Ballaas Games 9 (Tues.), 10-11 (Sat.)

Hot. Hot. Hot. Tally weather.

Well, the good news is that we won on Tuesday to play in the semi-finals, which was yesterday (Sat. 8/4). The bad news is we played against no. 1 seed first at 5:00 p.m. The sun beating hard that day and 5 less players, including one of our best ladies missing. Just warm-up alone was enough to make us drench in sweat. We had an advantage because it was red's 2nd game to play. But their advantages were, besides experience and young lads, that we had less players and they were already in game mode. They pretty much killed us with zone defense, shutting down our handlers. We had a rough game ending at 15-6. I think. Everyone made mistakes and it got intense among the teammates. However, we had one more game to play to compete for third place.

Uggggh. We all didn't seem up to playing another game. But, we all decided to just play for fun. No pressure. Just have fun out there. When we all loosened up, everything clicked. More solid points, no turns, no drops. I even caught a few midfield and made complete continuations. Scored a couple points. Yay. It was a fun way to end the night. Maybe it was best for my sake, that we didn't have to play as No. 1 seed that day, which meant 3 games in a row, on one of the hottest days of Tally. Don't forget to factor in nasty humidity. My hips and joints were sore by the end of the first game. But it wasn't too bad playing a second one, especially when the clouds and a slight breeze started to "cool" the air. My fan club (sister-in-law, niece, nephew, and the hubby w/ the kiddos) cheering on the sidelines with their homemade signs was a kind reminder to have fun.

Thanks Esther & Lily for the signs!

One opponent talking some smack halfway through the game, revving our captain up to play for fun but to WIN. And we sure did. As old as I am, I often asked to cover the handler because they don't run hard cuts. I needed a break from cutting badly. There were a few times the handler could've called a foul on me for contact during throws, but she was gracious. I don't know why I have difficulty blocking lately. Maybe I'm not willing to risk as much as I used to.

Anyway, we won 15-9. We still made some mistakes, but we shook 'em off and laughed it off. We had fun. Captain Cheese even called the cup-o-saurus defense. Eh? We formed a 6 person cup around the handler and made dinosaur sounds. It didn't work, which I think he knew. They scored a point. Oh well it was fun. We ended on a positive note and no tension from the loss before. The team took a group pic for me and signed their autographs for my up-coming team frame.

I told them one of these guys/gals will be famous one day. I know it.

 Barksdales Ballaas 3rd Place Summer 2012. May I add that's out of 10 teams. ;)

 

 

 

 

Ballas' Game 8

Green on Defense. With my lady captain taking the lead.

Green vs. Blue: 8-9

This was a miserable game. For both teams actually. The blue team, ranked 9th, beat us by 1 point. What?! Our captain in the end attributed the last 3 losses to his poor handling decisions. He sent an email about it and apologized about hucking too many times, which led to several turnovers.

Captain Cheese Huck!

This game was not only miserable, we all tired out on the field turn after turn for up to 5-10 minutes per point. Both teams kept making terrible mistakes. Miscues. Hucks. Blue didn't handle and catch well. While we made poor decisions. And as usual, we didn't cut well. Our best players were tired from a weekend tournament prior, so it showed in the game that rest of the team just didn't do enough to win.

A Vertical Stack....Kind of.

There were a couple times I could've caught it to score, but the handler would throw it to someone closer. That someone wouldn't know it was for them because both of us booked to the end zone. I should always look back when "Up!" is yelled in case it was meant for me. I always assume that no one will throw to me midfield, because the times I did during the first half of the season I would throw at the wrong time. So, I'd safely expect that they won't trust to throw to me midfield and so I choose to run to the end zone to score. However, I learned in this game to also make sure that my teammate nearby knows to receive. If not, I have to catch the disc.

If there is no rain tonight, we play 5th ranked team, light blue. One game tonight to advance and compete Red or White Again on Saturday. We have to win 3 games in a row to win the tournament. Can we do it? We have the teammates to do it, but if we continue like we did last 3 games... hmmm. No me gusto. I'll have a fan club tonight, the kids, hubby, auntie, nephew, niece, and family friends. Hopefully, our team morale can stay intact.