Riot's Best Dance Crew | Solstice Recap

Skinny jeans.  Neon tights.  Green bandanas.  Fanny packs.  Black pleather and sweaters.  Not quite what you'd normally picture as the Riot uniform, but the team looked good as we went to Summer Solstice in Eugene, OR dressed as three teams from America's Best Dance Crew.  

We had the Iconic Boyz channeling the Beebs and Jaden Smith in hoodies, skinny jeans, and baseball caps.  Then there was Millennia, perfecting the tough gal look with a dose of too-cool-for-school attitude.  Last, but not least, was Fanny Pak in neon patterns and flair right out of an early '90s music video, complete with their fanny pack namesakes.  Everyone got really into the theme, both dressing up and learning choreography for each crew, and it was an incredible way to bond as a team.  Once you've played ultimate in wet skinny jeans or a sopping sweater for your teammates, you'll do just about anything for them.

Our first two games on Saturday were against Slackjaw and Schwa in cold, wet conditions.  The rain contributed to a few turnovers and the team struggled a bit with our endzone offense, but smothering handler defense generated opportunities to get the disc back and we and ran away with the match against Slackjaw, 15-1.  Maddy was everywhere in this game, catching or throwing a goal in 5 of the 6 points she was on the field.  We took advantage of the rain to play a fair amount of zone against Schwa and were able to get defensive blocks on deep shots.  On offense, Riot played small ball to work the unders and capped the 15-0 shut-out with Alyssa finding Maddy (again!) in the goal.  

We had a bye to prepare ourselves for the evening's showcase game against Traffic, a rematch of the finals of Flowerbowl which we lost 16-19.  This ended up being our marquis game of the weekend, so I'll describe it in some detail.  Traffic started on O and its offense was crisp as the team worked it against Riot's straight-up marks.  Traffic held serve till 3-2, at which point Riot's offensive lines had a series of costly turnovers which we were unable to get back on D.  All of a sudden the score was 6-2, Traffic.  Riot finally put a point on the board with an incredible grab by Keely off of a Calise huck that was slightly underthrown, allowing the defender to get position.  Keely climbed the ladder to pull down the pass over her defender's back in what Sockeye reports some were calling the "best play" they'd ever seen in women's ultimate.  Although Traffic went on to score the next point, Riot had found its fire--and deep game.  First, Rohre found Maddy on a huge backhand out to space deep.  Then Keely got a lay-out D on a come-back cut, giving Riot it's first break opportunity of the game.  Gwen skied a pack of players to keep the disc alive on a floaty huck and then punched it in to Calise after regrouping in a time-out.  Riot got the disc back again the following point and a Caitlin to Surge goal sealed the three-point run.  Traffic answered with textbook offense to take the half 8-6. 

Out of half, Riot had a couple of miscues against Traffic's large, trapping zone, leading to their easy redzone score.  6-9.  The next two points had multiple possessions for each team, but Riot scored them both, even despite a travel call negating a beautiful Suver flick huck to Hannah Kreilkamp. The game was within one, 8-9.  Traffic scored again without a turnover, and Riot answered by scoring off of a deep shot by Shannon to Gwen.  Traffic's offensive efficiency had little trouble with Riot's transition zone and they scored again without a turn.  After a huck went too far on Riot's O point, Surge made a spectacular layout D on a deep huck to one of Traffic's go-to cutters, Jenn Kwok, to get the disc back.  Pinned on our own goal line, Traffic's pressure handler D forced a stall nine jack which fell perfectly into the anticipating hands of Smalls and Riot scored the point to keep within striking distance, 10-11, Traffic.  On D, Riot earned the break we needed after generating a dump turnover to set up a one pass goal from Jinny to Calise.  Tie game!  Traffic scored to keep the advantage, but Riot returned the favor with Drew getting the disc every other pass to eat up yards until Nora unleashed a backhand huck to Kawai for the equalizer.  The next point, Riot had a chance to take the lead thanks to a KK D block, but we coughed up the disc and Traffic scored.  Then, we turned it over twice on our offensive point (including an endzone turnover) and let Traffic earn back a break.  12-14, bad guys.  It was crunch time and with our backs against the wall our offense scored easily.  It was still Traffic's game point, but our D line got lucky when Traffic overthrew a receiver cutting for the game winning goal and Riot was able to grind it out a full 70 yards to tie up the game at 14 a piece.  The game had been capped so it was double-game point.  Do or die.  Riot's pull ended up out of bounds, so Traffic started at their brick mark and after a few passes put up a big flick huck to Kawai's girl going deep.  Playing textbook sandwich D, Kawai and Shannon both got under the pass and Shannon ended up with the skying grab to put Riot on offense with a chance to win the game.  Shannon found Maddy underneath who then put up a perfectly placed forehand bomb to Keely just outside the endzone.  She put a trust pass out to space to Surge and Riot took its first lead of the game to win it, 15-14, final.  The energy and determination on the field during Riot's comeback was palpable, aided by the buzz of the crowd and the cheering Sockeye crew.  Such a perfect way to end the day.

