written by Chip

Over Spring Break, the UCSD Psychos flew to Austin, Texas to attend the largest college women's tournament, Centex. With games on Saturday and Sunday at the University of Texas, Austin, this was the last regular season tournament before the start of the College Series playoffs. Huge thanks to Michelle Ng, Texas Ultimate, and Without Limits for hosting another successful Centex Tournament. Saturday started off with pool play games in the Division II bracket against Colorado Kali, Virginia Hydras, and Texas A&M Stacked.

Ranked 3rd in our pool, our first game was against Kali, ranked 1st in our pool. With record heat and gusty winds on Saturday, we struggled on offense making key mistakes that eventually added up to cost us the game. The Psychos were slow to start Saturday's games and while defense was successful in forcing key turnovers by Kali, offense was unable to capitalize. Kali took half, reached cap, and took the win 4-10.

The next game was against the Virginia Hydras. Showing great spirit of the game and enthusiasm, the Hydras played a strong offensive game. We continued to struggle on offense with simple throwing and catching. This ultimately hurt us as we failed to move the disc up the field for a score. While weather did play a role in gameplay, in the end, key drops and throwaways cost us the game 1-15. Virginia had an effective cup that dominated both downwind and upwind. The Psychos also played a strong zone defense, but couldn't close out on the red-zone.

Up next was a game against Texas A&M, ranked 4th in our pool. After coming off a huge win against Kali, Stacked came motivated and fired up. By the third game our offense started to flow and our defense continued to keep us in the game. Effective handler movement shutdown Stacked's zone defense, forcing them to play man defense against our stack. After trading points throughout the game, Stacked took half by two points. A neck and neck game, the Psychos continued to pressure Stacked and kept scoring points. Unfazed, however, Stacked responded with points and the key difference in this game was while we were unable to convert on the end-zone, Texas A&M was able to capitalize. Stacked took the game 8-12.

The last game of the day was a cross-over game with Rice University. In humid and heat in the 90's, it started to drizzle the first few points of the game. Rice continued to hold a lead, but offense started responding with several points. One possession scores, great flow on offense, and key plays kept us in the game. Down only two points against Mis Red, our offense tapered off and we were unable to respond, losing the game 9-15.

After an unsuccessful day on Saturday, we were now playing in the Division III Bracket. The heat took a toll on the team, but our main problem lay with simple catching and throwing. Sunday's games were played at a field 40 minutes from the University of Texas and here, the weather was drastically different. With stronger winds, it was significantly colder - a weather the Psychos are familiar with this season.

We started off the first game with intensity, beating the University of South Florida. There were significantly fewer drops on offense and USF was unable to break our effective zone defense and cup. With strong winds, the Psychos opted for a huck offense, which was extremely successful, giving us our first win of the weekend 14-3. With a win, the Psychos moved onto Division III semifinals, facing Stanford-B. While Stanford-B was able to rally after half, scoring more points, a strong lead early in the game gave us our second win. The wind started to pick up and a zone defense and huck offense were key in this 10-5 victory.

After two wins, our last game was for the Division III Championships against USC. The Hellions are a strong team, qualifying for Nationals last year, and beat us at Pres Day Invite a month earlier. The wind played a major role as we traded points downwind. USC did score a point upwind, but we were able to respond with another point upwind and took a two-point lead before half. Hoping to reach cap, strong winds forced both teams to play zone defense resulting in marathon points that lasted for 20 minutes. Playing through soft cap, hard cap went off during universe point. Tied at 8-8, the Hellions and Psychos turned the disc over several times before either team could score to take the Championship. In the end, a more experienced USC team eventually scored on offense and the Psychos lost a hard-fought game, 8-9.

We took 2nd place in Division III and with huge upsets throughout the entire tournament, the results of Centex were not what was expected for the Psychos as we failed to hold seed. With Conference Championships around the corner, we have a few weeks to regroup before playoffs - which will determine if we will qualify for Nationals this year.

written by Chip

After breaking seed at Pres Day, the Psychos made the 8 hour drive to Stevinson, CA for Stanford Open as last year's defending Champions. A-team was placed in the power pool on Saturday, facing Victoria, Pacific Lutheran, and Humboldt State; B-team faced Chico State, Occidental, and Stanford-B.

