UCSC vs Chavis and updates on our match against Santa Clara

SANTA CRUZ Women 36 – Chiavis 0 Ref: Davis

(Chiavis stands for Chico & Davis Combined Side)

Both teams had a number of rookies with some of them this being their first game. Santa Cruz dominated the game by the scoreboard but the play on the field was very competitive. SC scored first with 25 min left in the half, 15 min later they put one under the post the final score of the half went to SC at 2 min. Both teams changed a number of players although it still was very spirited SC scored on three break away runs @ 22, 7,and 5 min marks. Final Score: Santa Cruz 36, Chiavis 0

Great hospitality I was able to get a very cold shower at the JH locker room, change my clothes have a burger with the ladies then off to the End Zone for another burger and beer with the men’s club. I got home about 10 so it was a great rugby day.

-a la pelican refs of course

Because I love match reports/caps here's another one posted on the Stanford site...ps something tells me their game footage ended up a lot better then ours.

"Stanford 27, UC Santa Cruz 22
It was a great day for rugby on Saturday when Stanford faced the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Santa Cruz put up a tough challenge for Stanford with their physical play, scoring a try off a five-meter scrum and another off a run from their very mobile #1. Stanford also scored twice twice in the first half, with a wide run over the line by flyhalf Jossy Tseng and a zig-zagging run down the center by freshman wing Mara Stark-Alcala.

In the second half Santa Cruz maintained pressure and scored twice, including another try set up from a run by their #1 after a penalty. While still not entirely switched into the game, Stanford did manage to pick up a bit of momentum and scored four tries in the second half. Credit goes to Stanford captain and 8-man Erin Kobashigawa for leading the forwards throughout the tough physical play, flyhalf Jocelyn Tseng for making several key breaks, and rookie Maya White for leadership in the lineouts."

Oh and we got some good news from our athletic coordinator and we may be able to use our lower pitch (which was ruined by the ultimate Frisbee team)for our first league match against Santa Clara. Down side being that Santa Clara hasn't actually played us since 2004...*sigh* either way I don't think I'm playing because I'm having issues jogging for 100 meters much less fit and able to play a whole match. I did 25 minutes of one of those arm cardio things with WAY too much resistance and I think I won't be able to lift my arms tomorrow (someone else set the machine). Meh. Now on to school!

UCSC mixed side vs Chico/Davis B-side

It was the last game of pre-season with a score of 36-0 with our side victorious in a well contested match. The DII kickoff tournament was canceled due to uncommitted sides we sought out a B-side match against a mixed Chico Davis team (their A-sides were duking it out in an earlier match). Don't know the score to that game but I'll find out. We pretty much were still finicking around with our lineup and were swapping around combinations, two of our vet forwards (myself included) had to sit it out for various reasons (@ #((*@#& hamstring). But yea overall big improvements.

Chico/Davis (or Chavis for short) were coming up very hard in defense and putting huge pressure on our midfield. They also fielded kicks particularly well and it resulted in a very back and forth start for the first half. The team worked well together scoring 3 tries in the first half. Our side definitely calmed down the nerves and brought up the aggression in the second half...with two great individual tries by one of our 10s Kelly McMahon. Defense has improved leaps and bounds and I'm really excited to say that there were no major breakthroughs in our line which probably helped keep our tryline untouched.

Will post pictures later...

So I pulled my hamstring pretty bad

and it fucking hurts like hell right now, I can't find a position that isn't giving me a migraine this really sucks...I'll be resting it for two weeks minimum..which probably takes me out of the first league game...and considering we only have four league games...yea this season is kinda up for grabs. Yea it's too early to tell...it's just a pulled hammy but I've never had this happen before and I don't want to do permanent damage. If we had a trainer I would feel comfortable pushing it but frankly...we don't and ipso facto I don't. I quit the news team today so I could focus on school and frankly I can't hike up the mountain right now and run around like a journalist. So overall...shitty day yeah? Oh...the rest of the DII teams in our league flaked so the DII kickoff tournament is off...and so I guess we're trying to schedule something with Chico's B-side. Yea well... time to focus on school and healing...any tips would be great.

