Power pools

Round 1: In the first power pool, Brass Monkey faced off against Chad Larson Experience, and Holes and Poles played Bad Larry. Brass Monkey got up 2-0 using their long game, despite CLX's tight man defense. CLX is a young, fun team that likes to lay out. Their women in particular seem inexperienced, but have a lot of heart. Brass Monkey can match their athleticism and has more people; moreover, they have the veteran advantage. CLX's O was stagnant against a hard man D. Brass Monkey took their early lead and ran with it, winning 15-8.

The other game was much closer. Holes and Poles ran a spread O but was having trouble swinging it against a tough Bad Larry defense. For the most part, HnP ran their O through their men. Bad Larry looked long a lot, but had some miscues. HnP was up early but Bad Larry worked it well against the zone and tied it up. From there, it was close the whole way, with HnP maintaining a slight advantage. Holes and Poles certainly has the throwers - they consistently made some nice crossfield break mark throws to open up the field. Bad Larry outmatches HnP in athleticism, and knows how to defend the spread. The game got testy early on and continued that way, with not a lot of respect for calls. Up 14-12, Holes and Poles dropped the pull, and Bad Larry quickly scored to make it 14-13. It was the last game of the round, and the sidelines were full of hecklers, particularly the blue-clad CLX. Holes and Poles received the pull, worked it up a couple of passes, and was called for a travel; this resulted in an unnecessary level of yelling from the HnP players. Holes and Poles works it to about 20 yards out of the endzone and puts up a swilly hammer to a woman; there's some contact on the bid attempt and HnP calls foul. Cries of "you don't get the three seed without a call game like that" arise from CLX. It should be noted that the hecklers were nowhere near the play. In any case, the thrower got the disc back, and a couple of passes later HnP punched it in for the win. 15-13 Holes and Poles.

The second power pool saw DTL versus Shazam and Red Fish Blue Fish versus 6 Trained Monkeys. DTL has great defense and could shut down Shazam coming in, but Shazam was connecting on hucks this morning. Quickly Shazam built a 4-1 lead. DTL was also looking long, especially to the women, but was misreading good throws. At 13-9, DTL seemed to realize it had to step up, and their D became even more aggressive. Meanwhile, Shazam began to falter, with big hucks to no one. In big games Shazam sometimes gets nervous once they start making mistakes, and it becomes a vicious cycle. Mickey Thompson, #7 on DTL, has big ups, and the DTL women were running the Shazam women hard. In general, both teams seemed tired, but DTL was running on heart. Shazam continued to have execution errors and DTL went on a run to make it 13-12 Shazam. Then, on a long point with lots of turnovers, Shazam scored to make it 14-12. DTL looked down and defeated, like they'd already lost. They turned it over on a huck blocked by Charlie Ellis (#18) and Eric Mattson (#1) rewarded him with the assist for the score. 15-12 Shazam.

In the other game, 6 Trained Monkeys gets up early, using their athletic men to pull down discs. Seth Mann (#12) is a big playmaker for them, as is Jay Clyne (#37). Red Fish Blue Fish is a team with great throwers and huckers. Chris Archer (#11) had a good day today, with accurate deep bombs that no one seemed able to mark. And in low wind, RFBF threw a successful zone that was good at blocking the lanes. 6 Trained Monkeys gets up 13-10. RFBF goes four women on offense and throws junk on the turnover, a strategy that works fairly well. Their cup is full of huge men that are hard to throw around. The Fish get the turn with good field position and punch it in. On D, their zone continues to confuse 6TM; on O, their throwers make it happen by hitting cross field breaks. RFBF goes on a run, using their women on some successful hucks, and 6TM can't seem to stop the bleeding. The Fish play with confidence to the end, with turnovers rare. Final score: 15-13 RFBF.

Round 2: Brass Monkey comes out hard against Bad Larry, scoring quickly on long throws and executing the offense flawlessly. Bad Larry's defense is completely absent; in the transition it looks like nobody's playing. And perhaps this is true: Bad Larry is down 0-2 in the power pool at this point, and win over BM still sends them to prequarters. Rumor has it they threw this game on purpose. Brass Monkey was up 4-0 before Bad Larry scored a point. Half was 8-1, and Brass Monkey won a short while later, 15-2.