Playing in the afternoon pool, our first game was against Pacific Lutheran, last year's D-III Champions. The Psychos were slow to start and with shortened time caps, Pacific Lutheran's early lead held as the Psychos were able to score the last point on hard cap, but lost 5-8. With strong winds throughout the day, our zone defense was highly effective, causing several turnovers, but we were unable to convert on the red-zone and missed several opportunities to capitalize on offense.

Our next game was against Victoria, a team from Canada. Victoria took half and scored one point in the second half before the Psychos made the best comeback this season. Down 2-8, the Psychos rallied with an inspiration line and scored 8 straight points. Victoria didn't see the end zone against San Diego's dominating 4-man cup defense and the Psychos reached cap to secure the game, 10-8.

With one more game left, our last game was against Humboldt State, a team we lost to at Pres Day Invite. A win in this game determined if we would have to play an extra game in pre-quarters the next day. Again, we fell behind as Humboldt took half, but came back strong and score 5 straight points to tie the game at 8. Zone defense dominated the field once again, forcing key turnovers against Humboldt. As cap was called, it was universe point - the Psychos versus the Hags. Starting on defense, cup forced a turnover, but we were unable to convert on offense so Humboldt had another chance to score. Once again, our zone defense forced another turnover, but this time we scored in the end zone to win on universe. However, a controversial call by Humboldt after play had stopped stole the win as Humboldt argued a questionable stall and then called a turnover. Humboldt scored after this controversial turn and took the game on universe, 8-9.

Placing 3rd in the power pool, games the next day started with cross-town rivals, San Diego State. Games started at 8 am and it was less windy than Saturday, but frost and ice covered the fields. After scoring several points on State, we were unable to hold onto our lead and lost 10-13. This forced us out of the Championship bracket, losing a shot for the Championships.

The next game was against Cal Poly SLO and after winning 13-9, the Psychos played for 9th place against UC Davis, a team we've played countless times and traded wins with this season. After a long weekend, Davis dug deep and beat us 8-12. After a long weekend, we took 10th place and came up short, but with a few weeks before our next tournament in Austin, Texas, the Psychos will be ready to come back strong as the college season playoffs approach.

First and foremost, a huge thanks goes out to Imli, our Tournament Director, and Michelle Ng for helping create this tournament and making it all possible. And another huge thanks to all our sponsors for the weekend. Taking place from February 19th to the 21st,  our 3-day home tournament, Presidents' Day Invitational, was threatened by a forecast of heavy rain and rained-out on-campus fields. This forced us to relocate the first day of Pres Day Invite to the backup fields in San Bernardino. Seeded 19th overall, the Psychos started off pool play with a game against the Michigan Flywheels. Unable to stop Michigan's deep plays, the Psychos lost 5-13 to the 6th seed.

After taking a short bye, our next pool play opponent was Chaos. After losing to Western Washington on universe point last year at Pres Day Invite, we were seeking redemption. As Chaos took halftime, they were able to widen their lead by two points at 8-6. After making key plays on defense, UCSD rallied on offense tying the game at 8. Chaos was then able to score the next point after soft gap, which meant the game would end with the first team to reach a score of 10. Under pressure and on game point, the Psychos came back with a quick score on offense, tying the game 9-9. On universe point, we started on defense, but forced a key turnover and with a quick offensive transition, a huck from Agave and a downfield score from Blitz in the end-zone, secured the win, ending the game 10-9. After forcing key turnovers on defense and rallying on offense while down, we broke seed.

With the weather in San Bernardino fairly sunny, our next game was against the 3rd seeded Wisconsin Bella Donnas. After trading points in the beginning of the game, Wisconsin was able to take half with a strong lead. As it began to rain, the Psychos opted for an effective huck offense, which allowed us to score several points. But unfortunately, the more experienced Wisconsin team took the win with a 12-5 score.

As the rain died down, we had one more bye before facing our last opponent for the day, UCLA. While warming up, the wind started to pick up and in addition to the rain, it began to hail. Regardless, the games went on and as it poured, each point became longer and longer. Unable to grasp a firm grip on the disc, there were constant turnovers from both teams. Eventually, BLU was able to pull out a decisive 11-3 victory in the rain.

The next day, games were held back on campus and split between the RIMAC, Warren, and Muir fields. Playing in a more familiar sunny weather, our first game was against the USC Hellions. After costly turnovers in the red zone, the Hellions were able to capitalize on our mistakes and took half. The Psychos played a better second half, but a successful zone defense wasn't enough as we were unable to convert in the end-zone. Although we rallied in the second half, the Hellions reached cap with an 8-13 win.

