Underdog Mentality

Underdog Mentality

Lou wrote a really great story that was released just before the first weekend of Regionals. It captured the sentiment that people go into the weekend with, encouraging teams to cherish each game with their teammates.

What about the other side of the coin?

The week after regionals: this week is the happiest week of the season for dozens of team. We focus on their successes – the teams who have qualified for the championships – their triumphs, their victories, their road ahead to Boulder or Appleton.

Take it from me, this week can be the worst week of the entire season too. For hundreds of teams, the season has ended on a disappointing and heartbreaking note. Reflecting back, I have been part of a budding college team who has fallen short in the backdoor semis game once, and final game for three consecutive years with Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Me at my first tournament in spring 2007.

The first regionals appearance with SOL was also the first appearance in our team’s history. You could say that we were just happy to be there. We had upset Iowa in pool play and landed in the championship bracket. We had no intention of beating Wisconsin in semis, we couldn’t even compete with Bella Donna that season. We scored a few points, and we were thrilled to go and compete with teams we could handle.

We beat Minnesota-Duluth, and re-matched against Iowa. There was a bout of horizontal sleet in the middle of the game, and our field in a strong upwind/downwind orientation. We could not work it up against the Saucy zone until universe point. Guess what? I was wide open in the endzone and dropped the game winning point from Jaimie Glader. Iowa quickly hucked it downfield and scored, winning on universe thanks to hard cap.

In every essence, that point has defined my college ultimate career. In my first season, I had become accustomed to winning. I took for granted that I would catch the disc as I tried to check if I was in the endzone, without watching the disc all the way into my hands. I don’t think that I have ever felt entitled to win against any team, but I think I took a lot for granted that first season. You see this year in and year out: sometimes in some situations good teams and good players feel entitled to win.

By 2010, my last season with Eau Claire, I had transformed to a work horse. Every spare moment I had was spent training, developing new skills, diagraming new plays, watching ultimate...my boyfriend at the time thought my obsession was unhealthy (“Women’s ultimate isn’t a real sport anyway, Robyn.”). I always saw our team as an underdog. I always saw myself as an underdog. This mentality has carried me to where I am today.

One of my favorite plays from college. Laying out for a D vs. Wisconsin in finals of Mardi Gras in 2008.

It wasn’t until Centex 2010 that I felt validation. Despite decisively winning our pool, we continued to face team after team in the bracket who insisted that we couldn’t possibly be playing them. Before every game, our coach, Pat Niles, and I would approach the other team (not always the captains or coaches, just players on the team who were often times just standing between fields before the rounds start). In nearly every occasion in bracket play, we were “greeted” with this conversation:

Me: “Is this Field #__?”

Member of other team: “Yeah? What team are you?”

Me: “Wisconsin-Eau Claire. I think we are playing you.”

Member of other team: “Umm...are you sure you read the schedule correctly? The D2 and D3 games are over there.”

           

Celebrating our second break against Oregon in Centex 2010 Prequrarters to make it 3-0, SOL.

This happened EVERY SINGLE game we played, with the exception of Oregon. The mutual respect for Fugue will always be strong, as they were the ONLY team in the bracket who took us remotely seriously before the start of a game. They treated us with respect, and did not overlook us as an opponent. Everyone thought that "Fugue must have sat their starters...there is no way that some no-name team would have done that against them this year, they are untouchable!" False. They played their studs, we played out of our minds.


Guess what: UW-Eau Claire was the “winningest” team in Centex Saturday history (in addition to winning out our pool play games and cross over handily, we also won the danceoff). We finished 10^th which is pretty good for a team that was in the D2 pools and gave Oregon their closest game all season (with the exception of Wisconsin later that day, who beat them in finals).

Setting up the first pull of the game vs. Oregon at Centex 2010.

Those other teams thought they deserved to win against a no-name team. It is the “This other team couldn’t possibly work harder or have more talent than OUR team” attitude that kills a lot of talented teams every season.

