The Ultimate Community

Skyd magazine had a poll a few months ago that asked what the biggest ultimate city in the US was. The options were cities like Austin, the Bay Area, Madison, and Seattle. Big cities with big name teams and often big name college teams. Ames was definitely not on there.

When I joined Woman Scorned a few years ago, I walked into a local community of ultimate that extended past the college team. I remember meeting Mikey Lun at one of my first practices, not really knowing who he was, and he was very friendly and excited about me joining the team. He wasn't coaching us, he wasn't on the men's team at the time, but he was welcome there and he contributed to our practices.

It wasn't just Mikey though, there were plenty of others. For example, Coach Derscheid would often mention a person named Tai when explaining how to play ultimate. It wasn't long until I met Tai, along with Lana and Kevin and many others who played in the area. Eventually, I began to learn what ultimate really was and I found out about a few club teams in

the area. Namely, Chad Larson Experience, but also Small Rackages, Small Packages, Van Buren Boys, Pop, and others. As I became more familiar with the sport, I began to realize the extent of what I was involved in, but also the inner circle that I had been "ultimate-raised" in.

I learned to play ultimate from world champions. These people are more than my coaches or teammates, but my friends and my family. Ultimate is a community in Ames and it extends from the high school to summer league, to college, all the way to the club teams. CLX won worlds this summer, and I (a crappy college player) was able to practice with them even in those last days before they left for Europe. There are few divisions in this community, it is based on the love of the game, and anyone who desires to learn and play is welcome.

This spring, Kevin and Lana Seiler agreed to coach Woman Scorned. While this was the first time officially coaching the team, it really only seemed like a formality to me. I have been learning from Lana since the first time I played her. She looked at me, told me she was really tired, and when I looked at the ground and replied about how I was kind of tired too, she cut deep and scored on me. I have looked up to Kevin as an ultimate player/mastermind since I heard Derscheid talk about him with CLX my rookie year. While they are now officially our coaches, it is not the first time either them have coached many of us.

At practice, it is anything but abnormal to see more experienced players attend to help out. Derscheid, Memo, Tai, Bob, Shellmen, and plenty of others come and to play ultimate and share their knowledge when they have time in their busy schedules.

This past weekend, Woman Scorned attended Centex. Like anything in ultimate, we were unsure of numbers until the day we left. Although we had about 5 roster players not able to make it, we were anything but short handed to fill the hotel spots. Along for the ride, in addition to our coaches, (only 30+ hours round trip) were Taiwo Misra (CLX, former WS coach, Small Rackages, ACS), John Misra (CLX, ACS, former Ames High coach), and Bob Liu (Polar Bears). Having this support system is absolutely amazing. Not only were they there to provide sideline support, one-on-one coaching, and extra eyes and ears, but they were there to hang out with, fill in on our dance when we had injuries, and just be part of the experience.

At Eastern's our mens team traveled with us (they had more people there than we even had playing!), cheered on our sidelines, video taped for us, and helped us with strategy. The following weekend, Scorned traveled to return the favor at Men's Centex in Austin. When we return from tournaments, I am rarely asked who we played or how we ended up because everyone already followed us online throughout the weekend. It is a community. We all have a hand in every win and every loss, no matter which team is playing.

All in all, I don't think Ames all is that unique of an ultimate community. Ultimate is a small world in of itself. With every tournament I play, I meet new, amazing people, and I realize how much I really love this sport and the people involved in it. The community runs from team to team as well. While teams in the same region tend to grow the strongest bonds, Scorned has developed relationships with teams from all over the nation. Whether it starts on the field, at a party, or from antics over the internet, each of these add to the strength of the ultimate community as a whole. If you play ultimate, I bet you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don't play, you should. It won't take long before you find that this is exactly where you belong with the people you will never want to leave.

Woman Scorned Easterns Highlight Video

Check out our sweet highlight video from College Women's Easterns. Huge thanks to Chuck for filming and editing this!

Woman Scorned at Easterns from Charles Cleary on Vimeo.