The next game was against Ottawa, a team from Canada who we haven't played against in years. Again, defense played extremely well, but turns on offense hurt us as Ottawa took the game, 6-13. The last game of the day was against Humboldt State, a team that had to qualify for the tournament. After the Hags took a three point lead, our effective zone defense, led by Joule, shut down their main handlers - forcing incomplete hucks and turnovers on our end-zone. As the game progressed, we took a 10-8 lead and looked to close out the game by reaching cap at 12, but the Hags rallied, refusing to give up and scored 4 points in a row. They closed out the game, 10-12.

A win against Humboldt would have put us in contention for the 13th place bracket, but with the loss, we were forced to play for 17th place. With only two games on the third and final day of Pres Day, our first game was against UC Davis. The Psychos had played the Pleiades during Santa Barbara Invite earlier this year and lost in a heartbreaking game on universe point. Fueled by redemption, the Psychos set the tempo on offense, scoring on breaks and converting points on the red zone. Although Davis was able to score a callahan on the first point, our zone defense shut down their offense, taking away the deep option and forcing turns. Our offense improved from the previous days having significantly fewer turnovers in the end zone. With a pumped up sideline we continued our momentum throughout the second half, and although the Pleiades threatened to tie the game, we closed out the game with a decisive 13-10 win.

Carrying the momentum from a win against Davis, we played Colorado State, determined to win. With a windier field this game, the Psychos capitalized on the Hell's Belles drops and successfully converted points in the red zone. After dominating the first half 7-1, the Psychos continued to score quick breaks on offense and forced several turnovers with a dominant zone defense. Colorado State continued to fight, scoring 6 more points in the second half, but wasn't enough for a San Diego team, determined to end the tournament with a win. The Psychos took 17th place with a 13-7 win, ending Pres Day Invite by breaking seed.

Official tournament photos can be found here

More photos can be found here

After an unexpected bid drop, UC San Diego's self-hosted tournament, Pres Day Qualifiers was left with 15 teams. Held on February 5-6th, Pres Day Quals is a tournament for Berserk, but UCSD's A-team also participated to fill the void. However, the Psychos only played in Saturday's pool play as to give teams a fair chance at qualifying during elimination play on Sunday.

It was a great weekend for Berserk's first home tournament. In the first game Saturday morning, Berserk encountered a tough clam defense by Humboldt State, the team that eventually went on to win the Qualifier. Undeterred by Humboldt's intense defense, Berserk played a strong zone which continued to improve throughout the rest of the day in games against Claremont and Redlands.

Sunday saw Berserk playing both of Cal's B teams, winning the last game of the weekend against Cal B-X on Sunday afternoon. Berserk's defense really shined this weekend as new players literally stepped up to get important run-through d's and did a great job setting the hardest marks the team had seen all season. Especially memorable were Slush's layout d's, beautiful hucks from all of our handlers, and watching our rookies' field sense and decision-making get better and better. The whole team is ready to work hard and continue growing at practice, and Berserk is looking forward to its next tournament later this month.

The Psychos' first opponent on Saturday was Stanford B. UCSD got to a slow start, giving Pterafly multiple opportunities to tie the game. However, the Psychos quick-start offense and consistent defense gave UCSD a 10-8 win.

Seeking redemption after a previous loss against CSU Long Beach No Regrets during Santa Barbara Invite, and an unsettling slow performance during the previous game, the Psychos rallied against No Regrets pulling a decisive 11-1 win. UCSD's efficient box plus one defense shut down No Regret's captain and key player, completely shutting down their offense and preventing a huck game.

UC San Diego then went on to sweep pool play with an 11-7 win against the UC Irvine Grass Ninjas, a team the Psychos have constantly faced. With San Diego's infamous cup, a highly effective zone defense, the Psychos were able to stop Irvine's offense, immobilizing the deep game. This victory was, however, not without cost as one of the returning handlers was injured during a point and unable to return. After an extremely successful tournament for the Psychos, UC San Diego watched as Humboldt State upset #2 Claremont, and picked up a 15-10 win against Cal Poly SLO in the finals, earning a free bid to Pres Day Invite.

