Uomo Donna: HOT HOT HOT

Uomo Donna was a lot of fun, a lot of great playing, and a lot of HEAT. What we didn't have was a lot of players. Note for the rest of the summer: We need to bring more players to tournaments! Here's the skinny:

The roster: Shakey, Andy 1, Andy 2, Jaffe, Mav, Eric, Jake

Jee, Paula, Kristine, Allie, Kerry

Megan, Alina

SATURDAY

We came in seeded 3rd overall and the top seed in the C pool. (Note: I don't remember all the scores exactly)

Game 1: HF 10, ABQ 9. Always nice to beat a regional rival. We were the first ones at the fields (something we should have done on Sunday, too ...), so we were ready to play early. We got up 3-0, but they tied it up quick by getting a cross-gender huck. I think we took half, then started to inch away near the end. We had started late (obviously), and the soft cap went on at 9-7 or so. They scored the last point after hard cap went on, so we finished at 10-9.

Game 2: HF 10, Beefcakes & Bombshells 9. Probably one of the most exciting double-game-point wins I've been a part of. Eric had a pair of D's on the goal line that saved the game. It had been neck-and-neck throughout. Both teams played aggressively near the end (Universe point must've had 5 or 6 calls), but we scored the final point for the win!

Game 3: HF 12, Tucson Pickup 2. After our much-deserved bye, we had to play against a team that had zero women. That team really shouldn't have been in the tournament to begin with, but we decided to play 5-2 or 4-3 against their line of 6 dudes. We won pretty handily. Nice work by the ladies, and by the whole team against their zone. Oh, and Eric lays out into a Nalgene, which punctures his face. Enjoy the new lip-piercing!

Game 4: Spartans 10, HF 7. The heat and the lack of depth really start getting to us now. We're even for the first few points, but they get three cross-genders to pull away. Really, we scored the same number of times, but by the end we're just dead.

SUNDAY

Game 5: Paradise Found 14, HF 10. Unlike Saturday, we got going late and didn't get to the fields until 9:30 or so. This didn't give us nearly enough time to warm up, and it showed as we got down early. We lost Kerry after Saturday, so we were down to 3 women on Sunday. This team enforced the 4-3 rule, so our women especially were having to play 3 of every 4 points. We managed to hang with them and get on a late run, but a late CGH sealed the win for them.

Game 6: Jungle Boogie 14, HF 11. A very similar game against a very similar team. We were generally right with them except for a few 3-point runs they went on. We started making a few more mental mistakes (drops & throwaways), which led to some points for the other team.

Both Sunday games were winnable, and with better health, better conditioning and a deeper bench, we would've taken at least 5th. Still, I thought the tourney as a whole was a great experience for us. I personally hadn't played with Andy, Jee, Allie, Eric, Paula or Kerry in a tournament before. Some of us were recovering from injuries, and lots of us haven't played mixed in a while.

So: A great experience. Nice universe point win; flashes of awesome offensive flow; great team bonding and getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses; and a hundred thank-yous to the Knochel household for putting us up!