Squid Ice Results

2005-2006 Season

Trouble in Vegas
February 11-13
Squids finished tied for 7th

Squids 12, Cornell 8
Squids 13, Georgia Tech 6
British Columbia 13, Squids 11
UC Santa Barbara 11, Squids 10
Squids 13, Northwestern 8
Squids 12, Arizona 6
Squids 10, Texas 9
Florida 13, Squids 6
Colorado 10, Squids 8

Trouble in Vegas was a 3 day tournament that featured 22 of the top 25 teams in the nation, with 64 men’s teams overall. The UCSD Air Squids entered the tourney ranked 6, though this early in the year the rankings are not completely representative. The format of the tournament was very confusing but ended up being effective. The field started with 8 brackets of 8 teams each, and each bracket would give 3 games per team. The teams finished 1 through 8 in each bracket, and these rankings carried over into the Sunday games where 8 new brackets of 8 were formed with teams being scattered to play new opponents according to their performance. These Sunday brackets were then played just like the Saturday ones, and the top 16 teams were then put into the championship bracket for Monday.

The Squids started off the tournament on Saturday against Cornell, an unfamiliar opponent. We came out firing, and took a commanding lead in the game, and although we started to settle into mediocre play in the second half, we still won comfortably, and took the first step to a championship. The second game was Georgia Tech, and again the team changed their play from the previous tournament and came out scoring quickly. Approaching halftime, Georgia Tech started to fight back, and the score even became 7-6 early in the second half. The Squids proceeded to score 6 straight and take the game by storm, winning 13 to 6 and carrying momentum into the biggest game of the day.

British Columbia, or UBC for short, is one of the teams that the Squids have historically had trouble against, and we knew that this meeting would be a difficult fight the entire way. We came out playing great and went up big, with the score getting to 5-2 in our favor in not much time. Though we had just had yet another superb first half, our second half again became our problem, and we let UBC get back into the game with momentum. They eventually took advantage of huge turnovers and were able to end with a come-from-behind victory, giving them 1st place in the bracket while we settled for 2nd.

Based on the finishes from the first brackets of 8, we fittingly were pitted against the close sectional rivals from UC Santa Barbara. After a long day so far, this game was going to be a struggle, but we still held form and came out with a strong first half. The second half was again our weakness, and Santa Barbara pulled the game close enough to get to 10-10, at double-game-point (meaning that the next and final point would determine the winner). Though we played hard defense, we couldn’t stop a great offensive point and lost a heart-breaker.

Going into Sunday we knew we would start by playing Northwestern, and we came out realizing how important a win would be for our championship aspirations. We played a solid game against a small team, and stayed fresh for the next, very important game. Arizona, the team that pulled the upset win over us just 2 weekends before, was our next opponent, and we were determined not to lose to this team again. We put together two incredibly strong halves and really kept them out of the game, winning 12-6 and proving that we are still one of the dominant southwest teams.

Our third and final game of the day was our first elimination game of the tournament against a Texas team that was looking for redemption after losing to us in our previous meeting, last year at Nationals. With both teams having similar styles of play, we knew this would be a dogfight the entire hour and a half, as it definitely was. We got out to a quick lead, but after Texas brought the game back to within a point, we just alternated points with the score never being far apart at all. Finally we got a break late in the game and when time was about to run out, we took a 2 point lead. The horn signifying “last point” then rang, and we knew we had won the game. Texas scored the final point, but it was unimportant, and now the Squids were one of the 8 teams still alive heading into Monday.

In the third and final day of the tournament, we played with a smaller-than-usual team against a tough Florida opponent. Although we did not put up our best showing in this game, we know that we have the ability to beat them down the road when we are at full strength. Unfortunately we were now out of championship contention, but we had to focus on playing Colorado, a regional rival, next. Playing now with only 12 guys from our 23-man roster we put up a great fight against Colorado, and the game was tied or very close all the way up to the end. Even though they finished on top, we showed that the southwest region is still up for grabs, losing incredibly close games to the two regional rivals where anything can happen later in the season.

Rather than playing Arizona again to figure out 7th and 8th place, both teams decided to not play the game and just settle in a tie for 7th. Overall it was a great tournament and we showed that we had made a great deal of improvement, even in the past 2 weeks. Our next tournament will be in early March up at Stanford where we look forward to some great competition with an even better team.