My college experience has forever impacted my approach to the game. With the exception of the time since Club Nationals this year (my body needed a LOT of recovery time after not taking any off after my last knee surgery), I have prided myself in working as hard as I can. Most of the time, this mentality will carry you far. At the end of the day, sometimes hard work and talent are not enough. Sometimes the dice just don’t’ roll your way, but roll in favor of someone else.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of watching Minnesota-Duluth take home the coveted fifth bid out of the North Central in the open division. I enjoyed reading all the comments on Skyd and RSD about how they “don’t deserve to go” or “will most certainly get killed at nationals” or “this bid system is so flawed” etc.

Last year no one thought Luther would do anything and they took down Florida. Not saying that Duluth will likely win, but you never know. Rankings don’t mean a lot when the post season rolls around and teams have already been seeded. It all depends on who is smart enough to maneuver the system and who is peaking at the right time.

SOL was not expected to cross over into Division 1 at Centex (i.e. the best pre-nationals tournament that existed in 2010), but we beat UCLA 15-6, we went up 4-0 on Oregon only to lose by 2, and we beat UC-Santa Barbara. We didn’t win the whole tournament, but we upset some top teams and made some noise.

For you guys who are STILL reading this and thinking, “Robyn, that’s nice and all, and it works in the women’s division, which does not compare to the Open Division. You play womens...you can’t possibly get the Open Division,” I ask you, how does this not apply? Did UNI beat the #1 seed Kansas in the NCAA tournament in the same year (2010)? Sure, UNI didn’t go on to win it all, but they sure did do something, didn’t they?

SOL 2007: We qualified for Regionals. Underdogs, extraordinaire 

The taking point: the entitlement attitude won’t get you far in anything you do, unless you have the money to buy your way through life (but last I checked, there is no ultimate tournaments that allow you to buy yourself into finals). At some point, you have to earn your spot. That’s why the underdogs are so captivating to 90% of the people following, because they relate to that feeling, and it’s easy to get behind them when they finally succeed.

Robyn's North Central Musings (Revised): Last 4 bids and Seedings Discussion

**NOTE: I have edited this post. Bids to D3 Nationals have been revealed and I have rethought seedings a bit.

Where are these bids going? I mean here's who we've got going where...as of what I know
(Only including teams eligible for regionals for discussion purposes)
D1 North Central Regionals: 12 bids total
D1 West North Central Conference: 5 bids**
1) Iowa State**
2) Iowa**
3) Carleton College**
4) Minnesota**
5) Nebraska**
6) Winona State (DECLINED)
7) Minnesota-Duluth (DECLINED)

D1 Lake Superior Conference: 2 bids allocated**; 1 bid reallocated$$
1) Wisconsin-Eau Claire**
2) Wisconsin**
3) Wisconsin-B$$
4) Wisconsin-Milwaukee (pending acceptance$$)
5) Wisconsin-Stevens Point

D3 North Central Conference
1) Luther**
2) Carleton-B--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
3) Grinnell--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
4) St. Olaf--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
5) Macalester (pending acceptance)
6) Gustavus Adolphus (DECLINED)
7) Drake
8) St. Bens

Question 1: Who gets the next 4 bids?
So last night, Beth Nakamura gave me a lesson in "team wait list." So after the bids go to the original place they are allocated, they must go through a "waitlist" process. The next highest team in the waitlist gets an offer. In our Region it has gone something like this: 1) West North Central (WNC), 2) North Central D3 (NCN-III), 3) Lake Superior (LS) until the bids are all awarded. After the D3 teams accepted bids to D3 nationals, their bids were reallocated as follows:

WNC--Winona State (declined)

NCN-III--Macalester (Pending)

LS--Wisconsin-B (accepted the bid to D1 regionals)

WNC--Minnesota Duluth (declined)

NCN-III - Gustavus Adolphus (declined)

LS - Wisconsin-Milwaukee (pending)

WNC--No teams eligible

NCN-III--Drake

LS--Wisconsin-Stevens Point

There are rumors flying around that the location of the regional tournament (Appleton, WI) seems to have discouraged teams to attend with such short notice? Perhaps. I think it is the low number of players on each of these teams, and missing 2-3 due to work schedules means they may only have 5 players.
Question 2: Seedings?
The top 6 teams have crazy results.

