It was my first competitive outing with Bear Cavalry on Sunday, and all things considered, I thought it went pretty well. The day before, the team had been sent out a pretty thorough email containing information on what the team and individuals should be focussing on throughout the day. It’s 9 months until Worlds and it felt good to have a focus point from the first point of the first tournament in the pre-season.
DT also spoke to me when I turned up. Apparently, my job was to be on the D line and mark the opponent’s best player all the time… I was also told not to worry about turnovers while I gelled with the team. Then we got to work.
Bear Cavalry vs Scarecrew (BC win 13-5)
Scarecrew had just come off a game against Thundering Herd that was pretty close, whereas this was Bear Cavalry’s first game. We started on O and scored. We went on for D and broke them. The defensive pressure was the difference with lots of hucks to no-one for Scarecrew. They got a few back at the end by working the unders a bit more and heavily involving their strong girls, but the result was pretty safe in the end.
Bear Cavalry vs Thundering Herd (BC win 11-4)
We had just come off our game against Scarecrew and the herd had a break. It felt like a different game to the game against Scarecrew, with the herd able to work it under early, which opened up a couple of completed hucks, but they weren’t able to take advantage of good field position when they got close to the endzone. They also struggled to gain any ground after resetting the disc at various points. It did feel weird playing against the herd, but at no point did it ever feel strange to be playing for Bear Cavalry. I wish the Herd luck for this year, and enjoyed playing against them in this game so I hope we match up against them in plenty of games during the season.
Bear Cavalry vs Cambridge (BC win 13-5)
The day finished with a rematch of the UKUNationals 2013 final, and, though it is the preseason, you could tell, with both teams winning their two group games, they each wanted to leave with a 3-0 record. Cambridge had brought a pretty big squad, featuring (as far as I could tell) a close enough to being complete roster. The opening shots were fired by Bear Cavalry, started with a score on O and then a break to go up 2-0. After that, the teams traded to 3-2 with the game looking fairly evenly matched. Cambridge were able to set up some middling range hucks off some solid under cutting. A couple of adjustments to the Bear Cavalry defence, including a force direction change managed to cause some trouble to the Cambridge offence, and even when the Bear Cavalry offence turned over, they were able to get the disc back, with more than a few poach based interceptions. The Bears managed to pull away and Cambridge never got any momentum. Even when Cambridge got a goal, the Bears would put in our offence with seeming ease. No doubt we’ll have more games with Cambridge during the season as both teams build towards worlds.
Starting out the season undefeated was pretty nice. On a personal note, I felt like my speed wasn’t affected by my time off, but towards the end of the day my stamina was. Hopefully the Winter Leagues, being only ~3 games and one day, will provide a good gradual re-introduction to tournament fitness, before the season begins in earnest.
#roadtoworlds
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