No Wisconsequences 2012

Leaving Ames around 6:00pm Friday night, 14 WS ladies headed to Delafield WI, for 2012 No Wisconsequences.

The excitement of the tournament made it impossible to sleep in, that along with some confusion about our 11:45 start time landed us at the fields to watch ISUC X and Y dominate in their games.

The fury came early for scorned, getting 72 in a row in the “come to drill” during warm-ups, was definitely a great start to the day. The first game was vs. Minnesota and the ninjas started off super strong.  Scorned answered back to the intensity of Minnesota’s offense with some stellar defensive intensity. Mag had a sweet layout grab in the end-zone, Kate played out of her mind handler d, Kelly was playing perfect positioning on D, Anne was rocking the end-zone like always, and the communication on both offence and defense was way better than it has been at previous practices. Besides the few random rain storms, the weather stayed fairly nice during the game, and like always the Ninjas were spirited and super fun to play. They have so much talent and a lot of new upcoming players, and promise to be an exciting team to watch this season! (ws wins 10-5)

It wouldn’t be a WS tournament with out playing Saucy Nancy. WS was lucky enough to play one of their split squad teams during the second round. WS started off really strong with 3 or 4 quick fast breaks off of hucks and quick handler movement from Cassie, Kaira, Sam, Kate and Pesch, and props to Alyssa for her quick feet on both in and out cuts. Once again having a huge roster, Iowa was circling lots of new and veteran players through, and look to have a very deep roster for the upcoming season. Thanks to them for a very fun spirited game, as always, even our new players could feel the friendship and friendly rivalry between the two schools.

It warmed up significantly for the 3^rd and final game of the day vs. one of the split squad Bella Donna teams. After some quick fast break looks, Scorned started off with a run on the super talented Wisconsin team. Martha was a Defense machine, generating an insane amount of D’s and shutting her girl down.  Jing was playing shut down inside D, and Kelly (panda) was making strong solid cuts against the Wisconsin defense. Sara was making perfect endzone continue cuts all day, resulting in being a scoring machine for WS all day.

After games, Scorned headed to 5 guys, for some much needed dinner. After food, scorned went back to shower(thanks to ISUC for letting us use your rooms while you were gone), do homework, hangout in the hotel hallway, go to Goodwill and watch Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Pesch even thought to get towels from the workout center, as not to disturb the understandably stressed out staff at the La Quinta.

Around 9 pm Scorned headed to the tournament party. Being the nice friendly ladies that we were, we gave 2 random ultimate guys a ride to the party in exchange for their raffle tickets. Our friends Justin and Clifford promised that it was no problem because they never win anything. Long story short, Clifford won the free jerseys, and did not give us the raffle ticket. It’s a sore subject, but Clifford from Duluth does not get rides anymore. Congrats to Sam (from Iowa) on winning team shorts for Saucy!! (so exciting)

After a fun night we, regrettably were woke up by ISUC shouting in the hallway that the tournament was cancelled for Sunday games because of water on the fields. Although we understand the situation it is still sad we didn’t get to play more games. Trying to make the best of it Scorned slept in and then went to Goodwill in Oconomowoc for some thrift store action. After an hour and fifteen minutes every person but one came out with a bag of new, clothes, shoes and even a dog harness for Tula! Nothing like a little retail therapy to get over the lack of games we got to play.

Overall it was a great day of play. Although jealous of all the teams that went split squad, the play by every Scorned member was awesome and its only the 2^nd tournament of the year. The rest of the fall will be spent working on more fundamentals, and getting ready for our first annual home tournament featuring 11 other teams from around the Midwest! Lucky for us we are going to have a ton of great competition gathering in Ames for our tournament the first weekend in November.

We are excited to play:

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota (X,Y)

Wisconsin-Lacrosse

Wisconsin –Whitewater

College of St. Benedicts

Iowa State Alumn

Carlton College

Grinell College

Drake

There is some great competition coming to Ames for this weekend. All these teams have confirmed. Although we are still taking bids for interested teams!

$150 bid, free housing, tournament party (need I say more)

Contact wscapts@iastate.ed for more information!

Giving Back

This past summer, I was an AmeriCorps member through the Volunteer Center of Story County (VCSC) as a Summer Garden Associate.  That's a fancy title for someone who got to work at community gardens around Ames.  I got the pleasure of working at 3 different gardens; two were elementary school gardens and one was a community garden.  The latter was called the Service Patch and it's special because it's a small plot of land donated by the Trinity Christian Reformed Church to the VCSC to be able to start up a garden that would donate its produce to local food pantries.  The volunteers that worked at the garden come from various backgrounds such as Youth and Shelter Services and AgCulture, a Youth Food and Farm Group.

How is this related to Woman Scorned?  Well this past Friday, some Scorned ladies got to experience the garden themselves!  We learned a few things about cooking certain produce as well as get a chance to give back to the great community of Ames, Iowa.  And it makes it look like we have a life outside of Ultimate Frisbee :)

Enjoy.

Harvesting some kale.

