After our game against Wildcard (Australia) got rained out yesterday, we spent much of the day running around Prague and trying to get in touch with our team.  We finally found out in the early evening that our game was rescheduled for this morning and that our other games were pushed back as well. 

This morning, we took the first bus from our hotel to the Strahov field site and arrived with just over 30 minutes to warm up.  Wildcard was deep into their warmup and I knew immediately that this could be trouble.  They jumped out to a 6-2 lead, capitalizing on every one of our mistakes and punishing us deep repeatedly.  Their tall handlers did a fantastic job of breaking the mark and moving the disc quickly.  We brought it back closer before Wildcard took half, but Wildcard surged ahead again to go up 10-6.  This was gut check time for us and we answered in a big way, going on a 7 point run to win 13-10.  A loss in that game would have left us hoping for some kind of point differential win to get an “easier” pre-quarters game.

After a bye, we traded with Brute Squad for a bit but when they went up 7-3, we opened up our lines knowing that we still had to face an athletic Zephyr (Canada) team.  They took the game easily with their handlers breaking us repeatedly.  We did a much better job of containing their deep game than we have in the past, but Brute dispatched us rather easily.

After yet another bye, we faced Zephyr feeling like we had something to prove.  We went up 7-2 but Zephyr fought back bringing it to 8-10 at one point.  We regrouped and took the game 13-8 to take second in our power pool.

The Woodchicas (Munich) upset Zeitgeist so we will face them in pre-quarters tomorrow morning.  Winner should see UNO (Japan) in quarters as far as I know.

I am currently on the bus on the way back from trading night with an Iceni (England) jersey and a pair of shorts from a Japanese open team in hand.  Also, my personal highlight of the tournament was a Singapore player who had read a college women’s ultimate resources manual I compiled finding me at trading night and giving me a disc to thank me for sending her a copy.  Just another reminder that ultimate is bigger than me, my team, and even ultimate in the US.