Iowa
*must be below Iowa State, but ahead of Carleton
-1-0 vs. UWEC
-3-1 vs. Iowa State (has to be seeded behind ISU from Conference results)
-2-0 vs. Wisconsin
-2-0 vs. Carleton (has to be seeded ahead of Carleton)

Iowa State
*must be ahead of Iowa and Carleton
-1-3 vs. Iowa (seeded ahead of Iowa)
-0-1 vs. Wisconsin

Wisconsin-Eau Claire
*must be ahead of Wisconsin
-0-1 vs. Iowa
-1-0 vs. Wisco

Carleton
*must be below Iowa State and Iowa
-0-2 vs. Iowa
-1-0 vs. Wisconsin

Wisconsin
*must be behind Eau Claire
-0-2 vs. Iowa
-0-1 vs. Eau Claire
-1-0 vs. Iowa State
-0-1 vs. Carleton

Minnesota
*must be behind Iowa State, Iowa, Carleton
-1-1 vs. Carleton
-0-1 vs. Iowa State
My thoughts:

1) Iowa Stateàwin in the Western North Central; beats Iowa, who otherwise would be 1 seed; loss to Wisconsin is in March irrelevant based on stronger results as of late

2) Iowaàloses to Iowa State in finals, but strong results vs. everyone else in top 5; head to head win over Eau Claire; wins over Eau Claire against common opponents all season

3) Carletonàloses to Iowa in 2^nd place game (has to be behind Iowa); strong results all season long against tough teams throughout the country

4) Wisconsin-Eau Claireàhas no wins over the top 3; perform below top 3 in common opponent games
5) Wisconsinàloss to Eau Claire at Conferences; strong performance in regular season

6) Minnesotaà Beat Carleton at Conferences in pool play, but lost in bracket play; head to head win vs. Luther at Midwest Throwdown

7) Lutheràhead to head loss vs. Minnesota;  

8) Nebraskaàhas no head to head against the others below them, but they finished in the top 5 in the toughest conference in the Region
9) Wisconsin-Bàhas to be behind Wisconsin, but ahead of Milwaukee

10) Wisconsin-MilwaukeeàHas to be behind Wisco-B based on Conference loss; if they accept the bid

11) Macalester, if they accept the bid
12) Drake or Stevens Point, depending on who accepts bid

This is crazy. I've edited this post 4 times already!

Mikey Lun: Undeniably the COTY in the Women's North Central. 2011.

http://boards.usaultimate.org/showthread.php?655-COTY-Nominations-North-Central-Women-s

If this resonates with you in any way, shape or form, please go and reply to my thread on the USAU discussion board. I can't think of a more deserving coach in the entire country.






Mikey Lun. The man. The legend. My coach.



I want to take the opportunity to nominate my coach for the 2011-2012 college season for COTY: The University of Iowa’s Mikey Lun.

Mikey is a standout player in his own right. He has played in national championships, world championships, and all sorts of tournaments and excelling at the sport. But this is not what necessarily makes a great coach. Mikey is able to take his experiences, his perspectives, his passion, and apply them to THIS team, pushing us to improve every single day.

In summer 2010, Mikey and I discussed the prospects of him coming to coach for Saucy. At that point, I had yet to actually play on the team. I only remember what I knew about Saucy from playing them a few times during the 2010 College Series. Saucy was a young team with a tremendous amount of raw talent. Players like Megan Greenwood had done fantastic things for the team and for the program, but they needed someone who could harvest the budding energy and focus it into a successful system. The result? A team that no longer competes for 4th place in the Central Region. A National Contender. Saucy Nancy 2011.

In 2010, Saucy had an inexperienced roster. Only graduating three players, they lost their fiery leader. A new start was in the horizon. I remember moving to Iowa City, meeting my teammates, and doing some pre-season drilling. I knew the talent was there. Our team lacked experience and knowledge. Two things that someone like Mikey could bring to the team.

