Ludicrous Speed Falls Short of Nationals Goal (By: Will Sharp)

Afterending the fall campaign with a spirit lifting first-place finish at HarvestMoon, Ludicrous Speed went into the spring season with high expectations. LShad scheduled to travel to four tournaments before the postseason. We went toDenton, Baton Rouge, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. Ourfirst tournament was Big D in Little D held in Denton, TX hosted by theUniversity of North Texas. Speed was seeded first overall with four games toplay on that Saturday. We finished the day with a 4-0 record and a +/- of +21.On Sunday, our first game was against Kansas State in the quarterfinals. Wejumped ahead quickly and KState was never able to catch up. Final score was15-8. In the semifinals, we were match up with Texas A&M. A lackadaisicalstart on our part led to a quick deficit. Eventually we were able to matchtheir intensity, but too little too late resulting in a 14-10 defeat. We thenplayed North Texas for third place, losing on ultimate point 11-10 for a fourthplace finish. Nextwe traveled to Baton Rouge for Mardi Gras. We only got four points into ourgame before the day was called for lightning. The tournament was changed to asingle elimnation 32 team bracket to accommodate for only having one day. Inour first round we were paired with Miami (OH). Speed quickly dispatched themin a 13-2 finish. Next up, Mississippi State. With windy conditions picking up,this game was capped at 10-6 with us on top. The win against MSU placed us intothe quarterfinals with a matchup against Mizzou. An upwind-downwind game thatwas decided by who could get more upwind breaks. In the end, it was Missouriwinning 12-10 at cap. Nexta group of nine players traveled to Las Vegas for Trouble in Vegas. Speedrolled through their pool on Saturday, allowing a total of 10 points throughfour games. LS then won its first two games of bracket play before having toleave to catch their flight home. British Columbia took their spot in the semisand lost to Central Florida in the finals 11-9. Overour spring break, Ludicrous Speed went to Atlanta for College Terminus. OnSaturday Speed went 3-1, beating Emory, Chicago, and Tulane, with the lone losscoming to Ohio State in the last game of the day. OSU was an extremely athleticteam and they matched LS well. Final score 13-8. In our first game on Sunday we played UMass. Speed was ableto get the jump on them, going up early and closing out 13-8. Our next game wasin the quarterfinals against Georgia Tech. We went up 8-5, but drops and missedhucks led to a stagnant offense. Georgia Tech scored the last 5 points of thegame before cap blew to win 10-8. We lost our first game in the 5thplace bracket 12-9 to Cincinnati. The end of the tournament meant the end ofour regular season. Tostart the post season we travelled to Kansas City for the Ozarks sectionals. Toadvance to South Central regionals, we had to place in the top 5. Our firstgame was against Kansas. For the first 13 points, we looked like a well-oiled machine,going up 9-4. Kansas turned it on, shutting down our offense and executingtheirs to close out the game on a 9-1 run handing us a 13-10 loss. We won ournext three games ending with a 13-5 beat down of Mizzou. We started Sundaymorning in the 2nd/3rd/4th place bracketagainst Wash U, winning 13-6, and sealing our trip to Austin for Regionals. Thewin rematched us against Mizzou, beating them again in similar fashion 13-6. Ournext game was our last game, playing Kansas State for 2nd place.They handled the zone we had been using all weekend really well and beat us13-10. TheSouth Central Region had two bids to go to Nationals. The format was four poolsof four teams each. Winner of each pool went into a championship bracket andthe second and third place from each pool went into the backdoor bracket. Webeat North Texas and Colorado in our first two games, setting up our gameagainst Texas for the pool and a place in the championship bracket. Texasjumped ahead of us 3-0 in what seemed like no time at all. We woke up fromthere finally getting on the board. At 11-6, things seemed to be getting awayfrom us. We then scored 4 straight to make it 11-10. We traded to 12-11, butTexas held us off, winning 14-11 at cap. The loss meant we’d enter the backdoorbracket, with our next loss knocking us from contention. Our first game in thebackdoor bracket was against Kansas State. They ended our season on double gamepoint 13-12. Asa team we made great strides this season. We feel like we are prepared and moreaware of the work that has to be done to get to the level we want to be at as ateam. The work is already being put in individually as everyone is home on summerbreak and will be continued as summer turns to fall to prepare for next spring.Thank you for following along all season and for your support of LudicrousSpeed. We appreciate having a community that is invested in our club.