Ninjas in a half-shell!
Hallowinona 15 was hosted this weekend by Winona State University and Durga went as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On Saturday we had 21 girls there so we split into three lines, X Y and Z. Each line got to work together and work on what needed to get done.
Saturday was incredibly windy. Also the brackets were all messed up and we only played 3 games on Saturday because a team dropped out.

Durga vs. Winona
Traded points the entire game. We got a couple upwinds, but I think they might've gotten one too. There were a lot of drops and a lot of turns from both sides. Both teams worked hard but Durga got the better of the Beer Sluts and beat them 13-12 on universe point. We received down-wind for the score.

Durga vs. Gustavus
We were warmed up and ready to play after that Winona game. The lines were working better together, and we traded points at first, somewhere around 4-4. Then we broke away and beat Gustavus 13-5 or something like that.

Durga vs. St Thomas
Hard-fought game against St Thomas. Good throws on both teams, good plays. Still very windy. Lines were definitely more cohesive in this game. Anyone got anything to add?
We won.

Saturday night was fun, the hotel was full of people dressed up in crazier costumes than they played in. ........."I'm fucking Princess Leia, bitch!"


Sunday
Even though we won all of our games the day before, the TDs just weren't giving Durga a break and didn't give us a first-round bye. Durga changed up the lines on Sunday with a few people missing and split up 6 handlers into groups of 3 and had 7 cutters for each line. Lines: Apples and Cheesecurds. We played Carleton first.

Durga vs. Carleton
I'm not sure if this was entirely their B team or if they were still doing tryouts, but they showed up late, Durga was very warmed up. We played really well and beat them 13-1. Our D was on as well as our offense.

Durga vs. Winona again
We played better against this team on Sunday once we knew how to work match-ups and work with our lines. We rocked it, I would say. I don't remember the score though. We won.

Durga vs. Marquette
Championship game! Durga tried really hard, came out strong, but their handlers were fast and they took advantage of poaches. Final score might've been something like 7-13.

But hey, we took second at Hallowinona! Hell yeah.

-Brittany Faust #18 Junior

Halloooooowinona preview

Hello Durgaland, this weekend is halloween, but more importantly, it's Hallowinona! It's a mixed, open, and women's tournament hosted by Winona State. Each team dresses up, usually themed, and plays in costumes. We were lumberjacks last year, and boy did we look great when we took first :).

This year, the roster going is:

Eliza McDermott
Erin "Shish" Shishilla
Brittany "BFaust (Fausty? What is this?)" Faust
Natalie "DT" Warren (It's sticking, I'm sorry. Until another one comes along... Dusty Trap it is)
Lisa Erlandson
Liz "Lix" Moen
Erin "Shaquille" O'Neill
Rachel "Swiffer" Takazawa
Stephanie "Tanner" Tanner
Taylor "Tee" Bridges
Erin "Kirmy" Curme
Maddie Ranum
Sarah Scott
Laura van Leuven
Bri Sennott
Monica Le
Andrea Henkel
Sarah "Turtle" Mitchell
Leah "Princess Leia" Svingen
Lexi Gurtchef
Sheila Novak
Katherine Zimmermann

I really hope I'm not missing anyone. As you can see, our roster is packed with awesome women.
Our collection of nicknames is building. I'm resisting the urge to just make one for every person right now, but the made-up ones would just detract from the real-and-awesome ones.

This is our last tournament of the fall season, which means a few things.
1. Seniors... I love you
2. We need to play hard and kick ass

Granted, this is a really, really fun tournament with lots of awesome teams going, but let's do well.

The teams in our pool are:
Winona (Monaz)
St Thomas
Gustavus
UW-Whitewater

The brackets aren't up yet, though.

Should make for a great Saturday. The weather is quoted as looking "Decent. High 40s I believe. Yup, Saturday and Sunday." So it's lookin goooood.

Practice today looked really good too. Better flow, better throws.
Oh, and Friday night at Olaf there is a Larson Hall Halloween party that Durga and the Zerks are attending and it's going to be a blast. Halloween is the best.