From the first practice with Mikey as our coach he began to lay out the vision that had been communicated to him with a core leader meeting in August. He didn’t dictate the direction. He listened to what Saucy wanted, and did whatever he could to implement that dream. Mikey is a quiet, reserved guy. But his style and demeanor demands respect, without being overly demanding of his players. He takes the philosophy of always being a student of the game, improving your knowledge. He practices this daily. He’s constantly researching how to give our team a competitive edge, whether it’s teaching a new lift in our lifting program, spending time watching Ultivillage film. He’s thirsty for success; a trait he passes onto his players without necessarily saying so.

I’ve had numerous coaches in other sports for many years. I’ve played college, club, high school, AAU, select, etc. in all three sports I grew up playing, but never had a coach invest himself into his team. He has put more innovation, sparking passion into his players. He has taught me so much about how to find my role on the team, and transition to Saucy. He’s the person you can call up and ask to throw, and he’ll drop what he’s doing to drill with you for an hour before or after practice. He’s the person sending out individualized workouts to his players, and constantly coming up with drills to instill a love for the fundamentals.

Watch our team play. This newfound passion for the game and for each other is a direct result of his impact on us. He’s on the sidelines cheering, smiling, and sharing our frustrations. He’s proud of us, he pushes us, and loves us. Mikey believes in me when my back is against the wall. He motivates me to do one more set when I think I’m spent and can’t give any more. Mikey Lun embodies this award in every way.

-Robyn Fennig
University of Iowa Saucy Nancy #44

Recapping The Weekend From Hell

After an extremely stressful weekend, I have some insight to what those folks at USAU deal with. Quite honestly, I can’t imagine the stresses I had multiplied by like 40 conferences. Serving as a coordinator for the West Plains Open D1, West Plains Open D3, West Plains Open Developmental, Western North Central D1 Womens, and Lake Superior D1 Womens conferences (count it, that's 5 tourneys)….it was nuts. Weather in the Midwest is fairly unpredictable at this time of year. This weekend’s challenge was being able to keep a level head so I could execute on the field, meanwhile running a million other details. I mean, I had a guy yelling at me about his field location while I was about to pull the disc in our finals game vs. Iowa State. I didn’t need that. Thankfully, Mikey was there to talk him down.

Personally, I got a lot of negative feedback prior to the weekend about choosing Northern Iowa as my location for the West Plains and Western North Central tourneys. Personally, all those doubts were erased once everyone realized we were the only conferences playing on Saturday in our region. Noah Kramer (Site director) was amazing, and adapted to whatever we needed. UNI's staff was second to none, and even offered their indoor football dome to make the tourney happen. We didn't need it and got to play outside, despite the morning snow storm. We miraculously fit in 4 rounds between 1 and 7 pm with no problems other than 25-30 mph winds (with 40+ mph gusts throughout the afternoon). But seeing the sun as it was setting at 7:30 was great. I took a great amount of enjoyment calling Michelle at USAU, and telling her good news.

Reformatting the women’s LS was ridic. Some may say a nightmare to do from another state and dictate the changes to all 7 teams who were in their hotels in Appleton, WI. I’m happy it all worked out…somehow.

Recap of the weekend…well, my memory is significantly worse than it has ever been when it comes to recalling a tourney. We played amazing on Saturday, like those 30 mph winds weren’t there. My main memory of Sat. was of Hannah Rohret was hucking upwind Outside-In forehands like it was her job vs. UNI. It was ridic.

On Sunday, we have no excuses. We could not catch a disc in finals. We could barely throw. There wasn’t even a lot of wind. It’s good to know that fundamentals are important. Iowa State played a great game and capitalized on our mistakes. We were able to bounce back on Sunday in the backdoor game vs. Carleton. We had some fun and got back to the basics. Pulled out a W.

Main stories of the weekend:

-ISU proved they were a team for everyone to take seriously. Not saying we didn't take them seriously. I'm saying all the haters outside of our region. Our region clearly deserves AT LEAST 3 bids.

-Winona State. Holy cow. Played the whole weekend with SIX (yes, 6) players. They put up some impressive scores, and pulled out some wins.

