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