Iowa Saucy Nancy: Road To Boulder

After a solid performance in the 2010 College Series, finishing 4th in the Central Region behind Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Carleton College, and Wisconsin, Saucy Nancy got its first taste of victory. Almost all of the 2010 Saucy players made the 3 hour trip to attend the 2010 College Championships in Madison, WI and saw that they could compete with these teams if they only worked harder in the next season. They were eager to showcase their team’s skills at the nationals level.

During the summer, nearly every Saucy played summer league, and club Ultimate, picking up at what ever tournaments they could. It was at Poultry Days 2010 that Saucy was able to convince Mikey Lun, CLX standout, to move to Iowa City from Marshalltown to coach the team. His knowledge of the game would help to lead the team, harnessing their energy into a usable, and dominating form.

Throughout the summer months, the returning players got together to drill and scrimmage. By the time I got to Iowa City, almost all of them had developed great throwing capabilities, could read the disc well, and had remarkably good hands. I was ecstatic. I had never been on a team with this much depth and desire to improve. And it was only August.

The fall season meant growth. Picking up some stud rookies with athleticism and a new found love of the game, the team started winning. Split squads finished 1st and 2nd at Grinnell, the team won No Wisconsequences, took 3rd at Exit 69, and 3rd at Missouri Loves Company, despite missing key players at many of the tournaments. The winning attitude became contagious.

Winter break came and went, and the team showed signs of early brilliance in an indoor round-robin vs. the top-five teams in the North Central Region. The team hit the track, hit the weights, and worked harder at developing than they ever had before. The hard work showed early on at Midwest Throwdown. Where the skills failed, the endurance and ability to fight tooth-and-nail until the very end won a universe-point game in 2 inches of mud against a veteran heavy Bella Donna team.Saucy traveled half-way across the country to Easterns. The team showed many signs of improvement from Throwdown. Working the disc easily and effortlessly in the sun and light winds of Wilmington, North Carolina. The love of the game infected every single Saucy on and off the field, injecting an energy never experienced before. Saucy came out on top over North Carolina in semis, and beat Bella Donna in the finals by a larger margin than they did at Throwdown.

Motivated, the team, traveled south to Centex. The team came out flat against a talented Washington team, but won the rest of the games on Saturday with a much better performance. On Sunday, the team came out fired up winning against two great teams: Cal Piequeens and Michigan Flywheel. Headed into Semis vs. UNCW, the team went on a huge run. Saucy was up 5-2. But Seaweed edged out the Saucies, and won on universe point. Saucy dropped another universe point game (the third consecutie universe point game of the day) to Tufts, finishing 4th overall.

Saucy heads into Boulder after taking 2nd in the West North Central Conference and winning the North Central Region. We look forward to the long anticipated return of Grad Student stud, Chelsea Twohig, who has been out since Centex with a back injury. Pool D looks tough, but we’re up for the challenge. The past few weeks, we’ve been concentrating on adding extra power to our offense, and improving all of our defensive sets. Last Sunday was one of the best practices I have ever seen from this team this entire season. We are definitely peaking at the RIGHT time.

 

Notable Players:

Katie Johnson lays out to catch the winning break throw at Regionals.

Captains:

Andrea Uhl, Senior
Alyx Averkamp, Junior
Kristen Appelson, Senior

All-Region Nominees:

Audrey Erickson, Sophomore
Liza Minor, Sophomore
Katie Johnson, Senior
Kelli Parsons, Senior
Kristen Appelson, Senior
Chelsea Twohig, Grad Student
Robyn Fennig, Grad Student

FOTY Nominee:

Anna Prichard, Freshman

Callahan Nominee:

Robyn Fennig, Grad Student