Harvesting some Dragon Tongue beans.

Tomatoes (and a butt).

Even got some ISUC help.

Lots of kale to harvest.

Edamame bean harvest.

Weeding.

There's always weeds to weed.

Even special weeding tools exist.

Some of our harvest - beans, okra, cucumber, edamame.

Weighing the produce before donating it.

Mag

College Nationals 2012

Woman Scorned finished 10th at the USAU National Championships this season, with a season record of 34-6.

Going into the tournament there was a lot of hype built up around our team. As a team that has NEVER before had anyone look twice at us, it was a very interesting position to be in. Despite our efforts to look past the talk and focus on our team goals, the nerves definitely showed in our performance in Friday games. An inability to come out strong in games gave us sizable deficits to have to come back from. We won our first game of the tournament against Ottawa on universe point after coming back from being down, but our game against Tufts was not as successful ending in a loss.

After coming together to find ourselves as a team and talk about some of the issues that had plagued us in the first day of games, WS came out hard on Saturday looking to still win the pool. Our first game against Cal was one of the strongest of the tournament. We took the lead early and maintained our advantaged all the way to win the game. Fired up and ready to upset Virginia with hopes of a straight shot to Quarterfinals, we walked into our next game ready to go.

The game against Virginia was one that I will take with me for the rest of my life. It was played on the showcase field which increased our viewership to probably more people than have ever watched us play any game in our history. It was neat for me to hear Robyn announcing the game and saying each of our names every time we made a play or pulled the disc. It was definitely not something that you experience in most ultimate games. Virginia had been one of our favorite opponents from Centex, and we were more than a little excited to play them. The only let down of this game was that we forgot to play "Meet Virginia" on Boomy for them. Both teams traded many of the points but Woman Scorned took the game after a long, hot, hard fought battle with Hydra.

After the game, Kevin brought us the news that Tufts has upset Cal to take the pool win and we would be facing a pre-quarters game. Desperate to find shade and water, the team seeked shelter in various tents waiting for games to play out and determine our opponents. Ohio State was determined as our PQ match up and the game was set to be played on the same field that we played Iowa in PQs last year.

As the game started, it was clear that both teams were tired. Ohio State started by converting way better than we did and they went up something like 5-1 on us. Somewhere around the middle of the game, a big storm blew in and the wind picked up in a strong diagonal direction. In theory, this should have been the end of the game for us, being down by 4 points or so and having a stiff up/down wind advantage to the offensive team, however we were not done fighting. If there is one thing the North Central trains you well for, it's playing ultimate in any kind of weather. Scorned scored multiple upwind breaks but remained down one break going into soft cap. As the game came down to the time cap, Fever took a time out. Kevin explained that we had roughly 90 seconds to score down wind before cap went on and the game would end. We made the conversion in less than a minute, allowing us to have one last shot upwind to tie the game in hard cap and go on to universe point with wind advantage. The disc was pulled, a D was achieved, but Fever was not ready to lose their chance either and a turn over resulted in their final down wind conversion and a ticket to quarterfinals for them.

Sunday was a new day for us. With all pressure gone, we came out to play our game. Despite the alteration in our goals, ninals seemed like a worthy accomplishment and we took our game against UBC ready to rage. I don't remember much about this game, except that Mag hurt her ankle really bad, they wouldn't trade jerseys with us, so many of our younger players stepped up big, and we won the game.

The ninals game put us up against Cal again. The game was just straight up fun. Cal is a great team, with many great players, and awesome spirit. We ended our season last year in this game but versus Washington and had a similarly spirited game. This year, we contended much better. Both teams traded points for much of the game, but in the end Cal took the win by only a couple points.

Scorned finished tenth in the nation for a second year in a row, but more importantly, we played with heart and spirit through the entire tournament. Never once did we give up on a game, and not once did we let our heads hang and surrender. I don't think many people would say that we played to the potential we had, but we did fight through the frustrating times and played with heart in every game and that means more than a win any day. Before nationals we had to write a blurb about our team for the handouts. In this we stated:

"Throughout our history we have maintained these core beliefs:

1: Having fun is the most important thing. Winning does not dictate fun. If we play the game right and give all we have, ultimate is fun whether we win or lose.

2: We want to be the team that every team wants to play. We compete our hardest against every opponent but never at the sacrifice of spirit.

3: Commit to each other as one cohesive team. Hold yourself and your teammates accountable, and value each other for everything each person contributes."

I believe that we stayed true to these core beliefs and that is something I am proud of. There is no other team that I wish I would have played for, no matter what placement they achieved. I think we proved many things to ourselves and about our program this season, and despite ending our last tournament lower than we had hoped, we still had the opportunity to compete for 3 more weeks than many teams and at the highest level possible in college ultimate. I have no doubt in my mind that this season will drive the future of our program and this tournament will fuel the hearts of the 2013 Woman Scorned team.

We would like to say thank you to so many people for what they have given to us this season. We can not name all of the people who have stood behind us and put their faith in us to drive our spirits through the season. Thank you to all of the people who donated their time, money, houses, and other resources to our journey.