HOLY BALLS THIS IS THE BEST EVER!
UPA College Championships (Nationals) is being held in MADISON, WI May 28-31st, 2010! This means that we will be able to go and watch the best college ultimate in the country very conveniently. IN MADISON. Last year they were hosted in Ohio and the year before in Colorado and during finals week, to put it into perspective. The main part of the games will be at Reddan Soccer Complex which has GREAT fields, and then the finals will be at Breese Stevens Stadium/Field which is where my high school (East High) plays their varsity soccer games, also an amazing field, and a really cool, old stadium. It's also within driving/biking distance from my place if you need a place to stay. And it's hosted by Madison Ultimate Frisbee Association (MUFA). And the TD is Kate Arnold. So great. So great.
DURGA LET'S GO!

Unrelated to ultimate, but still great.

Hello Durgaworld,
Overseas-Emma shared with me and Natalie a song that is really great.



Check that shit out. Dance.

Since I posted the team picture in which Tanner and DT were cut out, here they are:

Tanner











Emma and Natalie



















And I must make a correction: Rachel's nickname is SWIFFER because she's so freaking great at picking up discs that weren't originally thrown to her in the endzone. It's a beautiful thing, and swiffer sweepers are so helpful.

No Wisconsequences

Durgadurgadurga. As most (probably all) of you know, last weekend was No Wisconsequences, hosted by UW-Madison in Delafield, WI. It was a huuuuge tournament with many great teams... and power pools. In any case, as stated in the previous post, we were placed in Pool F with Chicago, Valparaiso, and UW-Lacrosse/Lawrence. Without further ado, let's take a look at how the games panned out on Saturday.

Durga vs. Chicago
First game of Saturday, Durga came out pumped up and ready to play. We knew we were facing tough competition from Chicago. Unfortunately, we weren't connecting on many throws, and had enough turns to get them the lead and win 11-8. We had some good points and worked the disc well sometimes, but we definitely played down and weren't able to bring it back in time for hard cap. There is one point that I remember mainly because I actually wrote it down after it happened, but there was a textbook play made for a score: Handler swing from me to Erin Curme to Katherine in the endzone in the other corner. Sounds familiar... maybe like a drill we do all the time at practice... At any rate, I was pleased.

Durga vs. UW-La Crosse/Lawrence
This game we were determined to win. La Crosse/Lawrence was a fun team to play but it was hard to keep our level of play up once again. I remember there were also some great plays in this game, especially with some garbage throws (I can say that because some were from me) picked up by some ambitious and amazing freshmen (I'd like to thank Charlotte in particular for picking up one of mine). The game was close at first, with the other team ahead by one point, might've been at 4-3. We picked up our game though and got our flow in motion. We took half at 7-4 and never looked back, winning the game 13-5.

Durga vs. Valparaiso
This was another close game. 3rd game of the day, we were beyond warmed up. They threw a zone on us right away and kept it up throughout the game, making our handlers work for the swing. There were a couple hucks over their cup, but their defense overpowered us and they won the game 9-5.

Durga vs. Grinnell
Okay, so we knew we had to pick up our game again because we wanted this win. We warmed up again after a 4th round bye and were ready to play. It was obvious that our flow was getting better and we were working together; our offense and defense looked great. This was a hard-fought game on both sides with the final score 12-10, us.

****If anyone has anymore details they'd like to share about these games, perhaps some kudos, props, etc to certain team members, please comment!

A lot of Durga attended the tournament party at which they gave out Patagonia gear in a raffle but the guy who was giving stuff out got really pissed off because some people stole some hats that were going to be raffled off. Then, he got even more pissed off when he realized someone stole his personal hat. This party was worse than last year because there wasn't a moonbounce and the people over 21 were blocked off in the beergarden. Oh well. St Olaf Zerks got free white jerseys which is great for them.


SUNDAY

Sunday morning we had a first round bye, on top of a 45 minute frost delay. Our first game was at 10:45 against Illinois State.

Durga vs. Illinois State
We were well warmed-up for this game and came out strong. Everyone's spirits were high, Curme was happy the other team knew the rules, Shish was just excited for everything and everyone all the time, and the other team was very complimentary and friendly. Our flow was really good and everyone was playing incredibly well. We won 13-5.

Durga vs. Winona
Winona forfeited to us, giving us a 3rd round bye. Win?
(During this "bye", Platteville's team Udderburn was kicking ass and beat Carleton's Gods of Plastic (GOP) 12-6. It was a great game)

Durga vs. Illinois State.... again.
So we played this team again, but only played up to 7. I'm fairly certain the end score was 7-1 or 7-2. Good plays once again. They're a fun team to play.