Except the day wasn't quite over as there was still the little issue of a dance-off to settle.  Each dance crew performed their set routines in front of some of the lingering crowd and the Sockeye judges determined Fanny Pak was 1st, Iconic Boyz as 2nd, and Millennia was 3rd.  The Fanny Pak crew went wild as their short routine won top marks.  

The next morning, fueled by another delicious Scobel Wiggins breakfast at our gracious hosts' house in Corvallis, we were ready for the semifinals against our cross-town competition, Underground.  Underground had played Fury to a score of 8-13 the day before, trading for much of the first half against the defending champions.  Riot came out fired up in our game and with half a dozen D blocks and efficient offense, Riot jumped out to a 7-1 lead en route to taking half 8-3.  Unfortunately, Keely ended up with a broken toe after being landed on after an amazing grab on the point to take half.  Missing Rohre as well, Riot was down to 17 active players and the energy on the field and sideline dipped during our second half.  Underground took advantage of the lull with quick, aggressive offensive possessions and capitalized on unfocused execution errors by Riot.  Slowly earning a break back every four points, Underground closed the gap to 10-9, Riot.  Surge was everywhere during the home stretch of the game, throwing or catching the next three Riot O points and keeping the disc moving quickly downfield.  Nonetheless, UG was still scoring their offensive points, so the game traded out till 13-12, Riot, when the hard cap came on and ended the match.  Props to Underground for never giving up and pushing the entire game.  It never feels good to win a game after failing to score the last point and we are definitely looking forward to the next time we see our neighboring team for some re-match action.

During the 2010 season, Riot faced off against Fury 5 times in the finals of tournaments, the most recent match being Riot's victory in the finals of Northwest Regionals.  In 2011 the script had not changed much as it was Riot vs. Fury in the finals of Solstice.  Right out of the gate Riot turned the disc over on our O point, giving Fury the first break of the game.  After scoring the next point on a Claire to Maddy deep connection, Riot had a chance to get the break back when Caitlin got a D, but we quickly gave the disc up instead.  Riot did get a break two points later on a quick attack by Shannon hucking to Smalls after a turn.  3-2, Riot.  Fury scored the next point against a junk D that didn't quite get set and then Fury went on to get 2 breaks in a row by slowing Riot's offense down with their own junk D and being efficient on a turnover.  Riot answered against Fury's zone to keep the game within one at 4-5, but Riot gave up two more breaks off of unforced drops to let Fury take half 8-4.  Failing to find our rhythm, Riot gave up two more breaks out of half time, allowing Fury to stretch their lead to 11-4.  Riot finally got on the board again after Drew perfectly read an inside-out backhand huck by Calise.  Fired up, we generated two turnovers the next point--the first time Fury had turned the disc over since Riot got a break at 3-2--however Riot gave the disc back each time.  Riot again turned it over on our offensive possession, and despite Caitlin's D near our goalline, we failed to execute in the redzone when a stall 9.5 hammer went out of bounds, setting up Fury to march the disc back for a goal.  A huck execution error on the pull play allowed Fury the opportunity to quickly make the game 14-5.  Another Riot huck turnover gave Fury the disc, but Gwen's straight up mark created a handblock and we marched the disc in.  Unable to generate a turnover on the last point, and despite great deep D coverage, Fury scored on a huck play to take the game, 15-6.  

Fury had a number of new, young faces in its line-up, but the offense didn't seem to skip a beat and they played a great game overall.  It was disappointing not to put together a better game in the finals, but we are excited to see Fury (and other non-NW competition) at Colorado Cup at the end of July.  

While this season's count on the field might be 1-0, Fury, on the dance floor it was Riot all the way.  Disappointed in Millennia's third place finish in the dance competition the day before, KK stayed up late into the night choreographing some special moves for her crew while they practiced throughout the day.  After the finals, Millennia performed for Riot and Fury with great coordination.  Ending with a KK split in the middle of the crew, it was a tough act to follow.  Fanny Pak performed its prize winning routine from the day before and the Iconic Boyz stepped onto the stage as well, but neither could top Millennia's new steps.  Fury's top dancer, Slap, tried her hand at stepping into the circle and while her moves were good, none of her teammates backed her up.  1 vs a whole team just wasn't going to cut it...  You heard it Fury, we expect better in Colorado.

After the tournament, Riot now heads into a month long break from practice.  That doesn't mean we're taking time off completely from ultimate and training. Lots of mini, goaltimate, and flexing to come as we learn from the highs and lows of the weekend to put together an even better performance at Colorado Cup. Can't wait to get Val, Bermi, and Rohre back and hope that Callie, Lindsey, and Keely heal up quickly too.  Until then!