Tournaments Galore

Tournament season is rolling right along and the Ninjas already have two tourneys under their belt! We've gotten a little behind here at Ninja Blog Central, so let me catch you up:

Earlier in March we went to St. Louis for Midwest Throwdown, where we finished 7th, breaking our 8th place seed. The next weekend, to kick off our spring break, we had another successful tournament playing in Nashville at Music City Mash-up, winning Tier 2 and again breaking our seed by one place.

Both tournaments were excellent opportunities for our newer girls to get more playing time, and for our whole team to practice playing together and see what kind of competition we will be up against later this season.

Sexbomb

Midwest Throwdown:

We went 4-0 on Saturday winning against North Park 13-4, Luther 6-4, Truman State 11-4, and Illinois 11-8. We started out Sunday with our first game in the Championship bracket against Women Scorned. As always it was good competition, but the ladies from Iowa State put up just a few more points and won 15-4. Then we played another tough game against Ohio State and lost 15-4. Luckily we ended the day on a high point, winning 11-4 against Valparaiso before jumping in our cars and booking it home (in a snowstorm)!

Highlights of the weekend: 2 epic 30+ minute points in the game against Luther and getting to whip out our newest addition to the team, The Sexbomb (pictured at right).


The Hell Week:

Most of us got home early in the morning on Monday and had a tough week full of midterms, papers, classes, catching up on sleep (or not) and getting ready to turn right around and go to another tournament! Luckily we had Nashville + spring break to look forward to and by Thursday night we already had one van starting the 14 hour journey to the Music City, with everyone else following on Friday!


Music City Mash-up:

On Saturday we started off strong, winning our pool: 13-7 vs. Missouri, followed by 13-4 vs. Oklahoma and 13-8 vs. Yale. Next was our cross-over game with one of our region rivals, Bella Donna (UW-Madison), against whom we put up a great fight but ended up losing by just 4 points! (13-9) We had another great day on Sunday, winning all three games to take the Tier 2 Championship bracket: 15-4 vs. Loyola, 14-6 vs. Georgia, and 15-9 vs. Harvard.

Highlights of the weekend: Close game against Bella, Dino point + dance party with Loyola, and Natalie threw a hammer to score (but no one saw it).

Dino point with Loyola!!

SPRING BREAK: Since this was our spring break, we didn't have to rush home the moment the tournament ended. Instead we got to spend a night Ninja bonding in Nashville, and on Monday we all went to visit the only exact replica of the Parthenon in the world. (Why Nashville? I have no idea...) Then we parted ways for the rest of spring break: 11 girls went to High Tide in Georgia and played with the Duluth women's team (and went to the beach a lot), and everyone else did their own thing (including beaches, mountains, other places and of course good ole MN)!

At the Parthenon, posing for our album cover

Next up: Chicago Invite in just one week!!!

The Ultimate Fundraiser

On the 23rd of February, the Ninjas got together with a great eatery on the U of M campus and held a fundraiser for the team. Thanks to all those who came and supported us, we all appreciate it so much, especially because the weather that day definitely didn't make you want something savory and cold like Chilly Billy's Frozen Yogurt.

We hung out at Chilly Billy's between 2-10PM and got to meet some great people as they graciously devoured some yummy FroYo for a good cause. I heard that we beat out the sorority that had a fundraiser there the day before us, so it's safe to say I think we did alright in the end. We also used that time as an opportunity to do some on campus recruiting because there's always room for more Ninjas.







Thanks again for all of your support, keep your eyes and ears peeled for the next FUNdraiser!

-Babush.

"Consensus from the team from last weekend was that you guys are fun."--DUH.

"I'm on the men's frisbee team and live in the "frisbee house" (world's worst nickname). Medium height blonde guy, big nose, giant biceps (kidding). We have probably met but not formally.....

Do you guys have plans for either Friday the 24th or Saturday the 25th? If not, do you think many of you would want to come to a party at our place? Consensus from the team from last weekend was that you guys are fun."

--I think my whole team was just asked on a date.

GO NINJA, GO NINJA, GO!

Happy belated Valentines Day, friends!

photo found by: HANNAH CONLEY

(you're welcome) 

Let the Spring Season Begin!

The spring semester is in full swing and we have a promising season ahead of us! Last week we started classes and had our first couple of practices. This was very exciting because we had a lot of girls return after being gone fall semester, so we got our full squad together for the first time!

This weekend we kicked off tournament season by hosting our annual indoor tournament, Trouble in the Bubble. This year we had eight women’s teams – a combination of high schools, colleges, and club women – come from around the twin cities area to play on our awesome new turf field! We also made history as this tournament was the first event EVER to be held in the new dome!

Ninjas rockin' the dome

The Ninjas spent most of the weekend splitting up and playing with other teams that needed a few more players, and we got to play a few games with just Ninjas as well. It was a great experience for all of our players to get to know other women in the ultimate community, practice playing with other teams, and especially for our new girls just to get lots of playing time! And of course it was a great time for lots of team bonding!

We had quite a few high school parents come up to us this weekend and thank us for putting on the tournament and giving young women this opportunity to play with and learn from older players, get more experience and have fun! This really meant a lot to us and we're glad the participants enjoyed the tournament because we had a blast doing it!

Our next big tournaments aren't until March, so until then we'll be buckling down and training hard! We had such a good season last year, and we can't wait to come back and show 'em what we've got this year!!

Until next time,
Ninja

What a good-looking group of ladies!

TROUBLE IN THE BUBBLE!

Hey all you Ninja sports fans!

Hope you all are enjoying the New Year so far. 2011 was a good year for the Ninjas. We enjoyed a fruitful spring, winning the Chicago invite and finishing 6th overall in the North Central Region. Fall of 2011 has been equally as prosperous, awarding us with several new promising players who carried us to victory at Exit 69 2011. We are looking forward to 2012 and all the adventures and challenges in store for us. We are very excited for our busy spring tournament schedule:

January 21 and 22 the Ninjas will be hosting our annual indoor tournament, Trouble in the Bubble, this year in the new Beirman Turf Dome on our Minneapolis campus. The tournament will host 6 college and 6 high school teams for competitive, fun play and clinic workshops.

March will be a busy month for the Ninjas.
On March 3rd and 4th we will be in St. Louis for Midwest Throwdown.
We start our our Spring break on the 10th at the Music City Mash-up in Nashville, TN and hope to spend the rest of the week at High Tide, session II, in Brunswick, GA. Then after one week off to study and (hopefully) do laundry, we end our busy month on the 31st in Chicago for the Chicago Invite.

Stay tuned for more high-flying, butt-kicking Ninja action!

Stay classy internet,

Ninja Sexbomb

1st Practice Tomorrow!!

Hey Ninja sports fans!

Tomorrow is our first official practice of our Fall 2011 season! We will be practicing from 4-6 on the West Bank Law Fields on the West bank of the U of M campus. If you want to practice with us, please fill out the Sports Clubs Participation Waiver prior to practice. It can be found here on the right side of the page under "Other information". Please bring a water bottle,  cleats or outdoor running shoes, a disc if you have one and a black and white shirt.

If you have any questions please email us at ninjawomensultimate@gmail.com

See you Ninjas there!