So to recap Sunday: Really great games played against the same team, and a forfeited game. Kind of unfulfilling but it was good for us. We still played hard D and always strived for possession of the disc.

I'm really impressed at how quickly the new members of Durga were able to adapt to the level of play and figure out what they needed to do. I personally feel like we accomplished a lot at this tournament and can't wait to see what we can do at HALLOWINONA!

-Written by Brittany Faust #18, Junior

No Wisconsequences preview

I can't wait any longer. I must update this blog.

SO this weekend is No Wisconsequences, a Cultimate tournament in Delafield, WI. The pools for the Women's division can be found here on the UPA Website.

If you're too lazy to actually look at the pools, Durga is first in Pool F (what?) with Valparaiso, Chicago, and UW-La Crosse. Rumor has it that La Crosse teamed up with Lawrence University's women's team. It'll be nice to play teams that we haven't played before, but really? Pool F? We finished 2nd at Sectionals and 5th at Regionals last year. Whatever, we'll just have to win out on Saturday and head right into the Championship bracket Sunday morning. I have a feeling that it's going to be tricky for teams not in the power A and B pools to make it into the championship bracket. If we keep seed, we'll play C2 which would be Indiana if they keep seed. I hope Duluth beats them because that'd be fun.

The Durga roster for this tournament is:
Erin "Shish" Shishilla
Brittany "BFaust" Faust
Natalie "DT" Warren
Lisa Erlandson
Liz "Lix" Moen
Rachel Takazawa
Stephanie "Tanner" Tanner
Taryn Arbeiter
Taylor Bridges
Erin "Kirby" Curme (The name's been discussed)
Maddie Ranum
Charlotte Rosen
Sarah Scott
Laura van Leuven
Bri Sennott
Meredith Mount
Kelsie Brust
Katherine Zimmermann
Eliza McDermott

This list makes me realize a few things:
1. We are going to kick ass
2. We need more nicknames
3. We have a lot of new people which is awesome

This tournament is also going to force a lot more people to handle that haven't before but I am fully confident in our disc skills.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Durga time is the best time.
I also thought the durgablog should have more cute things on it, so check out Ole the golden retriever puppy with my dad! They will be visited in Madison on the way there and I just can't wait.


-Brittany Faust #18, Junior

Yeah Durga!

Hello everyone on the interwebz, Durga just attended its first tournament of the season! This past weekend (October 3rd-4th) was the 9th annual Exit 69 tournament in Northfield, MN, home of St Olaf and Carleton Colleges. Durga came in seeded 3rd under Carleton X and Y teams, followed by Iowa, Winona State, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Gustavus, Hopkins HS, and St Thomas. The seedings did not match the strength of these teams, however. Iowa finished first overall, followed by Carleton X, Hopkins HS and Minnesota tied for 3rd, St Olaf finished 5th, St Thomas 6th, UMD 7th, Winona 8th, Gustavus 9th and Carleton Y took 10th.

After all that boring seeding/placing stuff, let's take a look at some of the highlights from each game.

Durga vs. U of M
The first game of Saturday turned out to be a learning experience for everyone on the team. As our first tournament game together, we should have expected nothing less. It was a good time trying to get to know how to play with new people and returners, especially in the rain and cross-wind! The disc was slippery which made for quite a few more drops, but the ground was slick and oh so fun to slide on! Many people on Durga were not afraid to get down and get very wet in those puddles. U of M controlled the disc well and was able to keep their flow going and beat us 11-3.

Durga vs. Carleton Y

After losing our first game, Durga was ready to get back in it and show Carleton Y what its got. The disc and ground were still wet (wind and rain = the great equalizers) but that didn't stop Durga from staying chilly. We controlled the disc much better in this game, after getting "warmed-up" from the last one. We got to see some great newbie action on the field, as it seemed that the team was figuring out how to play with one another. We also had a couple all-returner lines to get some quick points and a lead. We took half at 7-4 around the same time as soft-cap, and finished up the game 9-4.

