a random fling

first team (minus jen) watching the action at UWIR (l to r): caroline, rosie, me, freesia, sophie, rachel and anna.

absolutely one of the best decisions i have made since arriving in nottingham was my choice to join the ultimate frisbee team. "random fling," as it is known, has been nothing but fun since the first taster session way back in fresher's week. it's just a great group of friendly people who get together and play frisbee... and they take their frisbee seriously here. we actually warm up before every practice, there are detailed emails sent out each week outlining the tactics that will be covered in the coming week's practices, where we do drills, play games, and hear both advice and criticism on our play. i have grown a ton as a player since i arrived here, and i've had a great time getting to know everyone on the team as well!

this past weekend i played in the university women's indoor regional tournament in liverpool with fling's first team, and was lucky enough to both watch and participate in some really great sport.

coming off the mark (l to r): rosie, me, caroline, anna and rachel.

that is beth throwing a forehand. it happens occasionally...

caroline and i watching some play in between games.

the random "flingettes" entered the tournament as the top seed, due to last year's women's team coming in 4th at nationals. the first day of pool games was fairly easy for us, and gave us some time to start learning how to play as a team. the end of saturday held some disappointment for us though, as we lost our 1-8 crossover game, and forfeited our seed. what was most disappointing of all was that it was such a rough game for our team: we were never quite able to hit our stride, and it showed in the final score. following that disappointment, we were facing an uphill struggle on sunday to qualify for nationals.

sunday we came out strong, though, with a good first game in the morning. that was followed by a couple of disappointments, as our opportunities to cement our qualifying seat fell away in much the same way some of our discs just escaped our fingers, and all in spite of a radical improvement in our team play since saturday. in the end, it all came down to our last game of the weekend: a 6-7 seed rematch against a team we had previously beaten, to decide who would be the last team to qualify for nationals. we went in with a calm and determined mindset, many thanks to great coaching by our captain sophie, and proceeded to play probably our best game of the weekend. it was tight the whole game: both teams were trading points, with some great defense and a few spectacular scores on both sides. then, in the last minute of our game, we pulled ahead by one, to lead it 7-6... and we held them!!

the starter line waiting to pull (top to bottom): sophie, rachel, caroline, rosie and myself.

setting up for defense in our 6-7 decisive game.

sophie with just one of her many amazing saves in the final game.

jumping for a score!

rosie dominating the endzone, as she did all weekend.

sophie and yet another grab. :)

that score means we clinched it! nationals here we come!

the whole team! from l to r: (top row) me, caroline, freesia, jen, sophie, (bottom row) rachel, rosie and anna.

congratulations, ladies, on making it to nationals!!! i can't wait to play in december! :)

photo credits: hui en. thanks for taking so many awesome pictures and for cheering us on all weekend!!

b