Nürnberg. Our Open Team had the first weekend of the German Ultimate Frisbee national championships in the south of Germany. This weekend, the first part of the group phase was played.
As a newly built team, it was the first time playing together with this squad. With overall 24 players, we played with a big squad, including both many veterans as well as many new players, who are playing their first season for the Hucks Open Team! We were looking forward to getting some exposure to the playing level of teams like Bad Skid, Hardfisch & Heidees.
Our first game was against the hosts, Frank N. Despite a slow start from our side, we managed to get ourselves into the game. Trailing for the whole game, we finished with a 7-15. Next up would be the second-placed team from last year Bad Skid. After a quick start from their side (up to 6-0), we managed to get our first point. With some nice offensive flow, we could show our potential occassionally. Final score would be 5-15.
Last game of the day, also the most important one, would be against Waldstadt Freiburg. Knowing that this could be the only game we had a chance of winning, we started with lots of energy and a strong sideline. Two breaks for us in the first two points meant a good start. We kept up our lead for most of the first half, still leading 9-7 after the half time. Freiburg would slowly fight their way back into the game and showed all their class to finally beat us 15 to 12. A good & hard-fought game to finish the day.
In our first Sunday game we faced last years 3rd placed team Heidees. As the clear underdog, we didn´t have much to lose. After Heidees could gain a quick lead, we put a tough fight and scored over and over again. The game was close for most of the time, only for Heidees to race away at the end (from 10-12 to 10-15). Our last game of this weekend would be against DFV-Pokal-Finalists 7 Schwaben. After a quick start with both teams trading points until 3-3, our opponents could secure the first two breaks to go up 6-3. We fought back and levelled the game again. We were even able to go up a break to lead the game 12-11. At the end, it would all come down to universe point. We got the D, but unfortunately couldn´t convert, so 7 Schwaben won 15-14. Still a great game and almost an upset victory for us.
The development over the weekend showed that there´s a lot of potential in our team – offense and defense were well distributed amongst all lines and players. And each player got some highlight plays – if you want to have a look yourself, you can find the livestream of all three Saturday games here:
Thanks to Frank N for hosting the weekend and to all the teams for the good games!
Players:
Ed, Fabi W, Fabi G, Flo, Freddy, Gustav, James, JC, Jens, Julian, Kevin, Kiwi, Lev, Lorenz, Maxi, Pasha, Patrick, Rolle, Schulle, Thure, Tommy, Torben, Robin