Thank you to our coaches, Kevin and Lana, for all of the time running practices, coaching tournaments, thinking about the team, and being the best role models and leaders for each of us in both ultimate and life. We can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you both, and we could not have accomplished even half of this without you.

Lastly, I would like to say thank you to my teammates for everything they have given me the past 5 years. I could not be more blessed to have had so many friends willing to give their all with me, push me to do my best, and stand together no matter what happened on and off the field. It has been the most amazing ride I could have ever imagined.


Lindsey Gapstur #2

Magon for Callahan

Iowa State University's Woman Scorned would like to present Magon Liu for the 2012 Callahan award consideration.  As one of two captains on this year's team, Magon's vocal on-field leadership has been an important part of the success of this year's team.  As a player, she has been a tireless underneath cutter/hucker, replacing the void left by last year's Callahan nominee Jessy Erickson.  Magon is typically the initiating cutter in our offense, yet is smart enough to know when to clear to let a teammate take advantage of a mismatch or an out of position defender.  As a thrower, Magon's backhand hucks carried Woman Scorned to a Centex title in Austin, Texas, back in March, even though the sidleines of Michigan in the semis and UCSB in the finals were screaming "No backhand!" every time she touched the disc.  Her quick release huck and field sense skills were on full display that weekend.  Though invaluable as an underneath cutter/hucker, Magon also cuts deep very well.  She isn't necessarily tall, but could write the textbook on legally boxing out her taller defender to take away their best chance at defending the deep throw.  As far as layouts go, she could teach the clinic, they are among the more graceful, effortless looking layouts in the game.  Defensively, she plays the more challenging roles in our different zones, the roles that demand a little more free thinking and are less defined in terms of actual instruction.  As a man-to-man defender, she holds her own against similarly skilled players from opposing teams.  Like most Callahan nominees on the top women's teams, Magon is surrounded by talented and capable teammates.  Not only does her play set the tone as a player, but her leadership drives the team forward.  She stands out among a talented cast of players and yet makes her teammates better by being on the field.

Kevin Seiler;  Coach of Iowa State, #1 CLX 

 Mag has been a leader on Woman Scorned since the day she joined the team. She is always willing to take the time to teach her teammates and serves as a strong leader through her actions on the field. Her love of the game and drive to play her best has been evident since the first time I met her when she was a high school student who came to practice with the college team. She never backs down from a match up and the combination of her superior ultimate skills and athleticism make her a huge threat. As a captain, Mag does a great job of taking input from everyone to represent the entire team in the best possible way. She pushes each player to rise to their potential and inspires others to build their intensity to match hers. Whether it is getting shouty, forcing the D, boosting a huck, or dominating snacks fatty-style, Mag is always there for the team. I am honored to have been her teammate and proud to support her for Callahan 2012.

-Lindsey Gapstur #2 Woman Scorned

Magon Liu has been a leader on Woman Scorned since she stepped on the field when she was a freshman. She has put everything she has into the team. I have gotten to play with her for the last three years. I have seen her excel as both a handler and a cutter. She has the athleticism to play phenomenal defense and the patience to play excellent offense. But she is more then just a player on the field; she is a leader off the field as well. She is one of our co-captains this year and has shown great leadership. She is one of my closest friends and a friend to everyone on our team. She has my vote for Callahan because of her skills on the field, her leadership with our team, and her unending spirit and love for ultimate. 

Sarah Pesch #97 Woman Scorned

Magon Liu is an exceptional ultimate player, and leader. She truly embodies the spirit of the game in the way she plays, and in the way she conducts herself both on and off the field. I am thankful every time I play that Magon is on my team, and not my opponent’s. Her quick feet and experience on defense make her able to shutdown any player, and no one is more fun to play with on offense than she is. Her smart decision making, paired with big throws allow her to throw that big huck when a cutter is striking deep, but she always knows when the under is the right option.
 Magon cares a lot about younger players and works to help players of all skill levels to improve. I have been lucky enough to learn from Magon on both offense and defense. Coming into the team as a freshmen, Magon has helped me since the moment I met her. Personally she pushes me to improve at every practice and game.  She is a work horse, and has gotten where she is today because of many years of hard work. She leads by example; always pushing herself hard during workouts, holding herself accountable for her mistakes, and pushing herself toward perfection. She is a team player and  is always working towards team success not her own glory.  For these reasons and many more I am proud to nominate my teammate and friend for this honor.

Cami Nelson #16 Woman Scorned

Just incase you haven't seen the video.

Magon Liu for Callahan

Woman Scorned is proud to nominate senior Magon Liu for the 2012 Callahan award. 

Regionals 2012: Give Me Everything Tonight

Being a Midwesterner at heart, I find it appropriate to open this blog talking about the weather. As I am sitting here in my living room sweating in shorts and a tank, I can not believe just 6 days ago we were playing regionals in near freezing weather just a few hours north of Ames. It seems absurd, but it was pretty much exactly what we expected for weather and definitely nicer than it has been in years past.