Santa Barbara Invite 2006

Saturday
Game 1: Squids 13, Humboldt St. 9

Starting off the first tournament of the year, the Squids came out slower than hoped, and made the first game an uphill climb from the beginning. Humboldt got out to an early lead partially because of some extreme anxiety and lack of concentration during our first few points. Once we realized that this game was not going to be as easy as we had originally thought, the Squids started to clean up our act, and we went into half only down 7-6. The second half is where the team began to show its true colors, dominating Humboldt 7-2. We got the first-game-jitters out and were prepared to make the next game a much better overall performance.

Game 2: Squids 13, Stanford B 7

Knowing that the opponent was a b-team and the lowest seed of the pool, the Squids did not bring the intensity of a major game, and again it showed. The first half had a lot of trading points, with Stanford getting a few long scores to make the first half only 7-5 in favor of UCSD. What started to become a trend was that the Squids got down to business in the second half, and in this case, really shut down the Stanford offense. Our offense continued to clean itself up somewhat in a 6-2 second half that once more appeared to be the start of some momentum into the next game.

Game 3: Arizona 11, Squids 10

This game was clearly going to be the biggest game of the day for both teams, and Arizona came out fired up looking for an upset. We again came out slow, as the opponents got out to an early lead, and our fundamentals seemed to be one of the biggest struggles. Arizona took the first half after the Squids squandered several huge end zone opportunities, and the second half was a tight battle. With time stating to run out in the game, Arizona extended its lead, and the sense of urgency came quickly for us. Arizona was up 10-8 in a game to 11 when the Squids scored with relative ease and then got some big defensive help to create a turnover and another score, making the count now 10-10 and bringing on a double-game-point, which means sudden death. The Squids came out strong on defense, but unfortunately fell just short as Arizona scored to one of their big men to get the upset victory.

Game 4: Squids 13, Duke 8

The fourth and final game of the day would determine who would be heading into the winners’ bracket on Sunday, so the sense of urgency was slightly higher. However, the game started out with each team just trading points until the Squids jumped out to a small lead to take half. The second half, though favoring UCSD, was fairly uneventful, and the Squids finished the day with a win, ending a decent but disappointing Saturday with a 3-1 record. The team went into the night knowing that the morning would bring the best ranked team of the tournament in Stanford’s A-team, and that the mental focus and preparation would have to improve greatly.

Sunday
Game 5: Stanford 14, Squids 13

The morning started with the biggest game of the tournament yet, as #1 ranked Stanford took on #2 ranked UCSD. Both teams’ preparations were intense, but unfortunately Stanford was the team that came out firing first, with a quick 2-0 lead. The Squids, however, fought back, tied the score quickly, and stayed right with Stanford for the rest of the first half. We had many chances to jump out to a lead, but made some fundamental mistakes that kept the game extremely close. The second half again brought some huge defense by the Squids, and with the score 11-10 in favor of Stanford, the team finally put it all together to get 3 straight points and take a 13-11 lead with time running out. Stanford came from behind, though, and tied the game up at 13-13 with the game coming to the second double-game-point for the Squids this weekend. The team started on offense, but could not beat Stanford or the strong headwind, and lost the game in a very tough fashion. We were knocked out of contention, and now had to focus on improving in our consolation games.

Game 6: Squids 13, Las Positas College 12

Coming off of the crushing defeat the round before, the Squids wanted to show again how dominant of a team we could be. Unfortunately this game was another sign that we have been playing to the level of our opponents, and the game proved to be another struggle. We were down but close for most of the game against Los Positas, and it took a strong surge towards the end of the game to actually come out with a win. One of the biggest problems with this game was that it became apparent that injuries were starting to add up and that the team was not at all at full strength. Still, the Squids continued to show how we can make adjustments and come out strong in the second half, and we finally got a win in yet another double-game-point.

Game 7: Colorado St. 13, Squids 12

With a large amount of the team out for the last game of the tournament, the guys that were still able to play were out there to gain some good experience. Colorado St. was yet another team who was able to jump out quickly on us and make the game an uphill battle. Our younger players and remaining healthy veterans were really able to step up into bigger roles than what they were used to, and our banged up team was able to put up a strong performance. We lost on yet another double-game-point, but were not too disappointed considering the fact that the team at this point was not indicative of what to expect for the rest of the year. It was a difficult end to a tough tournament, but the team now knows where it needs to improve, and is looking forward to a strong showing in Las Vegas.