Women's Eastern's 2011

After months of cold, snow, and indoor practice, Scorned has finally reached Spring Break 2011 and the second tournament in a nearly 5 week run of tournament weekends. This past week was filled with an insane amount of anticipation for Easterns and Spring Break. Even as we jumped into the cars Thursday for the long car trip, everyone was bubbling over with excitement. Other than running into both Saucy Nancy and Bella Donna in the mountains along the way, the car ride was relatively uneventful.

After a tough first showing at Midwest Throwdown the previous weekend, Woman Scorned walked into Easterns as the 10^th seed, matched up against 2^nd seeded UNC for the first game. Because the weekend was the start of Spring Break for Iowa State, our roster was smaller than usual with only 13 girls, but we had the support of about 18 ISUC boys to hold up our sidelines!

Scorned came out in the first game, ready to run after 22 hours in the car the day before. UNC came out stronger, putting points up right away, but it didn’t take long for WS to find their groove and answer back. WS finally started to find our offensive groove, with HUGE layouts from Magon and Becca. While our offense was looking up, our team defense was inadequate despite big D’s from Jazz and Gapstur. With UNC’s strong handler set, our marks let off far too many breaks, and Scorned was unable to stop the Pleiades from scoring.

9-12 UNC Pleiades

As the wind picked up, our second game of pool play put us up against Texas Melee. Both teams ran zone quite a bit. This game started with several break scores by both teams to jack up the intensity right away. Scorned was grateful for this opportunity to work on both zone O and D. Lady Pesch and Hoistad had great breaks on the mark and through the cup, while Scorned worked out the kinks we saw in our zone offense at Throwdown. Our sidelines we huge in this game, offering plenty of chatter to aid in shutting down up field options for Melee. Texas utilized their speed and height well in this game to take the win with a big huck to a one on one match up near the end zone on universe point.

9-10 University of Texas Melee

In the 3^rd and 4^th rounds, Scorned had byes, which offered plenty of time for us to get some lunch, rest up, and escape the sun for a bit. Groups split with some going to the beach, some back to the hotel, others to restaurants, and several returning to watch games after grabbing food. One cool experience we had at lunch was being asked about our games by complete strangers. It’s not so unusual to get asked what sport we play when we walk into places looking the way we do, but it was very cool that these people actually knew what ultimate was and that there was a big tournament going on in Wilmington. Very cool.

Our final pool play game was against Maryland Helpful Corn. Scorned split wins with this team last season, winning at Philly Invite and losing a close game in soft cap at Centex. This year’s team is made up of a lot of different faces after losing a huge part of their roster from last season. Scorned was able to walk away with the win, making adjustments to our defense and tightening up weaknesses in our game. Scorned really admired Corn’s fight, as they were playing with even fewer girls than us. It is hard not to feel a connection with this team, due to our shared affinity to corn and the love of ultimate…

13-4 Woman Scorned over Maryland Helpful Corn

Woman Scorned matched up with Virginia in pre-quarters for a late game starting at 6:30 pm. This game was a TON of fun! While our boys hooked up big speakers to a car for sideline tunes, Michelle turned on the lights, and both teams played some great Frisbee. Scorned was more than ready to play, not letting our low numbers slow us down. Sam, Jessy, and Cami were open in almost every under cut, while Daisy and Kristen grabbed everything in the end zone for the scores. By far, the biggest baller of this game was Rebecca Miller. If speed and agility weren’t enough, this girl has finally perfected her layout style and is very quickly becoming unstoppable. Virginia was a ton of fun to play and even had a great cheer about Des Moines. We hope to play them again in the future!

13-5 Woman Scorned over University of Virginia Hydra

Saturday night was probably the most uneventful Saturday of all time. The majority of the team went to bed around 9:30 and plenty of sleep was had.

Sunday morning’s quarter finals game had us playing none other than the University of Iowa’s Saucy Nancy. I’m pretty sure that Woman Scorned has never gone to a tournament and NOT played Saucy. Saucy and Scorned traded wins in the Fall but took a close victory at a January scrimmage and a solid win over us at Midwest Throwdown. This game started off looking much like Midwest Throwdown, but Scorned kept our heads up and made some changes in our offense to break through Saucy’s zone defense and walk some discs into the end zone. Jiear and Hoistad were rock solid handlers in this game and facilitated the disc through, around, and over the cup all day. Saucy continued to bring it during each point and the score proved it. Although this matchup is anything but rare, it always proves to be an intense game. This rivalry is deep, yet friendly and always results in a great game of ultimate.

