Queen City Tune Up

Queen City Tune Up was this weekend in Charlotte, NC.  We can in seeded 16, went in pre-quarters seeded 5th, and ended the day on Sunday 11th.

Saturday
The first game on Saturday was unremarkable - we went up early (3-8) at half, than let them back into the game, but we still won 15-12.  Next we played Michigan who just wanted it much more than us - we had a lot of miscues of offense and while our D got a few turns we only converted on two of them, and it wasn't near enough.  This was my first game with observers and it was a mixed experience.  Observers speed up the game, but the one we had was a dick about the sidelines giving him enough room to move.  The final game on Saturday was against NYU.  We went up early (6-2), and then let them go on a 7 point run.  NYU did a very successful job of playing the clock once they were up . . . but ultimately it hurt them because the game got hard capped when they where down by two.

After every tournament saturday most of the team goes out and eats Mexican.  I got 3 awesome tacos: pig stomach, cow tongue, and a mixed pepper.  The cow tongue one was not like the tripe (pickled beef tounge) I had at all; it was very tender and a little bland.


Sunday
The first game on Sunday was against Deleware who had an upset win over Georgia Tech.   We lost this game because of mental errors.    We would have points where the offense would flow perfectly followed by points where we would drop easy dumps.  In addition our D wasn't converting or generating enough turns.    This was a very disappointing loss.

The next game was against UNC.  They are a very physical team - they actually grabbed your jerseys.  They were also the only team to really employ the test "Contact*" call; it was called on me twice.  They would go out of the way to create contact, call it, and get a reset without stoppage of play.  Marks had to drop back a lot . . which I found actually made mine more effective.  I get two guys to stall nine, only to have their bailout shot completed.  I also got a bloody lip from one of their players.  It was a very vindictive win for me.  The final game on Sunday was against Virgina Tech.  We game them the game.

There were times over the weekend where we played like a legitimate team - and times where I felt like only a handful of teammates cared about the outcome and wanted to work.

*"Contact" call for marking fouls/violations

If contact occurs between the thrower and marker that would constitute a foul under (XVI.H.3.a) but the thrower does not release the disc, "contact" may be called. Play does not stop and the marker resumes the stall count at "one". Other than resetting the stall count to "one" after the first instance, the "contact" call is treated as any other marking violation. The marker may contest the "contact" call by calling "violation", which stops play. If the thrower calls "contact" after beginning the throwing motion and subsequently releases the disc, it is treated as if the thrower called "foul".

(Note: This rule is intended to reduce the number of stoppages by allowing the offense to continue playing even after a contact foul on the mark. This should not only speed up play, but also reduce the incentive for a defender to make contact on the mark because 1) the thrower does not have to choose between either ignoring the foul or stopping play by calling a foul, and 2) an uncontested "contact" call will result in a reset of the stall count.