UPA Results Page

Regionals - May 7 - Colorado Springs, CO

Sectionals was really wierd. We had a ton of turnovers and didnt really have a good defensive gameplan.

Semi-finals
Squids 14 UCSB 11
But that all changed because we set up a rock-solid gameplan for regionals. Santa Barbara has 1-2 good throwers and the rest are crappy. So we let their best guy, Johnny, get his throws off (which he did) and then we instantly went into dump defense and had our fastest guys on him denying the reset (which is what their whole game is). This basically allowed us to make their second teir throwers try and keep the disc alive by breaking to Johnny or taking the shots downfield. We got about 8 handblocks and footblocks and made their normally patient offense panic. In the first game, the semi-finals, we went down 2-4 and then locked in by great defense by Chucky on Johnny. Next thing you know we are up 7-4 and rolling. At this point the wind is still a pretty steady 25 miles an hour (we heard from local coverage from a air force baseball game) with gusts as hard as i remember from regionals '02. From that point on we showed a mix of clam, box , 4-man and man that kept them from getting into a groove. With the hard cap on and us winnig 14-10 we get scorred on and win (kind of weak but oh well).

Finals
Squids 8 Colorado 15
We play Colorado and take the wrong approach, with about 10 throw aways in the first 5 points we are down 0-5 and pack it in. We use the rest of the game to sure up our offense and get ready for the big game.

Backdoor Finals
Squids 15 UCSB 9
We went into the second Tide game with the same gameplan and were really fired up. We went up 3-0 and never looked back. We were really patient when we got the turnovers from them and Big Mike scored a lot (at least 5). Their only answer was desperation hucks to Asa ( a shorter but good reciever) who brought down about 5 on closely guarded goals. We had a ridiculously low # of turnovers in a day with barely any serious wind and rolled to a, dare I say, second easy win of the weekend. The score doesnt give justice to how one sided these games were. For the last goal, we work it up the field after getting a turn, and move the disc very fast with mostly incuts. About five yards out of our goal, Jaws gets it, and sees Wormser cutting to the front cone on the open side. An easy backhand to a speeding Wormser, and we secure our bid to Nationals. The entire Squid team, both Ice and Lite rush the field celebrating, spinning shirts over our heads, throwing whatever we can in the air and jumping on each other. An awesome moment.

Piggy Back - March 26 - College Station, TX

The wind both days was the worst the team has seen all year, and on Sunday especially the weather was so cold that almost everybody was wearing several layers under their uniforms.

Saturday Games

Squids 12, Texas 10
The beginning of the game had only downwind points, though we were much more of a threat going upwind than Texas, who couldn’t move the disc at all on a turn. Then at about 4-4, we finally scored upwind, and ended up taking half with a nice lead. With the score about 10-5ish, Texas started to make a surge, and with several upwind scores, got the score to 11-10, at which time the hard cap came on. We held off their comeback efforts, however, and put the game away with a crucial downwind score. One third of Texas down, two thirds to go.

Squids 13, Ohio State 5
After losing a double-game point the weekend before to these guys, we came out fired up and never looked back. Kenny, the Ohio State hot head, was a non-factor in this game, and unlike the game before against Texas, we never let the other team get momentum. The game ended with a sweet lay-out callahan by Wormser on a wobbly upside-down disc in the corner of the end zone.

Squids 14, Carleton 13
After we scored the first point downwind and found out that Carleton was winless so far, we thought we could cruise through the game, but quickly learned otherwise. Carleton scored and then got an upwind break, and maintained a 2 or 3 point lead for almost the entire game, where they even took half 8-6 and then received going downwind to start the second half. With the anticipation of the horn blowing, we even cut short our scoring celebrations and did everything we could to stay in the game. With only 6 minutes until the horn, we were going upwind with the score 13-11, and we get the upwind break and then score again downwind to tie the game just about the time the hard cap goes on. A big D on their half of the field by Stukel, of course a lay-out D, leads to an upwind score and a HUGE comeback victory. Oh, and Wormser got another callahan!

Texas A&M 13, Squids 12
A rematch against the two-man team that we lost to at Centex proved to have a similar outcome, and the tall #14 on A&M constantly found a way to help his team. We were playing sloppy at times with too many end zone turnovers, but were at least still making adjustments to our box and cup. The hard cap just so happened to blow right before we scored to make it 13-12, leading to another frustrating one-point loss to this team we know we can beat. Still not getting this third of Texas.