The Psychos started off the 2011 season with the Santa Barbara Invite Tournament and ended it on a high note. With pool play on Saturday, the Psychos first played UCLA-B and won 11-6. As the day progressed, the next game was against UC Davis. UCSD was slow to start against UCLA-B, but wasted no time on offense and scored quick points with some great flow. After half-time, we were down 9-10, but scored to tie the game at 10-10. Now, it was universe point. Starting off on offense, UCSD was unfortunately unable to capitalize and lost in a tough, well-fought game to Davis, 10-11.

With a short bye, the host team, UC Santa Barbara, were our next opponents. Ranked 2nd in the tournament and placing 2nd in the nation last season, the Burning Skirts made big plays and beat the Psychos with their hucks to the end-zone and deep cuts, 5-13. 

The next morning, the Psychos started off the second day with a game against CSU Long Beach, No Regrets. After exchanging points during the first half, No Regrets was able to take half by two points at 8-6 with deep cuts to the end-zone. The Psychos responded with a couple points and tightened Long Beach's lead by one point at 9-10. But key turnovers and confusion on running defense hurt us and Long Beach was able to reach the cap, leaving us with a 9-12 loss. After an unfortunate loss and a 1-3 record, we rallied in our next game against UC Berkeley-B. 

We were constantly improving throughout the weekend and it showed in our game against the Pie Tarts. The Psychos were able to score quick points on offense and made key plays on defense that caused turnovers, ending in a second win for the Psychos, 12-6.

With one more game left, the Psychos used their momentum from their previous game to rally for a win against cross-town rival, San Diego State. After scoring the first four points, our 4-man cup in zone shut down State's offense. There was a huge improvement in everyone's game. Everyone played more aggressive and fought for every disc in the air. One play that deserves to be mentioned was when Melissa "Gryllz" Lee d'ed the disc then layed out for a Callahan. We constantly improved throughout the tournament, and with a combination of perfectly timed cuts and throws, we ended the season with a huge 15-5 win against the Cha Chas and ended SB Invite 3-3.

written by Maple

The weekend of January 15th and 16th 2011, UCSD's Berserk went to Santa Barbara to attempt to qualify for the Santa Barbara Invitational the following weekend. Psycho B, also called Berserk, played six games over the course of the weekend, with four on Saturday and two on Sunday. On Saturday we played UC Irvine, UC Davis-B, UC Santa Barbara, and SDSU, losing all four games. On Sunday we played USC-B and Stanford-B, winning the game against USC and losing to Stanford. Overall it was a great learning experience for everyone, especially for the girls who just joined this year. The weekend was also a great improvement compared to previous years; this is the first time in three years that the Psycho B team has won a game at this specific tournament. Good job Psycho B!

written by Chip

The Psychos are proud to announce a new partnership with VC Ultimate, and along with Without Limits, we hope to continue the long standing tradition that is Pres Day and bring you the most competitive and exciting tournament of the year. Check back for details and find out more about Pres Day Invite and the Qualifier here:

www.presday.wordpress.com

With the cancellation of SoCal Warm-Up, due to rainy conditions and closed fields, the Psychos opened their returner-only tournament, BRO Life, to rookies, allowing for more playing time before A-Team and B-Team splits and the start of winter quarter. But with the start of finals week right after the weekend, only a handful of players could come leaving the Psychos to play with 11 on Saturday. Huge props to CSU Long Beach, No Regrets and Patricia "Igloo" Anderson for hosting BRO Life and for winning the tournament. Even though the Psych-Bros, the returning champions from last year, fell short, it was a fun tournament where we got to dress up in muscle tees, sweatbands, crew socks, and act like bros all weekend, bro.

Saturday half the team, so... 5 of us, arrived 20 minutes before the start of the first game and warmed up by spiking the disc in the end-zone. Our warmup was definitely unique, not sure if we warmed up from it though... We started our first game against UC Berkeley-Y. After falling behind, the Psychos were able to rally at the end, but ran out of time before we could make a huge comeback. We struggled on running defense, but as the game progressed our offense started looking better and we were able to work up the score to 8-12.

As our next game against Irvine started, so did the rain. There were uncharacteristic drops due to the rain, but the Psychos were still able to take a strong lead. However, Irvine was able to catch up and tie the game 6-6. Going into soft cap and hard cap, the Psychos played for a straight 25 minutes on universe point and were finally able to capitalize on the red zone and score to win the game 7-6. With only a 4 minute break, our next game was against a well rested host team. Falling behind 2-1, we were able to infiltrate Long Beach's box defense. However, with only 4 subs and long huckfest points, LB pulled out a 9-6 win.