Ref Report and photos of Berkeley vs UCSC...what is it? 4th annual clinic and scrimmage

UC Berkeley 5 – UC SANTA CRUZ 25 Referee: Anna McMahan

Berkeley hosted Santa Cruz on a gorgeous day for three 25 minute periods. The game was played on Berkeley's all-weather turf field, which made for a smaller, odd-shaped pitch lined for soccer and lacrosse. Despite the lack of proper field markings and goal posts, the two teams came together for a fun friendly after participating in a skills clinic.

Set pieces and forward play were fairly evenly matched between the teams, but Berkeley had a difficult time containing Santa Cruz's midfield and back three.

Santa Cruz also employed a strategic kicking game that kept Berkeley in their own half. UCSC scored three tries in the first period, and one try each in the next two periods, while Berkeley's lone score came in the last period. No conversions were attempted due to lack of uprights.


And pics...
Berkeley always teaches us the coolest new tackling drills...


Under the watchful eyes of Street, Ellen, and Chou



Yea the lines were kinda funny, the guy in the striped shirt was the touch judge...our winger/fly-half Kelly McMahon (of no relationship to the WRWC eagle flanker) keeping her legs pumping despite a tough Berkeley tackle



Showing that she still has the wheels to finish 'em (also note the lack of a try zone)

Who said I was panicking?

I'm too sore to think but there's practice today. Ugh. School is quite nuts already. The berkeley game went well all things considered. Our backs were pulling off plays and our defense was improving. Lineouts were strong which was surprising after friday's practice (where we couldn't snag anything). We played their rookies and beat them pretty soundly 7-8 tries to 1 (there weren't any posts). Side note, they had the coolest astro-turf I've ever been on (I'm not normally a fan). Anyhoo I guess their big game is going to be against Humboldt. We won't be going to the stanford invitational for some reason...and hopefully the dii kickoff tournament is still going to occur. Er...what else...our sub-units were working pretty well but the connection between backs and forwards were still a little shady. We were switching people around like popcorn so all things considering the results were pretty good (we had a flanker at scrum-half at one point). Yep. Oh and I scored a try...fun stuff.

Pics will probably go up later...

Post-Apocalypse 100th post

Well if you're wondering why my posts have dropped off the fact is I was saving up my posts so I could hit the big 100 on the first practice of my last season at UCSC (which happened on Monday). But yea, then a few nukes were dropped on the teams lap and I've been too busy just trying to handle it. Basically we had some unexpected losses that hurt emotionally just as much as they impact ourselves as a team. I've been struggling to keep my view of the situation empirical because frankly I can't deal with the emotional side of things right now. I'll admit it really shoved me at the crossroads of whether to become a spectator/fan or continue playing but really, I'm going to stick with it as long as I can and play for fun and to provide guidance for all those silly little munchkins we call rookies.

That being said we have a scrimmage this weekend against UC Berkeley, and we'll see how we can stack up *sigh*. My personal goal? Win league. We gotta win league. Oh sidenote stanford is playing belmont shore on like the 26th? It'll be interesting to look at the result (unfortunately we have a dii tournament). OH other bummer news...our stupid ultimate club wrecked our home pitch so now we'll have to use the stupid effin top field that is always rained in/closed. GREAAAAT. I looooooooooove indoor circuit training. Blergh so yea...very sarcastically happy 100th post.

Storms, Blackouts, and Hangovers

Yep that's about it. We had our power knocked out yesterday, I signed us up for internet, installed a router, a wireless bridge, got Kaspersky, fixed my car (replaced the battery, and have been perusing internships. It's been stormy so I haven't been able to exercise much which isn't great but yea...not a whole lot to report. Goff put up the awards and Blaire won one and Blues took best club *shrugs*. Oh I got a kit for christmas which is pretty awesome, a kyoto jersey and shorts to represent =] but essentially that's it, practice will start on monday so I'm looking forward to a brand new year of rugby.