6-13 University of Iowa, Saucy Nancy

With the tough match up in Quarters resulting in a loss, we dropped down to the 5^th/6^th place bracket to play Pittsburg Danger in the first round game. This is another team that Scorned has rarely (if ever) seen. These girls came out ready to play some ultimate. Highlights from this game were big hucks from Magic and an insane run through D by Jazzy-phay. Near the end of this game, Becca and Pesch both went up for a Sky D (we did get the D) which resulted in a pretty ugly collision that took Pesch out for the rest of the weekend and cut our numbers down to 12.

13-6 Woman Scorned over Pittsburg Danger

The last game of the tournament took place at the hottest part of the weekend for sure. We matched up on Michigan Flywheel on a field between the finals (Iowa v. Wisconsin) and 2^nd/3^rd (UNC v. UNC-W). Scorned came out in this game, fired up and ready to end the weekend strong. We were down to 12 girls and looking to lose Jazz about 30 min into this game because she had to catch a flight. Scorned took the first 5 or 6 points of the game, looking the best we have yet this season. Magon and Gapstur put up big hucks to Jessy, Cami, Love, and Becca to throw scores up on the board and take half at 7-1. The second half of this game, showed the results of playing a long weekend with few girls. Scorned hit a wall and Flywheel capitalized. Michigan came back with a huge run to pull their score up to 10. Scorned only took the win by one point in hard cap. In one of the points in the second half, Love had a huge D in the end zone that involved one of the tallest girls I have ever seen in college ultimate. Both girls were running for a floaty huck to the end zone. Love had positioning, but the Michigan girl did not notice tiny Love and continued to literally run her over. The results of this play ended in a sweet D from love due to great positioning, a lot of laughter from us, and a pretty roughed up (but not injured) Love. Love took a few, well deserved points to recover which bumped us down to 10 players for most of the remainder of the game.

11-10 Woman Scorned over Michigan Flywheel

Woman Scorned finished up the tournament with a proud 5^th place finish. North Central region had a great weekend in Wilmington, with all 3 teams placing in the top 5 (Iowa #1, Wisco #2). Following games, Gap sweet talked a security guy into letting the girls shower in one of the UNC-W buildings before the team headed to grab food and hit up the beach. After some beach time, the team more or less randomly found a slightly sketchy biker pool bar to kill approximately 5 hours before making the drive to Georgia where our vacation farm house was located.

We would like to give a BIG thanks to Michelle and the Seaweed girls for another great tournament! The weather was unbelievable and the tournament could not have been better. Thanks again!

-Written by Gapstur, Jessy, Magon, Hoistad, Pesch, Cami, and Jiear (chillin’ on a front porch on a farm in Georgia)

Throwing Down at Midwest Mudfest 2011

All week the excitement for Scorned’s first outdoor tournament was building. Last minute emails and indoor zone D practice added to the anticipation that we were finally out of the February no-tournament slump. For the most part, the ride to St. Louis was smooth. Scorned took 4 vehicles, with the majority of the team creating mad libs and chasing SF 1.0 in a 15 passenger van named Vag Fest 3.0. The rest of the team was split up between coach K and Lana’s van, Memo’s car, and a few people from the van went in Jazz’s car to make a little more leg room for everyone. After a 6-7 hour ride the majority of the Scorned ladies arrived at Blake’s house. Things got a little wild as the night got late, but Gapstur and Hoistad settled everyone down, tucked the team in, and told an unnecessarily long, ridiculous bedtime story about Ultimate Princess Virginia and the adventures she encountered between leaving her dairy cow farm on the coast to travel to St. Louis for the Throwdown.

After a little trouble finding the fields Saturday morning, Scorned arrived to the MWT and started to warm up. The weather was a bit chilly, but we were stoked to be outside on ground that wasn’t covered in snow. Lana and Kevin warmed us up with some great drills as we geared up for our first game of the spring season.

With power pool formatting, we took the field with our first game against Bella Donna, North Central Region competition. Both teams came out hard looking to take the lead. Although both teams took made break scores upwind, Bella held the lead until the end and took the win. One memorable highlight was Britt with a great grab for the score (I know it happened, I think it was this game?).