Again, the Psychos had a 5 minute break before playing our crosstown rivals, San Diego State. After playing three long games, we were exhausted and sore, making uncharacteristic mistakes and rushed decisions. Ending in an 8-13 loss, our offense and defense looked better during the second half.

The next day, more people drove up to Long Beach giving us 16 players. Our first game was against the other Cal team. At 6-7, we called a strong line in hopes of tying the game 7-7 before hard cap. Unfortunately, we fell short and Cal secured the game when they scored 6-8. Ending the game in a 6-9 loss, our last game was against Redlands. After trading off points, we were able to take the lead at 8-7. Towards the end of soft gap, scoring the next point would secure our win. Redlands rallied to tie the game at 8-8, then scored the next point to secure their victory.

Whether it was something about running d or spirit, after a hard fought weekend, everyone learned a lot after this tournament. For many of the rookies, they experienced their first tournament of their career and for the returners, well, we all learned how to be more bro-like.


More photos can be found here: http://changy12.smugmug.com/Ultimate/College

written by Chip

The Psychos are now teaming up with Without Limits to host one of the most competitive tournaments for Women's College ultimate. Information about our annual Pres Day Invite Tournament can be found here, along with information about Pres Day Qualifiers and requests for a bid.


http://presday.wordpress.com/

After coming back from Santa Cruz, the bruises and sore muscles from the Sean Ryan Memorial Tournament aren't as painful when you break seed. This past weekend the Psychos drove up to Santa Cruz and with terrible directions from Google Maps, it seemed as if everyone got lost. Being the first to arrive at 11:30pm, the last car eventually came in around 3:30am and we were all grateful for one thing, having a late morning game at 11:30.

We hit the fields pumped for our first game against UCLA, a team we constantly face throughout the season and compete with for a bid to Nationals. Walking towards the field blasting music from Reboot, Santa Cruz knew the Psychos were there. Playing our first game under windy conditions, UCLA threw a strategic zone defense and caught us off guard. We hadn't practiced zone during practice so it was the first time the rookies saw this type of defense and the first time many of us played against zone since the end of the last season. Eventually we were able to create some flow on the offense, but scored too late as UCLA took the game 14-4. We also called a rookie line for the last point and even though we didn't score, our rookies dominated and made us all proud.

Our second game was against the host team, UC Santa Cruz. Carrying the momentum from the first game, we kept an open rotation and threw in an Inspiration Line once soft cap was called. Down 5-7, we hoped to score 2 quick points in order to force Sol into universe point. Unfortunately, Sol also played a strong line and after trading turnovers and d's, hard cap went off before we were able to score and the game ended 6-7.

Even though we were unable to beat Santa Cruz, there was a significant improvement from the first game and the Psychos were able to carry this momentum into the third game, beating Cal Poly SLO 12-8. There were so many sick plays this game. One that still stands out is when Tikka, a rookie, laid out in the endzone for a score!

The next morning, we fought in the Consolation bracket for 9th (out of 16) place. Our first opponent was California-BY and after we scored the first four points, they were able to score 4 against us tying the game at 4-4. But after an inspirational talk during timeout, we took half after scoring 4 more points and didn't look back, reaching cap at 15-5. On defense we were able to cause turnovers and worked together to get team d's, while creating flow on offense and capitalizing on Cal's turnovers through patiently working our way down the field and into the endzone.

Psyched after winning our game, San Diego State was next. After falling behind 8-3, we were able to rally after half, but fell short to a 13-8 loss. Nevertheless, after an exhausting tournament, we continued to fight throughout our last game, which was once again against SLO. Conditions were extremely windy, and after SLO scored the first two, we scored the next two and kept trading points until soft cap went off. The Psychos rallied and scored on an upwind break and took the lead 8-7, and scored on a downwind point ending the tournament in a 9-7 victory.

Coached by our two captains, the Psychos broke seed ending the tournament in 11th place. With only four A-team returners, many B-team returners and eight rookies, Sean Ryan was both rewarding and successful. As the tournament went on, there was a huge improvement and it was yet again another great learning experience for the preseason. The next tournament will be our self-hosted SoCal Warm-Up in less then a week.


(More photos can be found here)