Mixed Division Coverage - Day One

By Neva Cherniavsky

Corrections: In the Mixed preview, Donner Party was mistakenly said to have lost only one game since 2002. Donner Party has lost 2 games in 2003, the first in the finals of San Francisco Revolution and the second at Regionals. In 2002, Donner Party lost 3 games; one at World Championships, one at Labor Party, and one at Tahoe Fest, according to the team's website. Also, the Central Regionals final was wrongly reported to be decided by one point. The one-point differential was in a game between first place Phoberomys Pattersoni and second place Kaze on Saturday.

Round 1: The one seed easily handled challengers B+. B+ is exciting and athletic but left Hang Time's women alone in the endzone too frequently. The score at half was 8-2, though B+ played much better in the second half, boding well for round 2.

In the other half of Pool A, Chinstrap and Blah played a barnburner. Blah jumped out to an early lead, but Chinstrap quickly tied it up. They relied on a zone to bring them back and took half 8-4. Blah had a lot of trouble with their zone O. They later said, "Usually Zone O is our bread and butter but our bread was a little moldy." After half, the teams traded until 12-8; and then Chinstrap had a meltdown. The team started dropping and Blah took advantage, scoring 4 in a row. Blah also came out with a zone of their own. Tied at 12s, Chinstrap pulled it together to make it 13-12, but Blah came back. The trading ended with Blah on top, winning at the cap 15-14.

In Pool B, RFBF easily beat BRU. Bad Larry and Rival was a closer game, but Rival looked uncomfortable with the wind and was having a lot of trouble moving the disc.

In Pool C, Phob looked weak, with lots of turnovers by key handlers. Phob's advantage in athleticism was negated by the wind. Holes and Poles is playing efficiently but also with a whole lot of desire; there were several nice layouts in this game. In the end Holes and Poles won handily.

Also in Pool C, Halibut looked outmatched by Flicks of Fury. Halibut is another athletic team whose play in the wind isn't that great. Flicks of Fury loves the wind; they have great throwers with good patience. It wasn't a close game.

The biggest upsets looked like they'd happen in Pool D, and Round 1 doesn't disappoint. Little-hyped Drive Thru Liquor won over Persuader, jumping out to a big lead and then holding onto it. They claim their secret to success was stopping the deep game. Persuader's got several big, key players but did not look happy about the wind. The D and weather both conspired to hurt Persuader's long game and they simply couldn't climb back in.

In the other matchup, Donner Party got quite a scare from third seed Kaze. Tied at 8s, Kaze started to lose their confidence and dropped a couple; after failing behind by three or four, they opened up their rotation and played it out to 15-10. By the way, Frankus on Donner threw the first two goals of the Championships for his team; currently he is known as "offensive creator" instead of that other thing.

Round 2: Can we hear it for the upset? Kaze over Persuader in another barn burner; Kaze is not as successful in shutting down the huck game, but it's just not clicking for Persuader. Kaze takes a 12-9 lead, game to 13, allows Persuader to tie it at 12s, then finally wins 13-12. Drive Thru Liquor also had Donner Party against the ropes but gave it up; Donner is up 13-10, Drive Thru Liquor makes it 13-13, then 14-14, then pulls to Donner for the game point. DTL actually gets the turnover but hucks it away again, and Donner patiently works it in for the score.

Poor Chinstrap came off a terrible loss to Blah and looked flat against B+. They soon recovered to take half 8-4. B+ has a plethora of men who make astonishing plays - layouts of D, O, 4 feet up in the air, etc. Their women are solid on O but have an unfortunate tendency to get caught looking while their marks streak deep. This hurt B+ a lot in the Hang Time game and wasn't looking so good in the beginning of this game. After half, B+ stormed back to tie it. The match was close to the very last point, when #81 Caner Cooperrider toed in a high grab that by all rights should have been out.

Hang Time, RFBF, Holes and Poles, and Flicks of Fury all had no trouble in their games. Rival continues to look bad in the wind, and Phob has the dropsys.

Round 3: It's a story of defeats for three teams. Donner Party looked confident against Persuader, aiming to take back the seed they lost at Regionals. Persuader had perhaps given up; they drop to the 4 seed in their pool from the 1, an enormous upset. Chinstrap also looked deflated, after two 1-point losses. They essentially gave the game to Hang Time; before some teams had taken half, the score was 10-3. Finally, Phob did not live up to the hype and couldn't stop the drops. Halibut, like the teams before them, took advantage. The game was never close. Flicks of Fury fell to Holes and Poles after playing tight most of the game.

Nature abhors a vacuum. When some teams go down, others must come up. B+ beats their seed by beating Blah, taking the 2 seed in Pool A. B+ was down 0-4 on two Callahan goals before taking the lead 5-4. Blah also beats their seed and has the one game advantage over Chinstrap going into tomorrow. Halibut finishes the day above seed with the win over Phob. RFBF continued their dominance in Pool B, while Rival and BRU both battled it out. BRU jumped to a big lead but let it get away from them; Rival tied it at 13s and then went on to win it, 15-13. Holes and Poles looks to be justifying their 3 seed with decisive wins over the rest of their pool, and Rival finishes above seed.

Most exciting are the changes in Pool D. Drive Thru Liquor and Kaze played a very close game the whole way. DTL is strong on fundamentals, with great in cuts for yardage, and super tight defense. But their skills across the board aren't quite up to the level of some other teams. Kaze plays an aggressive offense that isn't afraid to look deep and relies heavily on their strong women. This game was tight the whole; the teams are very closely matched. In the end, DTL pulled it out 15-13. DTL jumps from the 4 seed to the 2 seed in the pool.

All ideas expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the UPA