Princess at Purple Valley

October 20 - 21; Williamstown, MA

Game 1: Dartmouth vs. George Washington University

Dartmouth's Princess Layout began this tournament as the 4th seed in the 4th pool. The first game of the day was against the ladies from George Washington University who appeared to have been there warming up for quite a while. The fields were soaked from the downpour from the previous evening and there was a nice big puddle in the center of our field. We arrived there just shortly before game time, and had little time to warm up our bodies and throws before we were on the field, shivering, and battling against the massive crosswind. With every step people took, a nice little arc of water spewed from their feet. Dartmouth had a slow start adjusting to the wind, mud, and cold but was warmed up and getting dirty by the second half.

Final Score: GW 13 Dart 0

Game 2: Dartmouth vs. Harvard

For game 2, Dartmouth was transferred to a slightly less muddy field that was oriented up/downwind instead of cross wind. The game started out with a few long points. Princess's defense really made Harvard work for their scores. Lots of zone was thrown by both teams. There was some very solid handling by KNash, Tien, and Lydia which caused the Harvard cup to nearly fall apart. Pretty soon, Princess adopted a "huck and z" strategy and soon Beata was throwing gorgeous hucks downwind. Highlights include some great popping by AlHo and Dai, and a BACKHAND huck for a score by Mandy. Sidelines from the men's team were a huge help.

Final Score: Harvard 13, Dartmouth 3ish

Game 3: Dartmouth vs. Wellesley

By this point in the day, Princess was warmed up and ready to go. Lots more zone, with an awesome cup of Clara, Tien, and Blair that forced a ton of turns and desperation hucks by Wellesley's primary handler. Points traded back and forth quite a bit in this game. There were some nice break throws by KNash, beautiful polls by SamKap, great cutting from Allison Caley, and good hucks by Lydia. Not to mention CC's forehand huck to Mandy for a score.


Final Score: Wellesley W; Dartmouth L (but not by that much)

Game 4: Dartmouth vs. WHUFO

Almost immediately, Princess busted out the MILF shirts they had spent the past few days working on, in WHUFO's honor. This was a great game. Princess was moved up high to a field that was warmer, muddier, and had much less wind. All kinds of great things happening on the field; great cutting by AlHo, Gabi, T-ho, Sarah, and Marika, fantastic long throws by KNash, Tien, and Beata, more great polls by SamKap, some great D by Christine, Dai, Blair, and Mandy. Trying to run in the mud was super hard and made for lots of trips, slides, and even layouts (thanks men's team for helping us learn about the glory of sliding in the mud on Friday's practice).

Final Score: Dartmouth 13, WHUFO (??)

Party TIIIIIIIIME



Princess decked out in flare for the theme holiday. This meant anything from Arbor Day (hi Dai and mysterious friend from Williams) to black spandex celebration day (Marika) to Mardi Gras (T-ho) and New Years. Following tradition, the women created a frighteningly graphic cheer to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan dedicated to WHUFO's mom. Apparently the performance generated some excellent faces from WHUFO's women. Lyrics will not be posted. Good music, good groovin' - what else could you ask for?

Game 6: MIT vs. Dartmouth

This game looked like it was going to be rough. MIT beat us to the fields and had a hoard of grad students (all looking like wyly handlers) warming up. It was cold again, muddy again, and we were on the same field as the first game from Saturday. The situation did not look promising. However, Dartmouth got fired up very quickly and ended up playing our best game of the weekend. Dartmouth played tight defense, causing turns everywhere. There were lots of high stall counts and dumps that just couldn't get open. Some awesome defense by Dai. A few great puts by Nora and KNash. Lots more good cutting by AlHo and SamKap. Some funky head fakes by the MIT women. I think it's safe to say that the highlight of this game (hands down) was Allison Caley's HUGE layout in the endzone for a score. The disc didn't look even within her range and suddenly an amazing layout was followed by Princess rushing the field, followed by a bewildered Allison whose only comments were "oh my gosh that hurt!!". But beauty is pain, right? Anyway, this was a great game. Everyone really stepped it up a notch on offense and defense - smooth flow, contesting discs in the air everywhere, and forcing MIT to make some bad decisions.

Final Score: MIT (13), Dartmouth (6ish maybe?)

Game 7: Dartmouth vs. Middlebury

This was another fun game. Highlights included great defense by Tien and Marika. In one point, Tien had five D's or something crazy on her girl. Some beautiful break throws by Katie Nash. More good cutting by the Allisons. But the highlight came later in the game when Alho hucked to Mandy, who hucked to T-ho who scored with a huge layout in the endzone. (More Princesses rushing the field). Also, Dai was laying out all over the place playing awesome D.

Final Score: Dartmouth (some), Middlebury (more)

Game 8: Dartmouth vs. UVM

Dartmouth was unsure about playing this last game, so we agreed to a game to 7 against UVM with no subbing. The first point was beautiful - handler to handler to SamKap to Alho for the score. Alho caught the next score too - pretty much she was just beasting the endzone. My favorite part was when Marika stalled out UVM's primary handler (they walk shockingly alike). She also threw the score to T-ho in the endzone for the last point of the weekend. Nice work rookies! The game was finished off with a dance party with the UVM ladies - that's how we roll.


Final Score: Dartmouth 7, UVM 1

To sum up: Lots of great things happened. The improvement from game 1 to game 8 was incredible. We had a chance to work on our zone and regular offense/man defense, to experiment crosswind, up wind, down wind, whirlwind, and to practice laying out in the mud. Our handlers stepped up big time in the crazy wind, lots of great cuts, and all four of our rookies (Sarah, T-ho, Gabi, and Marika) played great this weekend.