All season I have been anticipating regionals and those games that everything would come down to in order to determine if we would get a chance to fight for the title or not. For months I have been fighting to not let myself think past regionals because of the pure reality that nothing is guaranteed, no matter how well your pre-season games go. If anyone wants to argue this point, take a look at the SW region or some of the other upsets. It is scary how the entire season comes down to one tournament, but it is also really exciting and neat to see how the playing field is leveling out and there are new programs building and prospering. The sport is growing, and that means that the some powerhouse programs may or may not always be the ones on top, but I do think they deserve the recognition that in many ways this growth is because of their leadership and the precedent they have set.

Because this is my last season, it has been an emotional roller coaster for me. The combination of that, insane amounts of stress for the impending finals we had to take this week, and the great competition present at North Central Regionals, all made this past weekend quite the show.

Coming off our teams 4th consecutive sectionals championship, Scorned entered regionals as the #1 seed. Our first game was versus Wisconsin Eau-Claire. SOL has been a sister-team of Scorned's since 2010 when the teams played each other about ten times during the regular season. I don't really remember how it started, but it definitely had something to do with our boom box, the song "Party in the USA," and the creation of this blog (started as a suggestion by SOL).  This game was fought hard by both sides and maintained a fun atmosphere through its entirety.

14-6 Woman Scorned of Wisconsin Eau-Claire

The second game of the day was against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. These ladies had both the height and passion to propel any great young team. They used their advantages well with a big zone which adequately shut down our deep game and forced us to work it around the field in the sleet/rain. Both teams had great bids and fought hard with a great attitude during the worst weather of the tournament.

15-4 Woman Scorned over Wisconsin - Milwaukee

The last game of pool play put us at the main fields and against the host team Carleton Syzygy. Prior to this game, Scorned worked up a pep talk and got the blood flowing. We were warm, pumped, and ready to rage. Scorned hit the ground running on the first pull and started off the game on fire. Never letting up, we took the game at a fast pace 15-10 and ended our day winning our pool.

15-10 Woman Scorned over Carleton College

After games, Scorned hit the showers for a great experience in the nicest shower room in the North Central Region. In Cami's own words- "Normally, I would wear sandals to prevent getting foot fungus, but in here, I'm the one giving it not getting it." Dinner at the Hoistad household was fantastic and followed by intense study sessions in preparation for tests this week.

 

Sunday morning games put us up against Wisconsin Bella Donna in the semi's. As Kevin said in his pre-game pep talk, this was our first of two chances to reach our goal of qualifying for nationals. (FYI- every time he has given us this "2 chances" talk, we have taken the second chance)

As the game started, Bella came out hard and took the first point of the game. It was clear quite early on that they were fired up and ready to play us hard. Bella offered a tougher defense than we had been used to and it showed as our offense struggled to break through. Poor decisions and nervous execution were major factors in our offense, but ultimately Bella Donna just played a better game than us. The tension on the field was tangible, and both teams were playing with heart to attompt to secure their spot to nationals, but Wisconsin stayed with discipline and proved that they have what it takes to win.

10-14 Wisconsin over Woman Scorned

With some disappointment, we huddled up to bring ourselves back together for the backdoor route. The next game was versus our friends from Minnesota. Although the past games with them had not been exceptionally close, this was regionals. Everything is different when the end of your season depends on each game. Minnesota came out hard and forced us to give everything for each point of that game. These ladies play with spirit, focus, and passion. They are always a fun team to play and this game was no different. I have absolutely loved playing them every year and I respect their hard work and team ethics so much. They definitely know how to have fun while keeping the focus and giving every game a good fight.

15-13 Woman Scorned over Minnesota

Over on the other pre-backdoor field, SOL was giving Carleton a run for their money and making them work hard for the spot in the backdoor. Carleton took the win, but SOL played a hell of a game and showed that there are more than just a couple of top teams in this region.

Scorned came into the backdoor game uncharacteristically. Carleton took a substantial lead from the get-go (something like 4 or 5-1) and were fighting hard and playing like a team that knows how to win when it matters. I honestly can't say what changed our momentum in that game, but I remember looking up wind across the line and thinking, "this could be your LAST game on Woman Scorned... are you ok with that?" I'm definitely not saying I changed the moment of that game with my answer, but I know that at that point I stopped paying attention to the score or anything else and just started playing with the song "Give Me Everything" in my head (not a joke- I was singing it all game).


Scorned got a break at some point. Then we must have converted downwind. Another break or two and all of the sudden it was half time. I had tried to look at Lana's notebook for the score before that point and was for some reason under the impression that we were down 6-9 (we hadn't even had half yet, so not sure what I was thinking). To my confusion, we took half 8-6. Sometime in the first half, ISUC showed up on our sidelines and potentially made the impact we needed to change the game. These guys' support and cheering brought us up to where we needed to be to continue the fight, forget our loss, and play the game the way we knew we could.

