ECC Champions!

While the last throw of the tournament hung in the air, I had the time to say aloud, "That's not the look we want." Half a second later, Smalls out-read and out-jumped her taller defender for the game-winning catch and the title of ECC Champions. Instantly the huck decision was forgotten as Riot rushed the field to celebrate our double-game point victory over Fury. Winning our home tournament in front of friends and family could not have been sweeter--it was a full team effort to push through 9 games of the weekend, each with their ups and downs to learn from and improve upon--and it provided us all with a taste of what this team is capable of achieving this season.

The weekend started right here in Seattle with an exhibition game against our local competition, Underground. It's always fun to play in a stadium and it was wonderful for both teams to have the opportunity to invite people to come watch us compete. The stands also had a good showing of ECC participants, many of whom were fresh off of playing pre-ECC games previously that day. As the game started, both teams seemed strung a little tightly and had a handful of turnovers right off the bat, a few of which were due to good defensive plays by both teams. Riot got the first break of the game to go up 3-1 which seemed to settle the team's nerves a bit. Riot still had a couple turnovers in the next few points, but was able to get the disc back enough to push our to a 8-2 half-time score. Out of half-time, the Riot offensive efficiency just kept getting better and better. A huck from Keely to Nora started off the half and six Riot scores later Rohre got the D to set up an HM to Claire goal that finished off the game, 15-2.

The weekend's games were up in Burlington at the familiar Skagit River Park site. None of Friday's games factored into the weekend's formats, so UNO's 15-13 victory over Fury in a re-match of the gold medal game at 2010 WUCC was purely for bragging rights. On Saturday, Riot's first pool play game was against Nemesis. After scoring the first point on O, Riot fought through a long, multi-turn point to get a break, which it added to the next point to go up 3-0. Nemesis answered on their next O point and earned one break back after Riot turned the disc multiple times. Riot responded and then capitalized on a deep rolling pull to set zone the next point. Nemesis failed to advance out of the endzone and set-up an easy one pass goal after Jinny earned the turn. Riot earned two more breaks that half to go up 8-3. Both teams cleaned up their games in the second half and Nemesis only allowed Riot to earn one more break on D. Instead, the Chicago women earned two breaks of their own, one on a nice run-through D in the middle of the field to close the gap to 11-8. It was too little, too late and Riot was still able to trade out the rest of the game to win 15-11. Nemesis had a lot of athleticism in its squad and Val Ngai in particular was really the engine behind the team's offense. Definitely a team on the rise that no one should look passed.

Next up was Brute Squad. Starting on O, Riot promptly got broken on a missed huck off the pull play. That was the only time the Riot O was broken this game, allowing D lines to take most of the glory with efficient offense after getting a turn. Unfortunately, Bermi and a Brute player, Blake Spitz, collided heavily after an up-the-line cut early in the match and both left the game with injuries. Bermi was able to return to play later that game and we hope Blake is able to bounce back soon as well. With another half time score of 8-3, Riot remained playing loose and began to use the underneath game a bit more than the numerous deep shots of the first half. After another Riot 4-0 run (the highlight of which was a Rohre Callahan goal after another deep pull allowed Riot's zone D to set up in the endzone) to take the game to 12-4, the two teams traded out to a final score of 15-7.

RevoLOUtion was our Division II crossover game of the day and the women from St. Louis were able to get an the board the first point of the game after a Riot miscue. Then Riot didn't have another turn for six points, en route to yet a third half-time score of 8-3. The second half saw Riot's deep game clicking with hucks flying from Kawai, Gwen, Alyssa, Claire, and Jinny. RevoLOUtion earned one break back at 11-5, but the final score was 15-6 in Riot's favor. This was RevoLOUtion's first tournament of the season and they looked improved over last year already.

