in the tournament format, we played a very solid Northeastern squad, rather than Haverford, in the quarters. The wind wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough to be a major factor, putting upwind goals at a premium and making zone Northeastern's defense of choice. With the score knotted at 2-2, we worked it all the way upwind against Northeastern's trap zone, and Amanda threw a push-pass goal to Mia for the game's first upwind break. We extended our lead on the next point when Linh hit Mia on a perfectly executed dwarf play. But a few points later we had a costly turnover at midfield and didn't get our defense set quick enough, allowing Northeastern an uncontested huck goal, tying it 5-5, and more importantly giving them back their wind advantage. Northeastern frequently punted and set up a trap zone, not unlike ours, which gave us fits. Tied at 7 with the cap on, we managed to move the disc to the upwind goal line again, but failed to score. Mia had 3 assists and 4'ds, and Linh had 2 assists, while Sarah notched 3 d's. Zac had one thrown clipboard (as a result of a shockingly bad call by a Northeastern player -- sorry).

CONSOLATION
Haverford 10, NYU 2

Several of our experienced players were tired and/or were dealing with minor injuries, so we rested them in this, our last game before Sectionals. The scoreline didn't yield many notable individual stats, but our newer players made some hard cuts and and got some big d's. In one of the weekend's highlights, Frantzen threw a gorgeous flick huck to Krisztina who laid out, fully extended, for the grab. The huge flick huck in a game was the result of lots and lots of practice by Frantzen -- great work!

OVERALL

As Ken preached several times throughout the weekend, we cannot afford half-hearted dump passes. You must turn around, fully engage your dump and make a strong pass -- not a high release or push pass -- but a good, strong backhand or forehand. The dumps must be locked in on the handler and cut hard into open space. If the dump is unguarded (poached), handlers must hit them right away and not wait for a fake. At the same time, the dump must recognize the poach and let the handler know.

When cutters receive the disc on short in-cuts, they must look immediately for the dishy. On deep cuts and longer in-cut receptions, they can take a look upfield before they turn for the dishy. We also need to work more on our secondary cuts and on reading hucks, but we'll talk about that at practice.

Our zone offense looked good at times, but we need to make tighter, lower throws with more snap. Handlers should swing the disc more quickly and for more positive yardage, and our handlers need to fake the cup harder. Also, poppers receiving throws through the cup should look upfield for the other popper and the deeps before looking back to the handlers. We often did that well, but other times, especially against Northeastern, we didn't. Also, against the trap zone, we need to swing it away from the trap side more quickly. And when the side handler is trapped, the apex handler can crash the cup to get a pass to reset the stall count.

Finally, it was an odd tournament because we only faced one team, Northeastern, that was as good or better than us. And while we lost that game, it was by far the most productive of the weekend -- remember, it's all practice until Sectionals, so anytime we can learn and grow as players and as a team, it's a good situation. We've played a lot of close games like that this season and we've come out on top in most instances. As Ken said afterward, we learned that in those games, the smallest lapses can make the difference. But it was a good weekend overall -- our newer players got a lot of valuable experience and we know what we have to work on now in these last few weeks before Sectionals.