Score: 8-10, Wisconsin.

The next game of the day was versus Colorado Kali. This was definitely the coldest game of the day as the wind picked up. Up wind forehands became nearly impossible and in combination with an effective Kali zone, Scorned was unable to make the breaks necessary to win the game. Although defense was fought hard, Kali’s outdoor experience showed through with very few incompletely passes. Although the game proved frustrating on many levels, Kali was a fun team to play with great spirit and a good attitude about the adverse weather and temperatures. Highlights all went to rookie Weino in this game with some pretty insane grabs on a few swilly hucks. In the end, Kali came away with a win.
Score: 6-10, Kali

After a much needed gathering in the vans to warm up, Scorned took the field against Kansas University’s Betty’s. Lana’s brilliant idea of warming up in the cars proved successful, and Scorned pulled off the first win of the weekend 13-2. Some of the highlights from this game included our new zone defense. While it was a bit of an experiment actually running it in a game situation with real wind, it proved to be successful and forced multiple Ds.
Score: 13-2 Woman Scorned

After games, Scorned split up into their vehicles for the afternoon. Following warm cars and hot showers, the team regained feeling in their feet and hands. Scorned headed to Applebee’s for refueling before heading to Butchers house in the 15 passenger van for a little gathering/hot tubbing with the ISUC boys. Despite the co-ed mingling fun, Woman Scorned left the ISUC house at 12:00 AM sharp, thanks to the responsible rookies, Cami and Sam.
The next morning Scorned was well rested, dressed warm, and ready to take the field against Notre Dame. It was a chilly morning, but the Scorned ladies played tough through the muddy fields. Normally teams force with the wind or to the weaker throw of a team, however in this game we chose to force mud. Since half of the field was a pure mud pit, we decided to force their throws into this perfect layout D bed of fun. For the most part, this proved successful. Notre Dame was a very fun team that was all sorts of full of strategy. They even wore camouflage to blend in with the mud/grass mix of the fields. With a hard fought game on both sides, full of absolutely great spirit, Scorned pulled out the win to start off the morning.
Score: 11-8 Woman Scorned.

With little time to waste, Scorned then headed over a few fields to play University of Iowa Saucy Nancy. Scorned has traded wins with Saucy all fall but in this game Saucy brought everything they had. With great breaks and a zone that gave us too much trouble breaking, Saucy took hold of the game from the beginning and never let up. Despite our troubles making the scores, Scorned still threw down some great highlights. Cami, Becca, and Jessy all had great grabs, while Pesch and Jazz found holes through the Iowa cup on several occasions.
Score: 4-13 Saucy Nancy

After a loss to Iowa, Scorned headed across the parking lot to play Colorado College. This is a team that Scorned has not had very much (if any?) experience playing. The game was played with high intensity on both sides. The defense was really the main spectacle in this game. Both teams sacrificed our bodies for the disc and had the muddy clothes to prove it. Jazz had the most insanezo layout D on a huck in this game, while Oliver and Kaira layed it out big in the end zone for scores. Love, Hoistad, Top Model, and Pesch had mad defense on the field, doing a great job of shutting down handler movement in the mud. In the end, Scorned suffered a tough loss on universe point.
Score: 6-7 Lystra’s Tools

The final game of the weekend started off with a dance off to set the tone of the game. Both teams brought it, all enjoyed it, and in the end it was impossible to walk away with your head hung, no matter the outcome. Ohio State was our final opponent, and yet another team that we little to no history of playing. This game was fought with both pain and pride, as every single player on Scorned stepped up. The sidelines worked it hard in an attempt to transmit energy to the tired players on the field. Endurance wasn’t as much an issue as weighing injuries and the pure body beating the mud had administered. Both teams worked hard, but had exceedingly too many turn overs with solid defense being played by both teams. The biggest highlight of the game (and probably weekend) was THE MOST RIDICULOUS layout grab I have ever seen in my life, by Cami. In a swilly huck, the disc bladed over Cami’s head to the other side of her defender. Even her defender didn’t see the need to look for the D as it was clearly out of range...except that Cami made a bid for the disc, resulting in a two fingered grab no more than an inch above the ground. Unfortunately for everyone involved, a quiet injury had been called a few throws before which resulted in the disc going back. There were several more great grabs and Ds from a number of people on Scorned. Jessy, Gapstur, Love, and Becca were consistently frolicking in the mud, while Cassie, Sam, Hoistad, and Jiear played with straight consistency, maintaining our possession for the scores. The game was definitely a fun one, and although Fever took the game on universe point, Scorned gladly shook their hands for playing a great game of ultimate with us.
Score: 8-9 Ohio State (Beiber) Fever