The second half was a hard fight by both teams. Points were traded, big D's were layed out, turn overs were happening more often than usual due to the intensity and stress of the game. Although Syzygy fought hard even up until the end in the most spirited game-to-go I have ever played,  Scorned took the win with a throw from Pesch to Jess in the same end zone where Woman Scorned qualified for our first National Tournament in 2009. It was amazing and felt just as special as it did in 2009 and 2011.

13-11 Woman Scorned over Carleton

After an incredible weekend, Woman Scorned will be making the trip out West to our 3rd College National Tournament. We are incredibly honored and excited to have the privilage to this extended season and we have no plans of taking even one minute of it for granted. We will also probably blog about the great crap we are going to do, so get excited for that!

Huge thanks to Carleton for hosting. Thanks to our AMAZING COACHES for leading us to accomplish our goals thus far this season. Thanks to the great alumni for supporting us all weekend (Ying Ying, Jazzy, Jessy, and everyone else via twitter!...I'm sorry if I'm missing anyone)

-Lindsey Gapstur #2

A Few Keys to Our Success

Through my ultimate career I have thought a lot about how to build an ultimate team/program. I have read tons of articles and talked to friends and opponents about their perspectives on the topic. There are all sorts of ideas about recruitment, playing time, practicing, and anything that goes into building the skills of your team. Opinions on this differ, and it's important to understand that every team is different and what works for one, may not work for another.

Through my 5 years, my perspectives on this have changed, and I have been proven wrong in ways that I once believed I was absolutely correct in. With that being said, these are some of my thoughts on the subject from my perpective right now. I may be wrong, you may disagree with me, but take what you like from this. These are some of the things that have played into what has gotten Scorned to where we are at right now.

1. Commitment. This is the first and foremost important aspect to having a successful program. Not every team defines this in the same way, but the bottom line is that you need to have a defined level of committment that is held by every player on the team. I would also stress attendance, although I believe that if a player is truly committed, then attendance on a regular basis is likely not an issue. It takes time, hard work, repetition, and communication, all with your teammates to create a team that works well together. If you are a young player, and you come to every practice, work hard, and are dedicated to learning, I believe you will improve at this sport. Teams that hold each other accountable and push each other to continue with these goals, continue to improve and this is how solid programs are born.

2. Play. "The best way to get better is to play." I have heard that so many times that it is ingrained into me. Play summer league, play pickup, play club, play college, teach your friends, throw at lunch- this is how you get hooked and this is how you get better. The first summer I played club was so eye opening. I drove to St. Louis alone, tryed out with a bunch of girls I didn't know, with styles I had never played with. It was ridiculous and I can't believe the money and time I spent on that adventure, but it made me such a better player and it was fun as shit! Play ultimate, you are not perfect yet and there are so many different styles to learn from.

3. Use your whole roster. This is one thing that people have mentioned about Scorned a lot this year. We have a roster of 21 girls, everyone plays. On any ultimate team, no matter who you are, you have players who play more than others. However, putting 21 girls on a roster, requiring them to commit to 3 practices, 1 lifting, and 1 sprint workout per week and then only playing 20% of them for 2 points per tournament just seems wrong. The more playing experience you get, the better you develop as a player. If playing is the best way to improve, then wouldn't it make sense to play your girls and build your team so that you can maintain the depth and skill that is needed to continue to dominate in that 6th, 7th, or 8th game of the tournament? No one player plays every point on Woman Scorned. No player goes the entire tournament without playing. Every player is held to the same minimum commitment level, every player contributes to this team (on the field and off), every player gets playing time (even if it isnt equal), every player makes plays in games, and every player is valued.

When I was a rookie one of my seniors told me she was glad we didn't have tryouts (we still don't, we can't get enough girls). She made the point that if we had, she and I wouldn't have made the team. She was right, I wouldn't have made Scorned when I started. I wouldnt have made the team the next year. It is debatable if I would have made the team in my 3rd year. However, I started on a team with a roster of 13ish. My first tournament was savage or 8 players, and I played a ton! I was so terrible, out of shape, and confused, but it was so fun. I remember my first D- a girl threw the disc behind her girl who was open force side and it was right to me. I smacked it down as hard as I could and yelled right at Dersch who was on the sideline rolling because she was laughing so hard. I was baaaaad, but I got to play, and I got better because of it. It made me want to get better so I could play more. It can be scary to throw to a less developed player in an "elite game" situation because they might turn it right? But let's be honest, this is college women's ultimate. Did you see the turn over stats last year from nationals?? Take the chance. If they miss it, its just another turn over of the 2 or 3 that are almost guarenteed in every point, but if they catch it and make the play then a seed has been planted, confidence has been boosted, and your team just got so much better.

