This week Royal and White both had surprisingly thin lines with just 2 subs each. The weather wasn’t great which seems to have deterred many of each teams’ players. It also provided for a slow start to the game. Both white and royal were late showing up and we all took our time warming up. We finally made the toss a little after the 6:15 deadline with royal winning and deciding to play defense to start. We went with person defense for our first point and came up with the turn starting the game off strong. We moved to zone for our next point and decided to stick with the zone for the entirety of the game. White has many great handlers and were able to swing the disc effectively, but our 2-3-2 zone helped crowd the middle and deter those deep looks. This proved well for us as we were able to take the half at 8-1.
We tried to encourage a shorter halftime due to the impending weather but white decided to use the full time (rightfully so – what rain?) and royal took the time to chat about what was working and how to improve. We really mostly just scolded Jared for a suspiciously good flick huck to Sam though he’s supposed to be resting his arm. We also decided to play 2 or 3 women every point even when not in the genzone to give our men a break since they only had one sub (though they honestly didn’t seem that tired).
Second half started with us on offense, and we capitalized quickly for the first point out of half. White is a strong team. They were missing Jill and the ^2 to the Drew. Despite missing two of their heavy hitters, they played that smart steady offense as white does. With Jared on the mend, we played many points with Emily, Gianna or Aaron handling. These three are excellent at keeping the disc moving. All our players have great throws, so we were able to work the disc up seamlessly. There were quite a few travel calls thrown pretty generously to many of our players, but we pushed through taking the time to reset and keep playing. At the end of the game, we had a bit of a pause trying to decide if we were at 14-2 or 15-2 but with a quick side count from Zac and Jared we decided the game was over 15-2. Since we were all on the line anyways, we opted for a bonus point that was dubbed to be worth 14 points. Overall, this was a fun spirited game with many great plays.
Royal MVP: ET Emily Turner. Emily always shows up ready to play and get things done. She thrives in the handler spot and is huge on defense. Emily knows her players and can move the disc to anyone and everyone. So stoked to get to play with her all season.
White MVP: Michelle Floyd. Michelle was always open for a swing and found the holes in our zone. She was able to capitalize on the swings and push the disc up field. There were many times we thought we had them shut down only for Michelle to find Drew in the middle. While simultaneously juggling mom duties Michelle play an excellent game.