Although injured, we had great help on the sideline from Anne all weekend with stat keeping (which we clearly didn’t get a hold of to help me write this) and sideline cheering/support. Although unable to play, Anne proved herself as a teammate. In the Fever game, Gapstur took off her red sweatshirt to reveal a clean white jersey, but after a few points, was asked to change to a red by the other team. Anne graciously lent Gap her brand new red jersey, which became almost completely covered in mud and wetness only minutes later with a layout D.

We would like to throw a huge thank you out there to our coaches for their help this weekend, and also to WUWU and Without Limits for running a great tournament, as always. Thank you!

After games, Scorned took no time to strip off all of our muddy clothes, crawl into our cars and make the trip back to Ames to gear up for a week of exams before the big Spring Break Oh One One. This weekend we will be attending Easterns in Wilmington, NC. Excitement is probably the biggest understatement of the year, but we are EXCITED. Not only are we looking forward to some more outdoor ultimate, but we are also excited for warm weather and the beach!! There has been a lot of tweets./emails/RSD posts flying around about surfing lessons, and Scorned plans to take full advantage shall the opportunity arise. The big talk around Ames is about Sarah “Blue Crush” Hoistad and her mad board skills, but realistically, I think most people are putting their money on the Magical “New Zealander” Lui.

ISUC and Woman Scorned plan to spend the following days in Georgia celebrating life before heading down to Austin, TX for Men’s Centex.

-Written by Lindsey Gapstur & Cami Nelson

Scorned's headed to St. Louis for V-F 3.0

This weekend, Woman Scorned will be headed to St. Louis, Mo to compete in Midwest Throwdown. Our first game of the weekend looks to be against region rival, Wisconsin Bella Donna. The weekend looks to hold lots of exciting games and we are pumped and ready to get down there for some good 'ol fashion OUTDOOR ultimate!

Follow us on Twitter to catch our scores and possibly some game highlights if anyone is ambitious enough to do it. :)

Can't wait for the weekend to get more Woman Scornedisms in your life??? Neither can we....

This weekend we are experimenting with a 15 passanger van (aka most of our team) to participate in what we call V-Fest 3.0. It is likely to be an adventure, especially because ISUC will be hosting their first S-Fest 1.0 (they got a big van too). Check out the highlight video from V-Fest 2.0/WS Valentine Party/what we do in Ames on the weekends.



Good luck to everyone playing this weekend!

Drake University Ibex

This past Sunday, Woman Scorned hosted a small scrimmage in Ames. We invited the Drake University women's team, Ibex. Ibex is a new team for the Central region which was started last year but struggled to gather enough girls to form a solid team. Last season they attended several tournaments but usually ended up combining with other small programs to increase numbers while still gaining valuable tournament game experience.

The first thing that makes Ibex so flippin' awesome, is their name. An Ibex is a goat that has HUGE horns. Supposedly, the purpose of these horns is so that when/if they fall down a mountain slope, they won't injure their head because their horns will protect them. I have no idea if this is true, but I swear this is the story I heard when the team name was decided.

Junior, Jenny Perry, is the captain of Ibex and the founder of the team. She has been involved in ultimate in the area for the past few years and is quite the baller. I know Jenny through playing Des Moines Summer League and from a 17 hour car ride to and from Philly Invite last year (that was an adventure there). Jenny's love for ultimate is awesome, she drove all the way to Philly with us to pickup with a team just to play ultimate, even in sub-par weather conditions.

IBEX brought about 10 girls to the scrimmage this past weekend. It was great to see the passion and drive from such a young program. Although this team is young, their skills are far from lacking. Ibex has height, speed, agility, and passion- all the necessities for a successful team. The combination of their strong leaders, excited girls, superior athleticism, and the tournament experience that they will soon gain, I have no doubt that it will only be a matter of short time before Ibex becomes a contending team in this growing Central Region.