4. Have fun. Scorned has always been a fighting team. We work hard and can get serious when we need to, but we have always held a core value that I think is vital to our success. "Nothing is worth it, if you are not having fun." We do so much for this sport and team. If you are going to put the time in, you better enjoy it. I'll admit it now, Scorned is weird as crap. At nationals last year we all had purple, red, and blue hair. We refuse to get a "legitimate" flag despite how much Flaggy falls apart. We dance more during a tournament than most people do at their high school prom. Hula hoops, streamers, temp tats, fake mustaches, and other ridiculous things are what we use our time outs and half times for. Every team has their own form of fun.

story time- I remember one specific game at Midwest Throwdown a few years back, we were strugglin hard. Dersch had been giving us all sorts of tips and suggestions during the first half and we just could not bring things together. The other team took half and we all huddled up and just looked to Dersch for some words of wisdom and she delivered. She looked at us (a woman of many many wise words) and just told us to go dance it off. We took a ten minute dance party half time, went back on the field and tore it up (i think we won?). Have fun, sometimes it is the difference between a W and L.


Hopefully these ideas are somewhat helpful. Also I wrote this during my epidemiology class so I feel compelled to tell you all not to drink raw milk. It has all sorts of disease risks... not worth it.


Gapstur #2

Sectionals: A New Approach to Blog Recaps

The YouTube video.

Highlight Reel

Just a few highlights from the season thus far!

Once upon a time...

It's story time children.

I was talking to a friend of mine who had just tried out for the Junior World's team out in Seattle and she had an interesting conversation with a girl who was also trying out. Let's call her Neal. (And if you need a made-up last name too, we'll go with Freshmen.) Anyways, so my friend and Neal were talking about prospective schools that Neal was thinking of going to as she is a senior in high school. She obviously has her dream school (we all do), Cornell. And after that she spewed off some other great schools (which she had based on their great ultimate repertoire) Washington University, University of Oregon (drool) and last but not least...Iowa State University.

My friend stopped her and said "wait, did you just say Iowa State?" Neal replied "yeah". Apparently, she's heard of our great ultimate record and is a school that has piqued her interest.

Can any of you even wrap your minds around this? Because I still can't. To think of how well we play can affect a person's future/one of the most important decisions in their entire life is just mind blowing. I mean I won't deny it, I picked ISU for its ultimate (as well as the free ride...minority power) but Woman Scorned had been family since my wee middle school days. I love Woman Scorned and love how deep my roots go with it and I'm ready to FSU with them now and forever.

A Woman Scorned for life

Mag #08

Highlight Video

Mostly, please be impressed that I made this in 7 minutes.

Semis versus Michigan at Nashville. It might have been the point to take half... I am not sure.

Fools Fest Recap...But not really.

I’ll start with a disclaimer that this isn’t really a blog recap from Fools Fest. Normally for Fools I just make up a bunch of random stuff and write a really dumb post that I think is funny and no one else understands, but instead I want to write about something really means a lot to me-our alumni connections.

This weekend our Alumni team was playing. They were our 2 losses of the tournament, which we was still a big old W for Woman Scorned, so we were alright with it. A few really neat things happened at this tournament that meant a lot to me. 

1.  We had a opportunity to sit down and each share who each person was and some about their WS experience

2.  A bridge was gapped between 11 generations

3.  We combined in the finals to play against the other semi’s teams (who combined to make a huge Minnesota-based team), and I was able to play ultimate with so many present and past teammates of Woman Scorned.

Woman Scorned won the tournament which was awesome because who doesn’t love a tourney win, but even more so because it was the PERFECT way to end my college (pre-series) career. It was so amazing to be able to take the field with many of my teammates, coaches, and mentors of my entire ultimate career. I begged a lot to take home the trophy disc and I cannot wait to hang it on my wall.

This is my last college season playing Woman Scorned, and as much as I have been trying to wrap my head around that, I cannot. One of my mini goals this season has been to put together some structure and hopefully sustainable events that incorporate our alumni in to our current season. I have always been a story teller and someone who likes to keep the history of Scorned alive. I believe that it is important to know where you came from in order to honor those who contributed so much to make what we have possible. Every win we take is a win for everyone who has ever worked to make this team and program better. Also, I am about to become an alumni, and I am not ready to lose this team yet.

I have been fortunate enough to have been a part of Scorned during a very transitional 5 years (although the team is only in its 11^th year). Scorned has always been a competitive team and so many of the ladies that have played on this team over the years are some of the best players I have ever met. It is mind blowing that I have been a part of 5 of the 11 seasons (almost half) that Woman Scorned has ever been in existence. I feel like such a very small part of this amazing program that so many alumni have built, and I don’t think I can ever express how grateful I am to be able to play for a team that has the commitment, support, and foundation of Woman Scorned. For anyone who has ever given themselves to a program with the dreams of what the team could someday become, please know that your dedication is anything but in vain. Unfortunately, those who lay down the roots don’t always get to reap the reward of their contribution. Please know that someday your hard work will be worth every minute to so many people and you have truly made a difference for so many others.

Not only am I fortunate enough to have had the framework for this team laid so perfectly, but I have also been blessed with the most amazing teammates. The dedication, fight, love, and accountability of these wonderful ladies is what makes every second of each season so special. No win, loss, or tournament placement will ever define a season for me because each game is earned through hundreds of hours spent preparing for it together. Despite the crazy things we all have going on in our lives, these girls give their time and hearts to the team and it that is what has really made my 5 years so rewarding. I am so proud to say that I play for Woman Scorned and that I have had the honor to play with these ladies.