Saturday pool play still showed improvement from the weekend before, and Wormser was unstoppable, scoring at least a third of our points and getting 2 callahans!

Sunday Games

Wisconsin 14, Squids 7
With the temperature in the 40s and incredibly strong wind gusts, we came out looking good, but Wisconsin grabbed the lead after a couple of points back and forth, and after taking half 8-4, really clamped down on defense. Some of our biggest problems this game were the fact that their cup really trapped us on the sidelines, we let off too many hucks when they were going upwind, and we had too many turnovers close to our end zone when going downwind. Our defense was making some adjustments that helped, taking advantage of the wind, and learning from the Texas A&M game the day before, but we just could not run our offense like we’re used to.

As we’re getting ready for our most important game of the weekend against Black Tide, they come over and tell us that they only have 7 guys that can play and so they can’t play us. They throw out the idea of playing a mixed squad game, so pretty much we didn’t let Tide score on us!

Instead of playing Tide, we warm up for a while and play North Texas, who was supposed to be out afternoon game. The problem was that all other teams at the tournament had already left, including the hosts Texas A&M. I think we agreed to play a game to 11 or so, but we dominated the game and UNT just called the game at half. Our end zone celebrations might have had something to do with them wanting to stop. We still definitely own this third of Texas.

Overall, we were the last team standing! Highlights of Sunday included Dar and Nos combining efforts and knocking heads to get a callahan and Dollar getting so many Ds on failed hucks. “Chug Chug…Water Jug!”

College Centex - March 19 - Austin, TX

Nice fields, lots of good teams. Really great weather except in round 4 of pool play*.
Slight breeze, not too sunny, comfortable temperatures. Pretty ideal.

Sat Pool Play

Lost to NC State 14 15.
At one point we were down 8-4ish from terrible throwaways in some fairly minor wind. We fought off maybe 2 or 3 game points for NC State. We pulled on double game point, got a D in our endzone. Then moved it around and swung some. Then a dropped incut on our own goalline was the turnover they needed to put it in for the game. First DGP of many for us this tournament.

Won 13 - 12 against UW.
We came out really strong, and got a very comfortable lead. Put in some younger guys for some PT, and did well enough to maintain the lead. I'm not sure if we were ever down, but did have another nail biter double game point.

Lost to Tex. A&M 15 - 14.
Basically a two man team as we saw from the first point. One really good receiver brought down well over half their goals. We certainly had chances to win. Dropped the game winner in their endzone at like 13 or 14. I was pretty upset that we could not defend against a two man team. Another DGP game.

Won Georgia Tech 7 - 3 ****
This game was called in the middle of due to a lightning storm that was making its way to the fields. We were really killing them, as they were the low seed in our pool. Our first years were getting in PT and still scoring. We take half, pull, then get a D and start working it back down the field to make it 8 -3 when the lightning alert goes off. As it turns out, this round gets cancelled because of the lightning, and we lose a very valueable W to our record, which ends up sticking us in the C bracket, even though the other teams got to count their win against GT. Stinks.

Lost to Wisconson 13 - 7.
Personally I didn't think we were going to play out this game because the storm was so crazy. So my car goes out and gets a meal in. As we're in the restaraunt, the storm breaks and the weather becomes perfect. Crazy. So we head back to the fields, and on the way there we learn that gametime is in 20 min. We warm up for about 5 min, then start playing, with full stomachs. (Stukel ate a one-pound cheeseburger 25 minutes before). So Wisconson is very strong. Really fast receivers/defenders, solid sharp throws etc.. I don't know if we would have won had we warmed up and not just eaten, but we were obviously not ready for this game.

So, Wisc and NC State move to the A bracket, Tex and UW go to B and, GT and us go to C. Had that win from the Georgia Tech game counted, we would have been in the B bracket because UW was seemingly losing to NC State in their game that got cancelled, so they lose a loss. If that game had been played, they would have an extra loss, and we would have an extra win tying our record. Tie-breaker is the head-to-head, and we won that game, so we should have been in B. Crappy, but what can you do, Koob tried hard to argue our case, but to no luck.. So... to the C bracket. ARG..

Sunday C Bracket Q's
We play Illinois. They go up on us a couple, and then we trade for a while. Pretty close the whole way. We fight off a couple of their game points. Cuatro in particular had a game saving D as he goes over some guy who is about to catch it to win the game, then gets kicked in the soft spot and takes an injury. I think we pulled the last pull, get the turn and score to make it 17-15, we win.