IM Basketball Game 2!!

Everyone was much calmer going into the second game, and it was very evident that we had made improvement. With a score of 17-39, one eviction, and no injuries, things looked a lot better than the night before. It was the game of the 3 point shots and solid defense, although once again our defense under the basket could have used some work.

Just to Clarify, the D bracket on the Intramural Website is defined as “Women's Class D - very low skill level (don't play very often).” I think that Woman Scorned would definitely fit this descriptions. The other teams?...I am not so sure.

The Woman Scorned ladies did not get a great warm up in before the game because of the snowstorm, but this did not seem to hinder the excitement on the court. After Jiear stepped in as captain and won the coin toss, we sent 5 solid ladies out on the court to start the game.

Everyone seemed to have a lot more patience this game, and we did a good job of “swinging” the ball and working their zone defense.

Cassie “Sexy” Panther did a phenomenal job of leading her line during the first half, scoring all of the points. It was a huge loss when she got evicted because of her nose ring.

Rookie, Sam Sauerbrei, is a very exciting player to watch from the sideline with her intense style of play and crazy body gestures and facial expressions. She is a must watch for all attending the games.

Daisy Velasco also stepped up the second game, playing really solid D, especially on the full court press. She was very aware of her surroundings and helped cause a few turnovers on defense.

IM superstar Sarah Hoistad once again was a key factor out there, being about the only player on our team who was able to get a rebound.

Nikki and Bosco were also big factors taking the ball up most of the time.

The player of the second half was without a questions Tessa “the tank” Heeren. She scored a couple of baskets and kept the Scorned sideline fired up!

Overall, it was a positive 2^nd game. The Scorned IM team improved greatly from the first game, and now I believe they are a strong contender in their last game of pool play.

Keep your eye on the prize ladies!

Highlight Reel #2

Iowa City Scrimmage Recap

Although snow is on the ground in most of the Midwest, college ultimate is far from slowing down. This past weekend, we were privileged to attend a scrimmage located in Iowa City, hosted by Saucy Nancy. At this scrimmage, the top five teams in the North Central region last spring competed and got a little preview of what each other had to bring to the ultimate scene this spring.

Woman Scorned made the travel Friday evening and was kindly welcomed into the home of the Panther’s. Mr. & Mrs. Panther made us a delicious lasagna dinner for us, and the team relaxed watching movies and working on homework at the kitchen table. Mag found her kryptonite in the form of a cat named Jovi and almost died of an allergy attack before she was rescued by Mikey late in the evening. Special and Becca sent each other love texts and pictures or hearts, and Kaira cried out of joy and excitement while watching “Moulin Rouge.”

Game 1: Syzygy

Saturday morning meant game time. Scorned came out strong against Syzygy from Carleton College. Having the opportunity just to cleat up was enough to pump us up. Scorned’s sidelines were electrifying and Scorned took half in a very close game. As we tried out different combinations of lines, Syzygy fought back and the game ended in with a close victory for Carleton. Although we didn’t pull out the win, Scorned was looking good from many angles. There were D’s all over the field, insane throws, and contagious layouts. Syzygy’s lineup looked tough and they played with flow and consistency. They have height, speed, and experience that is hard to match, and Scorned is looking forward to the next match up with them!

Game 2: Bella Donna

Next up was University of Wisconsin’s Belle Donna. Although Scorned was amped from the first game, we lost our energy quickly. Bella came out ready in their first game of the day and took control right away. Scorned struggled to adjust our defense, and we were unable to effectively shut them down. Although the score was not impressive on our part, individuals stepped up in their roles and improvement was obvious. Bella lost a large part of their roster from last season, but they are still a strong, experienced force to be reckoned with. The experience of their veterans and the athleticism of their rookies, show the depth of their program despite their smaller roster.