The Holes and Poles vs. CLX game was much closer. Ricky McClellan (#71) on Holes and Poles has been big all tournament, both cutting and throwing. But HnP doesn't seem to make much use of their women, whereas CLX does; Rachel Derscheid (#9) had some big throws for them. CLX plays hard, layout defense, and went straight up on HnP to stop the long game. CLX's men made some nice plays in the air over HnP receivers as well. The score was 12-9 in favor of CLX when HnP went on a run to tie it up. But they couldn't close it out. Chad Larson Experience wins the game, goes to quarters seeded high, and may have finally won some respect for their region.

Red Fish Blue Fish gets down early to Shazam. Anytime they're on offense, the Fish go four women, and this keeps it close. Their women are strong; Merritt Evans (#32) has a huge layout for the score early on. But Shazam has a great deep game, anchored by Jimmy Chu (#15). The score is 12-10, Shazam has the disc, and Erin Gallagher (#48) turns it over on the dump. Quick score to Asako Yamamoto (#52) and it's 12-11. On the next point, Chu throws a bomb to Gallagher, who's uncovered. Men converge on her to make the D, but it's too late and she scores with a flourish. The next two points are traded to 14-12. On the final point, Hideyo Hereford (#69) has a big layout D to give Red Fish the disc, but they turn it over. Eric Mattson, #1 for Shazam, puts up a swilly huck to captain Steve Finn (#7), who skies for the score. 15-12 Shazam.

Drive Through Liquor and 6 Trained Monkeys is tied to begin with. DTL's women are good, fast offensive players, particularly Melissa Rupert (#15). On defense, Angus Goodbody (#2) makes some plays. The entire team runs hard, going to the disc aggressively. DTL is looking long, as well. 6 Trained Monkeys have some quality throwers with good break marks, particularly Salsa. Their men and women are athletic, and the roster is fairly deep. DTL looks tired after a hard couple of days. They can't keep up with the runners on 6TM, and the Monkey's win 15-8.

Prequarters: Soul Patrol battled their way out of the lower pools to face Bad Larry, the team that tanked their last power pool game. Both squads came out hucking, with Bad Larry's throws looking better but Soul Patrol making some incredibly athletic catches. #57 had a spectacular layout catch to start and #9 was also bug for them. Soul Patrol has a bunch of sweet-talking Georgia women who are also speedy receivers with good throws. They went four women on Bad Larry, but didn't seem to use them effectively. Little miscues outside the endzone and other unforced errors cause Soul Patrol to be down by a couple early. Bad Larry leads the whole way and increases the lead in the late game. They have more depth in their roster and are the better team overall. However, both teams look very tired at the end of the game, and there are tons of turnovers. The hucks take on a feeling of desperation. Bad Larry finally closes it out, 15-9.

B+ comes out fired up in their prequarter matchup against Red Fish Blue Fish. B+ had dropped down based on point differential, and continued to win games by close margins to make it to prequarters. B+ plays hard, layout man defense, making every pass difficult. Jenny Fey (#5) was big for B+ on offense, as was Caner Cooperrider (#81) and Jody Avirgan (#8). RFBF made some execution errors and B+ is doing well against their zone. At half time, B+ is up big. At 9-4 some of the breaks start going the Fish's way, and B+ starts turning it over. It seems like B+ always wants it to be a close game. RFBF plays clam, zone, and transition zone to man. B+ tries to get it over with by throwing swill over the cup, but this is a bad strategy. The Fish tie it at 10s, an enormous run. RFBF then tries to connect on a long pass but misses; B+ runs their O and scores it, 11-10. On the next point the Fish turns it over and Avirgan hucks it to Fey, who lays out for the score. 12-10. RFBF turns it over again but this time set a good zone. Once again B+ is impatient, and this time RFBF takes advantage and scores, 12-11. There's a lot of turnovers on the next point and it's extremely ugly; Cooperrider finally catches a long throw that should have been D'd by the wing, and throws for the score, 13-11. The last point was another B+ huck, this time to Deuce, who quickly threw to a wide open Margalit Gould (#15). B+ is in quarters.