A really disappointing day today for us. We lost to the Woodchicas (Germany) in a pre-quarters game that was never close and then lost to Backhoe in the 9th place bracket. Our offense (and defensive offense) have really been struggling and it has showed the past couple of days. We play Storm and then either Leeds or Zephyr tomorrow. We’ve already adopted one of Leeds’ cheers as our own and we’ll be focusing on getting experience for the fall series and enjoying our last day with some of our teammates who will be retiring. And hey, we’re still in Prague.

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.

We played Leeds (Great Britain) this morning in a rematch of our game at Boston Invite about a month ago.  Leeds made a lot of great adjustments from our last game, picking apart our zone and forcing us to stick with our man defense.  Their handlers moved the disc quickly and they got a good number of hucks off dish passes.  Despite a short lightning delay in the morning, we were able to finish the game 17-5.

During our bye, I watched the Brute (USA)-Wildcard (Australia) game.  Brute’s “rookies” from Godiva are all great pickups (obviously) and while they’re a good team now, I’m excited to see them in 3 months.

We faced Copenhagen (Denmark) in the afternoon and went up early.  The game got pretty chippy and sloppy, which was unfortunate.  Copenhagen had knocked off Jinx in the round prior and that and Jinx’s upset of Leeds created an interesting 3-way tie for 2nd in our pool.  With only the top 3 teams advancing to the power pools, Copenhagen was knocked out based on point differential.

We face Wildcard tomorrow afternoon, then Brute and Zephyr on Wednesday.  It’s been a fun couple of days, and we’re pumped for more awesome ultimate. Also, a special shoutout to our soccer stud turned frisbee player Shelby following from home. Can’t wait to have you on the field with us! :)

Showdown kicked off the tournament with a win over Jinx (Germany) 17-6 this afternoon.  We went up 6-1 early then faltered, letting them back into the game 5-7.  We took half 9-5 and closed the game out 17-6.  Jinx breaks the mark very well and their overall skill set was impressive.  The other two teams in our pool, Leeds (Great Britain) and Copenhagen (Denmark) battled it out next door to us, with Leeds winning by 4 or 5.  The overall level of play was quite good, and Copenhagen, the last seed in our pool, was utilizing lots of crossfield break throws to open up the field.  Both teams played good defense in the air, so that will be interesting for us tomorrow.  Also of note, our coach couldn’t come at the last minute, so that’s been something our team has been working with.

The other US women’s teams won their games and Doublewide (the Texas open team) won both of their games as well.  We had a chance to watch some of Backhoe’s game and they have a small roster, but took care of business fairly easily.  Brute Squad beat Zephyr (Canada) 14-6 or so, and we did not get a chance to watch Fury, Riot, or Zeitgeist, but heard that they all won.

I’m not sure what the experiences of other teams has been, but so far, we’ve been a bit frustrated with some of the communication regarding transportation.  It’s been a bit unclear when the buses are or are not running.  Things are pretty spread out around the city, so we’re pretty reliant on the tournament buses and/or public transportation to get around.  Our hotel is also a lot “different” than what was advertised on their website.  But hey, at the end of the day, we’re trying to keep it all in perspective.  We’re at Worlds, in Prague, playing ultimate with 22 of our best friends.  So life is good.

Tomorrow we play Leeds (Great Britain) at 8:30 AM and Copenhagen (Denmark) at 12:30 PM.  If we win those games and the other pool plays out as we expect it to, we should face our friends Brute Squad in power pools.  Our relationship with them has been an interesting one (in a good way- BRUTE DOWN 2010!).  They knocked us out in Quarterfinals of the Club Championships last year and this season, we are collaborating on a big 40-team fall women’s tournament.  They played host to us at Boston Invite and we will be both be headed to ECC in August.  So we’ll be seeing them about 6 times this season, which is more than we’ll be seeing any team in our region (or in any other region) for that matter.

It’s awesome seeing Prague being totally overrun by frisbee players.  There are even billboards advertising the tournament around the city!

Updates from here on out might be a lot shorter… I can’t see what I’m typing on the screen of my iPhone, so that makes writing a little difficult… Thanks to everyone following us from home!  We love you all.

Hi all!  My name is Michelle Ng and I am one of the captains of Texas Showdown, who will be representing the USA in the women’s division at Worlds in a couple of weeks.  We are so excited for this opportunity and are looking forward to representing the US ultimate community on a world stage.  This is our team’s first time playing at Worlds and we have been hard at work since January preparing for this week of competition.

A little bit about me and my perspective: I am a former captain of the UC Berkeley and University of Texas women’s teams, as well as a former captain of Bay Area Slackjaw.  Last year was my first season on Showdown, and I am privileged to be captaining the team this year with my good friend Tina Woodings, and one of my ultimate mentors (and outgoing captain) Cara Crouch.  I am a (mostly) O-line handler and I love all things ultimate- you’d be hard pressed to find me without a disc in my hands.  In the offseason, I run several college women’s tournaments around the country.  My passion is the growth and development of women’s ultimate.

Our team’s path to qualifying for Worlds was a bit of a rocky one.  We had a rough pre-Series season last year, with an extremely poor showing at Colorado Cup, and less-than-impressive performances at Chesapeake Open and Chicago Heavyweights.  We then went undefeated at Sectionals and beat Regional rival Atlanta Ozone for the first time in our team’s history to win the South Region.  At the Club Championships, we beat Ozone and Zeitgeist twice each en route to a 5th place finish to qualify for Worlds.

Our Worlds roster is a mix of our 2009 roster (some of whom will be retiring after Worlds), new pickups for our 2010 roster (including Amanda Berens, a former Showdown captain, who is back after a year of traveling), and two members of our ATL-pod, Kate Wilson and Angela Lin.  We had the privilege of hosting Texas Shootout in May and seeing fellow Worlds-qualifiers Fury, Riot, and Zeitgeist, and then made the trip to Boston Invite two weeks ago, going 6-1 including a come-from-behind win against the vastly underseeded Lotus (who is basically the Capitals).  We played LeedsLeedsLeeds in a preview of a Worlds pool play game, and we are looking forward to playing them again, as well as seeing a bevy of new teams.

Something that makes our team unique is that we have players in a number of Texas cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, College Station, and San Antonio.  As someone who is still relatively new to this team, I am amazed at how well this works.  This requires a lot of commitment from our players to work on individual skills in our “pods,” and also to drive hours for our 10-hour weekend practices.  This might sound like a lot of work (and it is!), but the camaraderie on this team is unlike any other team I’ve ever been on.  We love each other and celebrate our differences as what make us a unique, tightly-knit team.

For us, Worlds is an opportunity to do what we love best: playing ultimate with each other.  While we have trained hard and want to do well at this tournament, this week is just another (awesome) step in building our team and our program.  We’re still a relatively young team and we’re anxious to carve a permanent place for ourselves among the nation’s elite.  To view our roster and read more about our team’s mission, please visit our new website at: http://showdownultimate.com.  Family, friends, and fans- we love you and appreciate your support!