Game 3. Saucy Nancy

Scorned ended the day with our third game against University of Iowa’s Saucy Nancy. Both teams came out fighting for the score, and the intensity of the game was high as it always is when our two teams meet up. In the past couple years, this friendly rivalry has been building stronger and stronger. With many friendships between team members, both teams having coaches who play on CLX, and a tendency of playing each other often, this rivalry has pushed both programs to improve. Both teams are familiar with each others strengths and weaknesses, the match ups were well thought through and sick plays were made all over the field. This will not be the last match up for us this spring, and Scorned looks forward to the next chance to play these ladies.

After games, Scorned hit up B-W’s and Pancheros for some food time. Daisy showed true samaritanship (definitely not a word) when she helped a visually impaired man find the mall. Karma came right back around and she got a free burrito for dinner! Scorned then came back to The Bubble and cheered on ISUC while they played their games.

Eventually we made it back to the Panther household for some much needed chill time. Some people did homework like good students, while many of us tested the proven theory of “teams that touch more, play better together.” The massage train went down while we watched “Bend It Like Beckham” in the basement. The night ended pretty well with some Central Region team bonding and singing of some great 90’s music, while Cami and Sam racked up quite a few rookie points.

Game 4: SOL

Sunday morning provided us with a chance to match up against one of our favorite teams, SOL! Although Scorned took a little bit of time to shake off the sleepy, we pulled together and grabbed a victory. This was the game when we really started to get into our groove and figure out what changes needed to be made, both individually and as a team. Caitlin “Monster” Bosco had the breakthrough game of her life with about 100 amazing layouts. Probably the coolest play of the game was a risky huck to Bosco in the end zone which was D’d by SOL but Bosco made an insane layout grab for the score! It was awesome, trust me. SOL played a great game and proved that they are ready to hang with any team that comes up against them.

Game 5: Bella Donna

Game two of Sunday meant a rematch with Bella Donna. We were ready to prove that we were better than we had performed on Saturday, and that we did. Scorned came out hard and the intensity on the field and sidelines was amazing. Scorned cleaned up our game and made the changes that we needed from the whole weekend. Each person put it all out on the line, which meant great layouts, big D’s, defiant team defense, and beautiful offensive flow. A chilly offense and strong handler defense made the difference in this game. Scorned took half but Bella took the victory in a very close game (universe point I think?). Bella still played hard as always and had some great plays too. We are looking forward to running into this match up again at MWTD, Easterns, or Centex hopefully before regionals.

Game 6: Saucy Nancy (Rookie Game)

The final game of the weekend was by far the best. Scorned was scheduled to meet up with Saucy, but the genius captains of both teams decided to finish off with a rookie game! Rookie had a rough definition and Scorned had about 9 girls ranging from 1 week of Woman Scorned to about a 1 year. While the game started out a little shaky, Scorned caught our flow very quickly. The vets hung on the sidelines supporting the rooks with advice, heckles, and cheers. We were not let down one bit, and our hearts swelled up with pride as the girls rocked the game with intense defense, big hucks, great grabs, and even several layouts! The game was slightly terrifying to see how much potential these girls have and know how it won’t be long until they will be schooling us on the field.

Overall, the weekend was pretty phenomenal. Scorned had a great time, and we would like to extend a big thanks to Saucy for hosting the scrimmage and inviting us to play. As far as the preview of the North Central Region, look out! These were only five of the teams that North Central has to offer, but there are likely to be other teams ready to make some noise this Spring. Luther, Minnesota, and many others are working hard and will no doubt be ready to bring some competition to the fields. Growth is evident and teams are obviously pushing to contend with the rest of the nation. It’s going to be a great Spring, so get ready!

ps. Highlight video coming soon.

Intramural Basketball Game #1 Recap

Woman Scorned Basketball Game 1

You could feel the excitement of the Woman Scorned basketball ladies as you entered the Rec on Sunday night. Many of the Frisbee vets were rocking their Woman Scorned jerseys, but the refs made us all wear the gross nasty red IM ones.

After being told multiple times to take off jewelry (which some people did & some people didn’t) we started the game.

The game was very entertaining to say the least, it was very evident that we didn’t have a lot of basketball experience, but Hoistad, Bosco, and rookie Nikki carried the team with their high school basketball skillz.

I would say that our biggest strength in the game was our defense up top, specifically our full court press. Cassie and Bosco worked really well together forcing the other team’s point guard to one side and then double teaming them to try and get the ball. Sarah Pesch used her ultimate knowledge to read where the ball was going to go, and made several hand blocks that she ended up hitting out of bounds, beneficial in ultimate, but not basketball.

