written by Chip
A highly anticipated tournament, Centex is our last tournament of the season before we kick off the College Series with Sectionals. With finals week behind us and spring break underway, the Psychos flew to Austin, TX to compete in one of the most important spring college tournaments. Huge thanks to J Leon and his daughter for hosting our team and letting us occupy the house. Another thanks goes out to Michelle Ng, Without Limits, Texas Ultimate, and all those involved in making Centex another great tournament.

We got to the fields Saturday late morning, ranked 2nd in our pool. Ranked 8th in Division II and 24th overall, our first game was against MIT. We started off strong and after trading points with MIT, we were able to take a lead and hold onto it, winning the game 13-10. Where we normally come out flat and tired, during our first game we came pumped up and played with intensity. The difference showed in our game against MIT and we carried it into our next game against Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Again, we traded points for a bit against Eau Claire, but by minimizing our mistakes and adjusting our defense, we took half and the win 15-4. Offense looked solid as both cutters and handlers dominated play. Our last game of pool play was against Rice, they were ranked 1st in our pool and we lost to them in crossovers last year. Initially, we started off flat. Points were long and brutal. There was also an injury that ate up about 15 minutes of play - best wishes to the Rice player, who made a sideline appearance at the end of the game. Glad to know she was okay. Though we took half, we realized our intensity from the beginning of the day had disappeared. But everyone took initiative and sideline was huge this weekend, but particularly in this game, in bringing up our intensity. After half, Rice went on a streak, but we kept our composure and kept playing our game. We won with cap at, 12-9.

We broke seed and placed 1st in our pool and 1st in Division II. Our last game of the day was a crossover game against Virginia to determine who would play in Division I the next day. Virginia, who lost every game in pool play on universe point, came out strong. We scored the first point, but Virginia kept pressing on. Our defense looked sluggish and our offense became sloppy. We were unable to convert our D's into points. Hydra was able to capitalize on our turnovers, taking half 2-8 and then reaching cap at 6-15. It was disheartening making it as the first seed in pool play and then losing in our crossover, but we learned from our mistakes and took those lessons into our games the next day.

Games started at 8:15am and with tournament fatigue from the day before, we came out slow. But we quickly changed our mentality, and with our adjusted defense, we were successful in stopping Georgia's huck offense. We worked it down on offense, opening up our deep threat and took the game 11-7.

Our next game was against USC, a team we've played the past 3 tournaments. It was a close game and after USC took a 4 point lead, we were unable to come back before soft cap and lost 9-11 in D-II quarterfinals. Our last game would determine 5th place in D-II. We started off Centex with a game against MIT and would end it against MIT. This time, we started off strong, took half, and never looked back. With a 14-5 win against MIT, it was time for Spring Break.

Overall, Centex was a pretty successful tournament. Our flow and chemistry this tournament was the best we've had this entire year. With a few more tweaks and improvements, these next few practices will be crucial as we vie for a spot to Nationals.