Power Pool F offered a first round match up between Bay Area Revolver and Denver’s Johnny Bravo. Revolver being the 2 seed entering the tournament had an easier route on Thursday, whereas Bravo, being the 5 seed, suffered a tough loss Thursday afternoon. At Labor Day, Bravo displayed the ability to compete with the highest tier of Club Ultimate.
It’s windy here this morning and it’s proving a difficult condition to play in. Not only are there strong winds, but the direction of the wind is rather cumbersome. It’s not an upwind or even a crosswind but more of a diagonal wind coming across the field. The gusts of wind are strong enough that my MacBook Air moves and shakes as I write. Typical Sarasota conditions.
The first two points offered the patient offense Revolver has a patent on along with Jimmy Mickle finding someone wide open to tie it at 1-1. Revolver then took advantage of two Bravo turns and cashed in the breaks leading to a Bravo regroup timeout and a 4 -2 lead. It wasn’t long after this that Bravo realized Revolver’s bread and butter was to get the disc on the high side of the field and keep it there via flick-inside out break from cutters coming upline and downfield from the low side. This lead Bravo to clamp down and regain some of the breaks they had lost earlier in the game. Half ended on serve 8-7.
After half it appeared that Revolver learned this game was mostly about field position. Revolver was able to generate turns with a shorter field and increase their chance of cashing in the break. Similarly Revolver was willing to chance the long ball, giving Bravo’s D-line an entire field to overcome if it hoped to generate a break.
Revolver ended up winning 15 – 11. Something I kept track of during the game was D-line efficiency. Bravo took advantage of 3 of Revolver’s 14 turns, while Revolver capitalized on 6 of 11. While this was key to their success, the field position was more of a sign of this game’s outcome.
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