Another strength that we had as a team was our ability to fake. Although they were more Frisbee fakes, with pivoting and going side to side, I think it really did influence and weird-out the defense.

One of the most exciting things about the game was the sideline talk. I am sure that the other team thought we were crazy.

With a lot of ultimate experience and very little basketball experience, there was a lot of comparing to Frisbee. Comments heard on the sideline included:

“You can pick in basketball??” “Yea I heard jazz say that once”

“Run a vert stack!”

“That was a handler cut”

Up calls

“Get it girl!”

“Now I remember why I play Frisbee, I hate refs”

Along with certain Frisbee cheers, the sideline was definitely the place to be during the game. They were very influential in the decisions made on the court, most notoriously making people shoot. There were many air balls shot because of sideline suggestion.

In the second half certain players were getting very frustrated with the refs, and Bosco was given a warning for swearing after a girl hit her in the face. Also, Hoistad was ejected from the game for not taking out her earring, which none of us could figure out how to do before the game.

Over all it was a positive first game for the intramural team. We for sure have some things to work on, but I would say that there is still potential for winning a Championship shirt.

"Worth a Point"

Since my ultimate birth (3 years ago in February-yey! birthday week #2??) I have heard the term "worth a point(s)" thrown around to describe the number of points per game that a player will have a strong positive influence in. Basically it implies that if you remove a player that is "worth 3 points" from a game, the team will score 3 less points than if that player were playing. It is kind of a rough way to evaluate someone's ultimate skills within the context of the team they are playing for.

When I joined Woman Scorned, I was pretty terrible all around. The mixture of starting a new sport, not having done anything athletic for 1.5 years, and coming in at an intense part of the season was just not pretty... I may or may not have vomited in the president of Iowa State's driveway after that first practice. I remember playing 8's or so at Southerns, my first tourney and feeling so awful because I knew that I was "worth about 5 points" every game...for the other team. Even come sectionals and regionals I did not play very much, but I know that those were the games where I contributed the most to the team- from the sideline.

God has blessed me with a lot in life, but one thing that is no secret is my ability to be very loud when I want to be. Woman Scorned has a reputation of sideline cheers, player cheers, huddle cheers, and really just yelling a lot to each other.

Cheers on the field not only pump each other up, but they keep the focus of the entire team on the game. Having a strong sideline can be an 8th, 9th, or 10th player on the field if utilized correctly.

In one of those few points at my rookie regionals, I remember Derscheid on the sideline yelling, "Force side, turn around, get on the other side of your girl!" I was utterly confused and finally I turned to her (mid-point) and asked who she was yelling at. She responded quite abruptly, "YOU!"

This last Fall I played women's club on Revoloution. At regionals, I was defending a speedy outside cutter for several points. She was much taller than me and probably more athletic, but my teammate Emma was on the sideline encouraging me and letting me know where the disc was and where to anticipate her movements. Emma was at least 40% of that defense, and without her sideline help, I doubt I would have been able to shut my girl down.

I firmly believe that you can be "worth a few points" per game without ever stepping on the field. The value in a strong sideline is something that is almost always underestimated and under-appreciated. Strong teams involve more than just the 7 players on the field. Every single person on a team has strengths, and true team unity is reached when each player is fully engaged and using their strengths for the betterment of the team. Whether you are a rookie or the MVP, there are ways you can make a difference in each point. There are always teammates you can be talking to, encouraging, watching to give suggestions off the field, or learning from to improve yourself. As we come into the spring season, my hopes are that the strength of Woman Scorned's sidelines will just continue to grow stronger. Based on the enthusiastic hard work I can see in our practices and workouts, intensity will not be a problem this season.

This weekend Woman Scorned is traveling to Iowa City to play in a scrimmage against Bella Donna, Syzygy, SOL, and Saucy Nancy. These are the top five teams from the North Central region last Spring. The opportunity to see the competition this early in the season is extremely valuable. We are pumped out of our minds to be able to cleat up and play some ultimate when the temperature is below zero and the ground is covered in snow. Let the spring season begin!

Hell hath no fury, like a Woman Scorned.