After a bye, our last pool play game was in the showcase round against Japan's UNO. Ever since watching UNO at WUCC Riot had been eager to play the highly skilled squad. As players from other teams ate the ECC salmon dinner on the sidelines, Riot and UNO fought for the top spot in our pool. Starting out on O, it took seven passes of hard-running offense for Maddy to find Kawai in the endzone. The next point, Keely got a D block, but Riot was unable to convert and UNO held serve. Maddy found Kawai again in the endzone for the following point, which UNO promptly responded to with a score of their own, utilizing the inside-out space well. Two handler turnovers for Riot's O line gave up the first break of the game and a Kawai D saved an endzone turnover from allowing a second break the next point after that, 3-3. Nonetheless, Riot's offense was struggling to find its rhythm against the quick, coordinated Japanese D. We gave up another break before Rohre unleashed a huck to Surge, setting up the goal for 4-5. The next D line got a turn, but Riot promptly gave it back on the first pass. Kawai had already been having a pretty good game so far, but the next point was when she truly entered beast mode and took over. Getting the disc almost every other pass, Kawai struck deep for a perfectly placed Kreilkamp backhand huck around the mark. Kawai caught a deep huck two points later to set up a goal to Val, but the half time score still had Riot trailing 6-8.

Beginning the second half on D, Kawai got a block and Riot capitalized on the short field with a quick Surge to Nora to Kawai sequence to bring the game within one, 7-8. UNO responded with precise, no-turn offense, but Riot answered right back with a quick two-pass O point with Rohre sending a huge backhand deep to Kawai. UNO again scored with no turnovers and lots of broken marks, but Riot's deep game was on and the next point Claire unleashed a huck, scoring to Calise. Riot's D line managed to get multiple turnovers the next point, and Surge scored deep on a pass to her Michigan homey, Keely. Tie game, 11-11. The next three points were played on serve, without any turnovers, although Surge ended up leaving the game after a knee injury (later diagnosed as a bone bruise). The next point, a rushed throw by Riot gave UNO an opportunity for a break to go up by two for their game point. On O, Claire put up a forehand huck that Gwen's height helped pull down amidst a crowd, 13-14. On D, Maddy chased down one of UNO's fastest receivers for a fantastic D in the endzone to hold the Japanese off, but UNO answered in kind with its own amazing block as both an UNO player and Maddy laid out for a huge backhand huck. UNO would not relinquish the disc again and marched it in for the goal and the game, 13-15. Despite losing the game, the Riot huddle afterwards was full of a quiet intensity because we had just seen a new level of play out of our teammates. We had now raised the bar for what we expected out of ourselves.

Sunday's format was a full round of 16, with our pre-quarters game starting bright and early at 8 am (meaning wake-up times in the 5s for most of the team sleeping at home in Seattle). We played Slackjaw out of the Bay Area for the second time this year. Riot jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead thanks to efficient offense after a turn. Slackjaw put in the next point, but Riot went on another 3-0 run before they could answer again. Nora found Smalls in the endzone for the score to take half, 8-2. In the second half, Erin was on fire, throwing or catching 4 of the team's next 7 points and getting the disc all over the field. Gags caught the winning goal at 15-5, to shouts of "MVP" for the way she stepped up in the game despite spending half of the previous night at the vet ER with her kitten.

On to quarterfinals against Scandal, out of DC. We had never played Scandal before and were excited to match-up against the athletic women with a reputation for having an aggressive deep game. Not ones to shy away from looking deep ourselves, Riot scored the first two points on hucks to the speed of Maddy and Kawai. Scandal earned the break back a few points later when Riot coughed up the disc twice on our O point. Bermi threw the next goal to Smalls to keep the Riot advantage 4-3. Pushing ahead, Gwen got a handblock to allow Riot to score with patient endzone offense. Scandal answered, utlizing the height and versatility of handler Jenny Fey cutting downfield. A Riot endzone turn allowed Scandal to tie the game at 6's, but Riot put the next two points in to take half 8-6. After getting stepped on, Rohre took the second half off but was able to return to play during the next game. A great D block by Calise right out of half set her up to go deep for Gwen's huck. Two points later, Riot earned another break after Keely put a perfect throw to space for Nora. Another Calise block almost set-up another goal the subsequent point, but a drop gave the disc back and Scandal scored to make it 11-8. Both teams traded the next 6 points before a series of offensive turnovers allowed Scandal the opportunity to score three points in a row. It was the one and only time all weekend that Riot had gotten broken two points in a row on offense and brought the game to 14-13. Buckling down, Riot scored the next point in four passes as KK hucked the disc to Keely for the win, 15-13.