There are so many people that I would like to thank in this post, but any attempt to post names surely end in my forgetting so many. So if you have ever dedicated yourself to Woman Scorned in any way, I would just like to say a huge THANK YOU. You know who you are, we love you, and once Scorned, always Scorned.

Lindsey Gapstur
Woman Scorned #2

Ladies Centex 2012

In 2009 Woman Scorned qualified for UPA College Nationals for the first time. We took the wildcard bid in the first year that the tournament was expanded to a 20 team format, and we placed tied for 15^th in the nation. After turning a few more heads and putting our name on the radar, a few more doors opened for our team in 2010. One of these doors came in the form of an invite to College Women’s Centex in Austin, TX.

In 2010, we entered as the 15^th seed and held seed winning only our cross over game that year and double forfeiting our last game to Ottawa for travel reasons. This first Centex really provided our team with an introduction to high level ultimate tournaments. In 2011, we started the tournament with a seeding which put us in division 2. This allowed us to play several other challenging teams and have the opportunity to win our cross over and break seed finishing 15^th at the tournament once again.

This year, Scorned once again made the 15ish hour trip to Austin to compete in the College Women’s Centex tournament. Coming into the tournament seeded 4^th, we had the opportunity to match up against 3 competitors we had not seen yet this spring season.

Cars arrived in Austin in shifts all safely and thankfully in time for games. Scorned was lucky enough to stay with THE CHAD LARSON (the legend, not the team.) Unfortunately, we were cut down to only 16 of our 21 person roster due to a variety of conflicts, but the team was held together from all sources via text, twitter, and in WS spirit. Friday night, the first cars of ladies hit up the field site for free pizza, games, and ultimate fun with other teams who had arrived early for the "Centex Mixer." The night ended early for some, while the late cars showed up at various times throughout the night.

Saturday morning finally came and the late start to games was a blessing for our team who were all feeling the pain of driving 16 hours to get there. We took the fields a whopping hour and a half early, which allowed us plenty of time to warm up and prepare for game one. Virginia Hydra was our first game of the tournament and they were definitely ready to give us some competition both on the field and on the sidelines (one of the only teams to challenge WS's cheering abilities at the tournament-and of course Flywheel). The first points of the game were fought hard with both teams keeping it close, but Scorned pulled away a bit to take half 8-4. With a clever suggestion from Annihka, Cami put “Meet Virginia” on Boomy at half and we attempted to serenade them from across the field. Coming out of half, Scorned let silly mistakes and less than ideal decisions allow Hydra to capitalize and bring the score up to 12s on universe point. After taking a breath and having Coach K/Dad remind us how we play ultimate best, we did our thing and were able to take the game point for the first win of the tournament.

Woman Scorned over University of Virginia Hydra 13-12

Our next game was versus regional match up Carleton College. These girls have the height and intensity to make any team intimidated, but we held our average of 5’4” line with pride and came out hard. Scorned was able to take the first few points before Syzygy answered back. Points were traded for a while, but we took half once again at 8-4. After some time in the shade and Coach Lana teaching us how to kill a mouse, we took the field ready to finish stronger than the Virginia game. We played hard and took the win but not without Carleton putting up a great fight to make us earn every point.

Woman Scorned over Carleton College Syzygy 15-10

Our final game of the day was versus the defending national champions, UCSB Burning Skirts. Our last match up with these ladies was at Nationals last year in a close pool play game where they took the game 13-11 and went on to win it all. Scorned was fired up and ready to hold the first seed of our pool by winning this last game. We took no time to get into our groove and took control of the game’s tempo immediately. Looking strong, Scorned took half 8-3 and hit up some shade to practice throwing goldfish crackers and gummy bears into each others' mouths. We also learned that Lana has an insanely large mouth. Coming out of half, we were ready to finish the game and get some rest for the people who had driven through the night. Scorned rolled out of half and took the win.

Woman Scorned over University of California Santa Barbra Burning skirts 15-7

After dinner and ice baths, some girls hit up the dance off to watch SOL win yet another title. Congrats on yet another amazing dance ladies! After the dance-off, second dinner was consumed, homework was at least attempted, the last unicorn was watched,and most of the team went to bed early. After shooting the shit with Mom and Dad (Kevin and Lana) for a while, eventually we all passed out with high hopes for Centex Sunday.

Morning came way too early with some confusion about a duck call ring tone and the song Halo bringing us back into a conscious state of mind. Slight car trouble slowed us down, but eventually we all made it to the fields with a little bit of time left to warm up and our first game was on started.