SemiFinal
We play Ohio State. We go up big, put in some young'uns for some PT. They do OK, then we really start messing the bed. A couple quick D's to first throw turnovers, and first throw drop off the pull gets OSU right back in the game. We trade for a while, and go back to another DGP. We turn it over in their endzone on some miscommunication with Wormser throwing to Jaws, who makes an incut to Wormser who is 5 yards out of the endzone. Wormser puts ones up like a quasi-huck. Jaws turns around trying to get it, but is double teamed, and can't make the play. They huck it up the field and a couple more passes and they score, making it 17-16.

Game for 19th.
We play Virginia in the 3rd game of Sunday, and 8th of the weekend. All the old guys are tired from the barn burner before, so the rotation is totally open. The young guys, absolutely take over this game. Cuatro goes up top over guys many times, Venga has a huge layout grab in the back of the endzone, offense is generally very solid with quick disc movement and lots of breaks to get the disc back to the center of the field, especially in some considerable breezes coming diagonally across the field. We're pretty confident this whole game. We call a time out on our game point on their goalline, and discuss play calls. Hooray? The Bammer? Then Nos chimes in and says, "Let's just put it in." Probably the right call. It's been a long weekend, so we just run endzone and put it in for the game 13-8.

All in all, a good experience and a crash course in getting back in shape and ultimate mentality after being on suspension for about a month. We obviously have stuff to work on, but we have time. Pretty fun tournament. I'm sure more stories from it will come out after the spring breakers get back.

Presidents' Day - February 20 - San Diego, CA

UCSD v. Cornell 13-5
UCSD v. Harvard 11-6
UCSD v. Northwestern 13-5
UCSD v. Oregon 8-13

Wet fields. Small Fields. Too bad we couldn't finish the tournament.

New Year's Fest - January 29th - Tempe AZ (submitted by BOFA)

We lost all 3 pool play games.. but were really close in all of them.
Then we went to the crossover vs. mines and killed them.

Then the top and bottom half of Division 1 split up into 2 brackets, basically a championship and a chumpionship, with 8 teams in each.

First game was the quarters vs. Mamabird.
We played hard d and shut them out for the first 5 points. They got like one more, and then basically gave up and took out their good players. Not that it mattered cause we were whooping up on them anyways. So they took out their stars and played their younger guys. We did the same, and our younger guys beat the crap out of their younger guys and it ended at 15-2. It was a hard game, not that we were slacking or anything. Our d was awesome and our offense was very confident and precise. Mamabird wasn't planning on losing that game, we just took it to em. Pretty sweet.

Then we had the semis vs. some team. (revolution?) beat the pants off em. Then had the finals and the same happened.
We were at like a +28 point differential for sundays games.

Our fish and younger guys got lots of PT, and were very solid, and really carried us through the games.

In other news, Koob sprained his ankle and will likely be out for 3-6 weeks. Get well..

But on the bright side, we did all this without relying on him, and really won as a team. I can't wait till he gets back, and with our new found confidence from being able to kick ass without him, with all his skills, we'll be in great shape for the season.

Santa Barbara Invite - January 22 - Santa Barbara, CA

UCSD v. UCLA 13-6
UCSD v. Stanford-B 13-4
UCSD v. California-Davis 13-6
UCSD v. California-Santa Cruz 13-9
UCSD v. UCLA 15-12 (Quarters)
UCSD v. Stanford 7-15 (Semi's)

We looked pretty good for only having practiced on grass for a week before our first tournament.

The starting lineup is pretty much unstopable when on key. A few missed throws in the beginning of the Stanford game led to a bit of an uphill battle trying to get back into the game.

The fish are already sweet. I wish i still had the stat sheets in front of me, but lots of goals caught, (and thrown My GOD!) by some fishies. I was really happy with how well they have been learning and executing. A game against UNT showed fish and 2nd years scoring up wind points and getting lay out D's without much trouble. Fun to watch.

On the party front, Dangle is socially inept when it comes to talking to girls, even on his birthday, and physically inept at drinking tequilla shots out of an ice tray at some random people's house. Dollar and Big Mike need to give lessons on attracting the opposite sex, because wherever they went, the girls flocked to them, without much effort on either of their parts.

And the coach is good too.