SB2K11: It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

SolZone in Galveston, TX

Schneids sings Happy Birthday to herself

With a 21 hour drive ahead of us, SOL braved a drive down the middle of the U.S. to sunny 80 degree weather Galveston, TX. Our week would be spent with morning practices, evening dance practices, and whatever else suited our fancies. The lovely Paula Meyer traveled with our team again to plan and cook our delicious spring break meals. (With no meal receiving less than an average of 4. something stars - the only meal not receiving 5 was hot dogs and hamburgers which lacked the grilling skills of James Hron) Practices were quite productive giving SOL the opportunity to change their up with a few new offensive and defensive strategies. OUTDOORS AKA NO CONSTRICTING ZORN SPACE. After many nights of Solzone bonding, a night out in Galveston, and enough memories to last us until next year SOL was ready to take on Austin.

SolZone Formal Night

Friday of our spring break, SOL piled back into our vehicles and drove to Austin, ready for a weekend of high level competition. We arrived to a pleasant surprise! Heather Wroten and our brand new sublimated Five jerseys! Sick nast - fan orders coming soon! After a revolutionary dance practice in the hotel parking lot, SOL tucked into bed with sweet sweet ultimate dreams dancing in our heads. We woke to discover possibly the best contintental breakfast we had ever seen in our lives.

SOL headed to the Texas Intramural fields for what would soon become...

CENTEX: ROLLED ANKLE FEST 2011

Coach Pat dishes out the game plan

After a long line of our players getting taped by the trainers, SOL began to warm up and played our first two games against Pennsylvania's Venus and Washington's WUWU. We lost both games by about 10 points each. We played well, but weren't able to prevent the turns that would allow us to score. In our last game of pool play we were set to face Dartmouth's Princess Layout, who we've never played before. (We've seen their Five Ultimate sponsorship video - it is hilarious) Dartmouth took the game to half with SOL riding on their tail the entire way. In the second half, SOL went on a 4 point run, bringing the score to 10-7 over Dartmouth. We knew this was a team that we could beat and we definitely wanted to do so within pool play. Soft cap went on, and SOL was able to win with a score of 12-10 after a pass from Porch Cat to Jean Grey. Connecticut's UCONN emerged from the DIII bracket to play us in a crossover game that afternoon. We didn't know who this girl or this girl was but they definitely have some talent to be reckoned with. SOL was able to finish this game with a score of 13-11.


After wrapping up the day with a 2-2 record, SOL prepared themselves to rock the dance off contest a second year in a row. Dancing is something our team takes very seriously. Coming back to Centex with a dance deserving anything less than first place was not an option. We've been practicing since the beginning of February. Spring break also provided ample time to fine tune our moves. Due to a timer on the lights on the fields, half of our dance was performed in the dark. This didn't stop SOL from getting first place once again.

Check out the video here -------> https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150121562423359
 (you have to be logged into Facebook, and if you don't have that you are kind of lame)

After a long day of ultimate and dancing, we were ready to teach our newbs the true origin of the taco pizza cheer. (except for the part where we didn't order a taco pizza at Cici's, but hey atleast they got to eat at the place)

Sunday SOL woke up feeling good about the previous day and ready to put it on repeat for day two. The first team we played was Texas A&M's Stacked. We were really able to utilize a lot of our new strategies learned over spring break. This brought us to a win of 9-6 over Stacked. Next we played the other Texas (Melee) and soon realized this was a better team. Melee is a team filled with a lot of athletic and smart ultimate players. They had smart cutter/handler combinations that were difficult to defend. It was an intense game and a nice challenge for our team to face. The final score was 3-12 Texas.


Next up was a game against Colorado's Kali (last year's 3rd place tied team at nationals). Many of our girls had the opportunity to attend nationals last year in Madison, WI and were able to watch Kali break seed like crazy. It was exciting to see what their team would be like this year and get the chance to play against them. After taking it to break, SOL was able to maintain scoring for a win of 10-6 over Kali. This was definitely an intense and hardfought game. It was definitely one of our best games over the weekend.

Our final game of the day was against Princess Layout again for the DII 5th place spot (21st overall). SOL's focus in this game was to change up our strategies and challenge ourselves but still play a game that would be fun to end Centex with. The game ended with a score of 7-13 Dartmouth, but SOL didn't feel it was a hard loss because we still finished 10 spots above our original seed. Dartmouth was a fun team to play against and at the end of the day we did an encore performance of our first place dance for them.

Escaping with only 3 newly acquired sprained ankles, a dance champion title, and a 22nd place finish, SOL braced themselves to head back to a snowy Wisconsin.

Over the weekend SOL saw a significant improvement in every single player and in the team as a unit. We were able to find the flow and focus we needed to play strong from start to finish. Its amazing to see how much this team as grown not only in ultimate skill but also from the transition from friends to truly being a family. The best news yet? We still have two more tournaments to keep improving!