-Nebraska makes their series debut. Emily Langland anchors this team with some athleticism and great throws from a new team. Laying the foundation of a future powerhouse.

-Women’s teams are more thankful for when you bend over backwards for them.

Looking forward to life as I knew it prior to going to Boston. I also look forward to sleep....lots of it.

Iowa Indoor Scrimmage: North Central Top-5 Division I Preview

So the Indoor Turf Practice Facility, aka "The Bubble," played host to a little round-robin style tourney January 22-23. With arguably the top five teams in the North Central Region there, it was an early season opportunity to get some extra practice in before major College Season participation. Here's a little breakdown of the teams...according to Robyn (hey, that's me!) Really, there is no rhyme or reason to the way I wrote. Just whatever team was there I thought of, in no particular order.

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, SOL (Eau Claire, WI)

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SOL Blog
My undergraduate alma mater. *Sigh* It sure was weird finally playing against them. The team is rebuilding. Coming back from the huge personnel and leadership losses from the 2009-2010 College Season, SOL is fighting the good fight. Offensively, SOL is anchored by the handling core of captain Brit Gartner (#11), captain Iansa Zaldarriaga (#5), and transfer from Loyola-Chicago Meredith Bray. These three clearly keep the offense going; however, running an offense with three experienced handlers can be difficult. Melissa "George" Jordan (#23) got some experience with Drag'n Thrust. Cutters like Estelle Taquet (#24), Tracie Anderson (#45), and captain Heather Wroten (#41) are much improved, but they need to assert themselves more to really have the same offensive impact they had in previous seasons, especially with the shift to a side-stack offense. Right now, the cutters are marked by inexperience, and seem like they need to know where to go for continues as they explore the side-stack and isos offensively. Jess Haller (#1) and Melissa "Brownie" Brown (#7), in my opinion are the two most underrated, and under utilized players in the SOL roster. Both are splitting time between handling and cutting. It would be great to see them busting deep more...utilizing height, air skills, and their uncanny ability to read the disc. Granted, it was SOL's first time playing since before winter break, I am interested to see what is coming from this young, budding team. Coach Pat Niles has some work to do fixing his chest hair...Ryan Cabrara isn't a good look for him. However bad his chest hair may be, he brings much needed experience to the young team. As he continues to be integrated into the program, he can use some of his world championship (with CLX 2010) knowledge and help get rookies up to speed. I'd like to see him implement the same systems he did for SOL in the past...I would say we were successful with it.

Iowa State University, Women Scorned (Ames, IA)

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Women Scorned Blog

Jasmine "Jazz" Draper (#12; 2010 Callahan Top-10) returns for her controversial fifth year of eligibility. That's a huge story in and of itself. I don't think her field presence can be over-emphasized. The point of this post is not to go on and on about how good she is. I mean, we all get that. But she brings a ton of experience and some leadership to the team. Personally, I like seeing that Magon Liu (#08) and Jessie Erickson (#14) have finally come into their own and have asserted their field presence. Magon's backhand huck is practically unstoppable. Even though she's short, her high-release backhand huck is phenomenal. She's quick. Stopping her strike cuts and keeping her momentum to a minimum is key to getting other handlers to step up. Lindsay Gapstur's (#02) much improved forehand brings added versatility to a solid handler core, combined with Sarah Pesch's (#97) sick lefty break throws. They got some pretty good rookies, like high school stud Cami Nelson. In my opinion, you're going to concentrate on the people I've mentioned. But guess what, the real underdogs here are Becca Miller (#47) and Caitlin "Bosco" (#03). Watch these two. They are fast, have ridiculous hands, and are the pinnacle of the horizontal/split-stack offense. Becca, Jessie, and Bosco tend to get the big gains under, utilizing their speed and read on the disc, looking for continues (not necessarily the big throws). The big throws are left to Liu, Jazz, and Gapstur, who like to put the big ones in the endzone.

