Itchfest 2005

Itchfest was this past weekend, Oct 29-30 @ Vanderbilt. SO MUCH FUN. Ok, so this isn't the most competitive tournament ever, but I love it, and always have. It's almost like hometown for me, because it is the closest tournament to Memphis (and yes, there is a tournament in Memphis, but only stupid people play ultimate in Memphis in August during Dead Elvis Week). And also, Itchfest was the first tournament I ever played in three years ago, so it is my anniversary tournament too! So, get there on Friday night with Claire, Lora, and Meredith, drop Meredith off, check into the hotel, and James and Emily pick me up for dinner. Dinner at the bound'ry, very swank and yummy (lobster ravioli... it was HEAVEN) and I was way underdressed! Go back to the hotel, finally calm down, sleep. Wake up at 5am. and 6am. Finally, alarm goes off at 7, everyone gets up, and we start heading out the door around 7:45. First team at the fields (beating even most of the hosting team, except the few that had to set up fields!), warm up, drills, all that fun stuff. Saw Gracyn (plays with Vandy), the Indiana girls, and Jennie Yang (oh my gosh I love Jennie Yang... if you read this I LOVE YOU!).
Have to play FLO first. Flo is the Nashville women's club team. Love them, love playing with them, don't always love playing against them. Good game though, only losing by two during the soft cap. I got some compliments on my playing ability, which feels good coming from this team, since I do hold their opinions in very high regard because they are good. Final score: 10-8 Flo wins.
Next up: Purdue. I have this longstanding thing about Purdue. I like playing them, but I hate losing to them. Their one short girl with big boobs that lays out for everything is gone, but their short girl who ran my ass off and schooled me was there, Lucy. Great player, great person, great spirit. She doesn't have to be an ass because her game speaks for her, and hands down, she wins against me any day of the week. But we played well, took half, and then let them come back. Hard cap goes on during the point, and Purdue takes in 10-9 (I get scored on for the winning pt. BOO! Such a confidence killer!). All the girls played really well, and we never gave up.
Third game of the day: Hendrix, a little college in Arkansas. This girls were fun, and were learning the game too, but we win, 13-5. Super fun game though, and they were great.
Last game: cross-over against Towson. Last year, they beat us on Saturday, and then we beat them on Sunday. Well, they didn't roll over us, but they got ahead and stayed ahead. They threw zone, which we should have played better against, we got broken over and over and over... and all of the UT girls hit the wall where we were tired, and ready to be done. They win 8-4.
Finish the day by going over and watching the boys lose to Vandy A with the parents. All I have to say is that there is a reason that I don't like hanging out with them when they lose. Our teams had the same record for Saturday, and we weren't upset... but whatever. Hang with the team at S.A.T.CO., go home, shower, and meet the parents and Wells for the best Japanese in the world at Taste of Tokyo. After dinner, went back to the hotel, watched UT lose to South Carolina at home, and then passed out. Woke up at 6am, because not only did we change time zones, but we also had day light savings time end, so it really felt like 8am. I was about to start making some real enemies when Lora, Katrina and Leslie suggested that we go and get breakfast. Came back, checked out, first ones to the fields AGAIN (I mean seriously, we were there before the UT guys... that is not good!).
First game: in quarters against Towson. They don't show up until 9, game time, and we get on the line, so they don't have time to warm up. Ya know, I wasn't trying to be a bitch, but they knew what times the games started, so I don't feel bad. Anyway, the throw zone on us, we score, and then we decide to throw zone... and we score! They couldn't handle our zone! Final score: 13-5 US! Hell yeah! I felt very good about my game, I made some good decisions to move to disc, had Meredith pop up to the middle handle position, and I took off, caught it, threw for a score! You know you are playing good when you hear "Watch out for the girl with red-hair!" every player wants to something of that nature from the opposing team!
Semi's: Flo. AGAIN. This time, they threw zone, and we didn't really have a chance. I don't remember the score, but everyone made mistakes, but again we didn't give up, and went down fighting. A great weekend over all. Look at some of the pic's on facebook here and hopefully I'll get the one good one of me playing from Tom soon.