Nemesis at Regionals

Regionals was this past weekend in Wisconsin at the same fields as Cooler Classic. No cheese cows, but with a greater prize within our sights, Nemesis set out to claim one of the two bids to Nationals for the Central region.

We were in the pool of 4 (since one team dropped out), so enjoyed a lovely first round bye, and 3 pool play games to 15 on Saturday.

First game was against Thrill Show, the 2nd team out of Madison. Nemesis came out of the gates hard on this one… 15-3. Of course I don’t remember anything that happened in this game, so I assume there were some hucks to tall girls, sweet D’s and nicely flowing scores.

Second game we decide to make things more interesting by splitting the team into 3 lines that would play exclusively with each other the entire game. Hayride played a gritty game, with some big hucks when you were least expecting them, and some crazy catches left and right that made the game interesting. I don’t think it was ever very close, but they definitely made us work for each point and mounted a valiant comeback in the second half. 15-10, Nemesis (and I’m pretty sure Team Candice lost the challenge, badly).

Last game of the day was against Madison, which of course is always a pleasure. Georgia’s hucks were on the money, especially to the speedy Wisconsin receivers (you know, the ones that dress the same even though they’re not related, so I’m told), but other than the Bosscher show, Madison gave Nemesis plenty of chances, which we gladly took. 15-8 Nemesis….

Dinner at the Thunder Bay Grill consisted of my table getting the shaft with the crappy waiter with the crappy service. How the tables that sat down after us got their food and paid for their dinner before we received our entrees still baffles me… did they have to go kill the bison first? Come on now. And of course tip was included, so I couldn’t subtract for poor service. Well played….

And finally, Sunday of regionals. Our first game (semis) was against Hooptie, who we’d only played once before at CHC. As the ex-Mojo-Clutch vs. Nemesis rivalry was in full effect, we knew this would be an eventful game. Nemesis came out strong, taking the lead early on and pretty much never looking back. Hooptie has some fast, athletic girls to match ours, but we managed to make fewer uncharacteristic turns than they did, winning the game 15-9. The observers got a lot of action in this game, which is about all I remember in terms of details. I don’t remember it ever feeling too close for comfort, but then again, I think I have muddled the two Hooptie games in my mind. More later.

On to the finals against Pop, our arch-rival who has gotten the best of us a number of times this year. We stormed out to a 3-0 lead, but then immediately relenquished it, and allowed Pop to pull ahead. Once Pop got it in their head that they were ahead, there was no stopping them… at one point it was 12-6 and though we played hard, they played harder and came up with more of the 50/50 shots, some ridiculous layout grabs in the endzone, and some timely D’s and skying catches. Had some of those gone our way, the score would have reflected a far smaller margin…. but that’s ultimate for ya.

Celebration for Pop ensues while we gear up to play the backdoor final against… Hooptie, all the while breathing in cigar smoke from the celebrating Minnesota teams on the other sideline. Since our first semis game that morning, we had a 1.5 hour bye before the finals game, which allowed us to rest up and relax while cheering Machine on. Hooptie, on the other hand, had played 2 straight games, one to double game point against Madison, which meant that they were looking pretty tired before the game even started. While Nemesis was doing their warmups, Hooptie was sitting on the sideline hydrating, eating and resting. Funny enough, both teams came out a little careless, with a stupid number of turns in the first few points. Once both teams calmed down a bit, though, we showed then that we had the legs to outlast them… I think we took half 8-5 (but this may be entirely fictional), and though we let them back in a bit in the second half, we still came out with the win 15-10. Our first game point was ridiculous though – we huck it downfield about a yard from the endzone line, call a timeout, manage to eff up the play and turn it…… they score and we have to try again. Second game point Meagles cuts like a madwoman in the endzone until someone throws it to her for the score. Tourney MVP right there.

A bottle of whiskey, some shotgunning and more beer later, everyone is happy, wasted, and ready to celebrate. Some people shower, others don’t, and a party ensues…