Carleton College, Syzygy (Northfield, MN)

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Syzygy Site
Their roster is stacked. That's all there is to it. Anna Snyder (#23) and her little sister, Julia, have some ridiculous throws. Elise Rasmussen (#25) is sick. Personally, my favorite player on their team is soccer player, Marlena  "Marley" Hartman-Filson. Though they have taller players (i.e. Flannery McArdle), Marley is the most athletic tall player in the region, if not in the country. Dead serious. Put her up there with former Bella Donna Sandy Jorgenson. But what makes Marley so freaking good: she has phenomenal disc skills to match her athleticism and ability to read the disc as a defender. Oh yeah, she can run you into the ground. I was disappointed that Merritt Swain (#17) wasn't playing. She had ankle surgery in fall, which is sad. I hope she recovers soon and is back on the field. She's another one of those girls I love playing against. This team is stacked from top to bottom with more experience than any other team I know (most of these ladies have been playing forever...well, they have lots of youth and junior worlds experience to boot). They look deep a lot offensively, using their height for isos underneath. They don't do anything snazzy. They play good hard D, and smart O using their height and athleticism.

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bella Donna (Madison, WI)

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Bella Donna Blog
I'll be honest. I thought the Bellas would be hurting more than they were. The roster I saw in fall is significantly different than the one they brought last weekend. I was wondering: where did all the vets go? But rest assured, like half of the semi-finalist team from last season is back again. Emelie McKain (#17, FOTY '08, All-Region Selection), Al Ellis (#16, Central FOTY '10) and Rebecca "Reebs" Enders (#12) anchor the handlers. Without the cutters from last season, it's giving long-time players like Becca Ludford and Rachael Westgate (#26, Central FOTY '09) the chance to shine. And shine they will. Both have great hands, great throws, and make great decisions. Sarah Scott (#31). Get used to hearing that name. She was a noob on Bella last year. Mikey and I call her "Torpedo Girl." She's so explosive in her layouts, she gets picks up trash like you wouldn't believe. I like her playing style a lot. Coach Courtney Kiesow (Multiple All-Region selection, Callahan Winner '08) brings more experience and knowledge of the program. Defensively, the Bellas are bringing back the poachy zone look that they introduced last spring. Though it gave them some troubles in the semi-finals at nationals last year vs. UC-Santa Barbara, the look proved particularly useful against the more inexperienced teams/players. Offensively, McKain and Reebs are looking for the hucks, while Sara Scott and Becca Ludford look for the cuts.

University of Iowa, Saucy Nancy (Iowa City, IA)

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Saucy Nancy Blog
Where to start with our team. I feel like I talk about us enough. I mean I could do a breakdown of our whole roster, but what fun would that be? I feel like it would ruin this whole blog thing right now. I'll be writing more about us as the season goes. But here's a taste, I guess. Me...well, I like throwing and wearing skirts. No shocker there. Preferably to Chelsea Twohig (#10), she's good...she was super sick this weekend and actually didn't play on Saturday (which saddend me). Katie Johnson (#7), you can read all about her athleticism and stats HERE. Liza Minor (#3), good. Jen Nowak (#49), good, wears neon, and doesn't like basketball jerseys. Audrey Erickson (#6), underrated and fast. Good hands. Kristen "Apple" Appelson (#1), fast. Bekah Hickernell (#13)=chill, jack of all trades. Head Coach Mikey Lun (Multiple All-Region selection, CLX standout) brings experience and fundamentals to the team. While assistant coaches Steve "Birdman" Hanson and Dan "FBO" "PDA" "DK" Kresowik are able to add even more one-on-one time and expertise to the team. Our team is young, lacking some high level experience that the players on Bella and Syzygy have, but we are eager to learn and thirsty for success. The Saucy O is about taking advantage of mismatches, especially from the pull.  There's not a ton to do against it but play good D. As the season goes on, look for us to be more conservative with the disc, and our young core of handlers to keep improving the chemistry. Though we lack the swing looks now, it's definitely a point of emphasis. Defensively, I would predict us to play lots of man, as we continue to work on the fundamentals, and take advantage of the raw athleticism our players have.

I mean, I'll do a thourough D-III and Conference Previews for D-I closer to tourney time. Much season left to go!