Pre-quarters had us up against Central Florida Sirens (not to be confused with Loyola Sirens, which we definitely did while trying to make friends at Nashville…awkward-sorry about that). We had seen these ladies at MWTD and remembered that they knew how to fight. Scorned came out a little groggy but took half 8-5. Scorned took half time to put on sun screen and finish warming up, but the Sirens came out of half more fired up and ready to fight. Miscommunication and disruption in our flow allowed Central Florida to take advantage and pull the score up to 10-11 in a game to 12. Kevin and Lana once again calmed us down and reminded us how to play our game. With some patience and concentration we took the field, got the O score to tie it up on universe. Fired up and not ready to give up our chance at the championship game, Scorned got the turn we needed on defense and converted the score to take the game.

Woman Scorned over Central Florida Sirens 12-11

Quarters provided us with a game against UBC who had really cool animal jerseys. Scorned came out fired up and took the first 5 points of the game. UBC took a T. O. which allowed them to regroup and answer back with a 3 point run of their own. Both teams recuperated and set their groove, but Scorned took half 8-6. In the half time shade, Scorned did some soul searching and found the answer to our game through Kevin’s advice of unselfishness and teamwork. Coming out of that half time, we really set the tone for our style and the rest of the tournament. Finding our flow, we finished off the game 12-10 and were on our way to the semi-finals.

Woman Scorned over University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 12-10

Semi’s was against our friends from Michigan. This matchup was one we saw at Nashville in the semi-finals only a couple weeks prior. Scorned started the game with Boomy blaring some Gaga and Scorned immediately playing our game. Michigan proved to be a tough competitor, never allowing an easy score and making us work for every D. Much like Nashville, this was a very intense game but not at the expense of great spirit and friendliness on the field and sidelines. Fighting every point, Scorned took half at 8-5 and finished the game up 14-10. They also did the Great Lakes Great Times cheer which has been in my head ever since...

Woman Scorned over University of Michigan Flywheel 14-10

Finals provided us with a rematch from the Saturday’s last game. UCSB took the field with us, ready to give us a run for our money. Scorned came out fired up as well, and took the control of the game with our offense still flowing beautifully. Offensively, the skirts made us work on D, testing our endurance and strategies. The skirts had some great plays with huge layouts, but we were working the disc too well to be stopped. Scorned took half 8-4, keeping in theme of the weekend (lots of 8-4 half time scores). The second half just amplified our excitement. We rolled out of half, working the offense and shutting down on defense. Every player on our line was working hard to make plays and our depth, training, and intensity really showed through. We took the game win and the tournament win for our first ever Centex championship!

Woman Scorned over UCSB Burning Skirts 15-8

After cool down and snaps, we jumped in the car for a 16 hour, character building drive home through the night. Monday classes were rough, to say the least, and WS ladies were passing out in buildings all over campus to attempt to catch up on lost sleep. We are so excited about our win, happy to be back in Ames as a whole team (safe and sound), and ready to see what happens with bid allocations for the North Central Region (four, four, four!).

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to Michelle for another fabulous tournament. Also thank you for the opportunities you have provided us the past years to get us here. Big thanks to Texas Melee ultimate, first a great 3-day scrimmage over spring break and then a great Centex tournament! You guys rock.

We want to send a special thank you to Chad Larson for letting us crash his house and get the full "experience". It was amazing! Gigantic thanks to Rachel Derscheid and Jon Staron for celebrity coaching us the week before Centex. Also thank you for the goodies. The Red Thunder definitely saved lives on the drive home (Cami drank like 6). Thanks to Mom and Dad for coming down to coach us. Huge thanks to everyone who followed us the whole weekend with text messages and Twitter. We read them all out loud and they kept us fighting hard!

Tournament Highlights (brought to you by Magon and Jiear):

-I think overall the team showing how much they valued the disc and being ready to catch any disc that was in the air. i.e. Sam's bid from out of no where, Jess's countless assists, Becca's grab from the inside of the party ball, etc...

-coming out strong on the first couple of points in all games.

-the patience in our zone and the handler D.

-Becca's sweet handler D's

-Pesch's grab D as a marker in the cup

-quick transition zone D to man D

-fast breaks!

-Break cuts/options and break throws.

-our INTENSITY!!! thank you Red Thunder.

-zone offense and the ability to change our game plan according to what the cup was or was not giving us

-being ready to go on and off when called

-meeting THE Chad Larson

-Anne's 3 goals and shut down defense
-Miah denying the deep option in zone

-Rookie point/assist + score (Bows to Jess)

-Sam's layout score (from an accidental mac from Bosco)

-Cami's multiple macs (the Macassistor!!!)
-Denver's shut down handler D all weekend and rocking the flag per usual

-Jess catching multiple scores that weren't meant for her, but she was always there for the tip

-Becca getting the Skyd Playmaker award

-Mag getting the Skyd tournament MVP award
-Anne staying up as shotty the entire drive back to make cars of 3 or 4 possible

Shout outs:

Congratulations to Daisy for getting a JOB this weekend (like a real person one)! We are so proud and happy for you.

Congratulations to Coach Dersch (founder of Woman Scorned) for passing her defense this week. She is now Dr. Dr. Coach Dersch!

-Lindsey Gapstur #2