Durga vs. Gustavus Adolphus
This was a great, fun game. Gustavus has always been great on and off the field and this game was no different. By now, the rain had basically cleared up and the disc was pretty dry but the ground was still great for layouts. Durga, warmed up even more from our previously win were excited to play. There were many more hucks thrown in this game and good handler movement. The cohesion was happening! Durga won 13-9, getting a couple break points after trading for a while. Post-game, we played Wah! with the Gussies for some good ol' team bonding.

Durga vs. St Thomas

Like Gustavus, this is a team that is a lot of fun to play. We stayed warm during our bye with a trip to Blue Monday-yum! and came back to figure out our center stack. I could tell many were excited by this new play and how well it seemed to be working.

We got out on the field with a line of mostly returners for the first couple points. We scored the first one and started trading points for a while with scores like 3-3 and 5-5. We took it to half and scored the next point (8-5 is a lot better than 7-6!). After half, many more supporters came to watch (thanks parents for sticking around throughout, especially the Takazawas for the food!!). At first, the St Thomas men's team came, and then out of no-where Brock and Ryan (Durga fans extraordinaire) came running from the road with a huge We Love Durga! sign and were cheering and yelling which was really exciting and Durga was definitely appreciative of this gesture.

After a little while, more Olaf alum and Olaf men's team came to cheer us on which was also really great, and Durga picked it up a bit not letting St Thomas score after half. There were some very long but amazing points and scores. With a final run-through D near their endzone and a backhand pass to Erin O'Neill, the game was over at 13-5. We kept seed on Saturday which was excellent.

SUNDAY!
After crawling out of bed early Sunday morning, we got to the fields to find we had an unexpected first round bye. Another trip to Blue Monday was in order! We went to econofoods and picked up a bunch of stuff. Thank you, Lexi for getting us food and thanks Natalie and Tanner for helping to carry all that stuff! This is where my memory gets a little hazy, so these next couple opinions about the first two games are coming straight from our very own Miss Natalie "I like Mike n Ikes" Warren.

Durga vs. Hopkins
Even after our bye and warming up, we were playing kind of poorly against these high schoolers and had many pep talks about harder D, not getting beat to the line and better handler movement. Basically it was a running game. Also it was someone's 17th birthday. There was a wind with a bit of an angle. They threw zone on us a lot which helped us work out our zone offense, otherwise we did center stack and tried to get our break throws off because they were poaching. We ended the game, losing 6-13. This meant we could only play for 5th place.

Durga vs. UMD
One of my favorite teams ever and I wish I could've been there to play them. Natalie says their captain Sam Sackett hucked it a bunch and had girls going long. We were starting to shape up by this game and had better handler movement. Our D was way better in this game, having warmed it up after those speedy high schoolers. She's pretty sure that the score was 7-5 us at half, though apparently no one kept score very well on either side. They scored once in the second half, and soft cap went on and finished the game 11-6. Duluth, I hope we will meet again.

Durga vs. St Thomas (take 2)
Alright, so this is where my memory gets a bit better. We could tell right from the beginning that St Thomas wanted to beat us. By this time, the ground was a bit soggy but the disc was oh-so-dry (which meant very huckable). Needless to say (because I already said it) there were many hucks for scores from Durga and some great handler movement. This game really felt like Durga was coming together and really working it down the field. One particular point I remember was when our freshman Sarah Scott got a D and made a sick cut to the break side for the score after Erin Shishilla threw a great pass to Erin O'Neill who short-passed it to Erin Curme on the break side who threw it for the score. Erin to Erin to Erin to Sarah! We won 13-7.



There are a couple more people who I don't remember where they exactly fit into the games but man, Lexi had a great tournament full of layouts and Ds and GREAT catches. I can't forget everyone else who played well because I would list everyone. Erin "Shish" Shishilla really got into the last game of Saturday and she rocked it. Freshmen players in particular played very well and improved tremendously throughout the games.



Unfortunately, we had one casualty from this tournament. During the first game on Sunday, Andrea "Layout" Henkel tried to layout for a D but got her knee into a mess of a situation. She'll probably be out for the rest of the season which is a huge bummer. We'll miss her on the field!

-Written by Brittany Faust #18, Junior

Durga durga durga...

Welcome to the webpage for St Olaf Women's Ultimate Frisbee team, Durga. This will be the place for tournament updates and information about our team. Please check back often!