Semifinals was against HUCK. The brackets had been switched slightly after Saturday's results so that HUCK and UNO would not match up in semis since the teams did not travel across the Pacific to play each other, and Riot could not have been happier to get a shot at the team that gave us a great game in the quarterfinals of WUCC last year. Riot started on O and drew first blood. HUCK responded with no turns and then capitalized on a Riot drop for the first break of the game. Riot tied the game back at 2's off of a huck from Shannon to Calise, but HUCK worked the disc down the field against our D to keep their advantage. Working it against HUCK's conservative, containment D, it took Riot 27 passes the next point for Alyssa to find Claire in the endzone. The next point, Riot earned our break back after a Rohre D and Bermi huck to Kawai. Riot's next O point saw us huck it away twice, but Val helped get the disc back and then a third deep shot did the trick as Maddy found Val deep in the endzone. Kawai earned two blocks in the next point, setting up another huck score as Jinny put a perfect forehand out to space for Kawai to run on. Calise got a layout block the next point to set up another Riot score. Riot earned one more break to take half 8-4. Gwen ended up sitting out for most of the second half (and the finals to come), still recovering from a hamstring injury. Right out of half, Bermi and Rohre each got Ds to set up quick Riot scores. After the Riot 6 point run, HUCK finally settled down to score with no turns. They took advantage of a Riot drop two points later to get one break back and brought the game to 12-9 with another break a few points later. Riot answered on a Keely to Val connection, 13-9. Trading out the game, Shannon caught the winning goal, 15-11. In the post-game huddle it was inspiring to realize HUCK had only 12 players at the tournament and had just played their hearts out all game long. A wonderful addition to the tournament and we were so glad for them to make their first ECC appearance.

On to finals against Fury! Starting on O, Rohre found Maddy for the first score. The next point, Riot had three chances at a defensive break, but turned it each time. Riot subsequently turned the disc over on our O point, but Claire got it back with a block and Bermi scored to Maddy to stay on serve. Again Riot had a chance at a break after Shannon got the D, but a drop gave the disc back. The next three points saw both teams score without turnovers, before Riot finally earned a defensive break after Bermi got the D and then got the disc almost every other pass to find the goal. 5-3, Riot. The next point, Keely got a D, but an errant huck gave the disc back to Fury. Riot fought through two turns on our next O point, finally finding Kawai in the endzone. A great lay-out block on a come-back cut by Calise set up another defensive break for Riot, and two points later Calise had a great read on a floaty backhand huck before flipping it to KK for half, 8-5.

Riot and Fury traded for the next five points out of half, and although Riot almost got a break off of a Caitlin block, an endzone turnover gave the disc back and kept the score at 10-8. Then Fury got a break with its junk D to come within one. Riot answered with a perfect backhand huck by HM to Kawai, but Fury responded in turn. Two turnovers on Riot's next O point was one too many, allowing Fury to tie the game at 11-11. Fury threw it's junk D again (a zone/clam mixture) but a crossfield pass out of the trap set-up an easy Val to Gags to Keely sequence with the D scrambling to catch up. Back on D, Riot earned three blocks the next point, including a clutch layout D in the endzone by Kreilkamp, and Bermi put up an away pass for Nora to sky for the goal and the break, 13-11. Fury answered and Riot's next O point was a comedy in errors as Kawai turned it over, then got it back on D, then turned it over again. Fury scored to bring the game to 13's. Working it against Fury's FM defense, Riot answered to keep the advantage. Fury turned it over on the next point, but Riot hucked it away and Fury kept the game tied. It was now 14-14 with the hard cap set to come on in two minutes, setting up double game point. Riot received and worked the disc two thirds of the way down the field before Maddy unleashed the fateful backhand to Smalls. Goal! Hugs and kisses! High-fives! Victory lap! Riot just won the team's 7th ECC championship, finishing huge plays every step of the way. There is still a lot for the team to work on (watching the video of finals showed just a few areas for improvement) and it will be wonderful to have Gwen, Surge, Drew, and Lindsey back in action for Labor Day and the Series. This journey has only just begun...

[All photos from ECC 2011 by Scobel Wiggins, except the team Riot-HUCK shot by Papa O'Malley]