We have a busy Ninja weekend coming up! Here are a few important dates and things to note:
This Saturday, September 8th, we are having a co-ed scrimmage at 3pm at the West Bank Law School Fields. If you think you're interested in playing with the Ninjas, come try out a fun game with returning members of the women's and men's teams!
The following day, Sunday September 9th, will be our first practice, from 6-8 pm at TCF Bank Stadium. We will be meeting at the Wabasha entrance at 5:45 pm. Please be there on time. (You will find Wabasha on the west side of the stadium, among the MN county names adorning the outside of TCF)
Next week practices will then continue regularly on Monday, Wednesday, and so on! We hope to see many new faces at these first practices!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Friday, August 31, 2012
Fall Practice Info
Hello Ninja Fans and prospective Ninjas! The 2012-2013 season is upon us! School starts next week (eek!), and practice will start the second week of school. We may not be ready for school, but we are ready for practice! We will be practicing:
Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00-6:00pm at the Law School Fields
Sundays from 6:00-8:00pm at TCF Bank Stadium
About halfway through the semester (when we start fearing snowfall), practices will move indoors to Tuesday and Thursday evenings, times TBD.
Not yet convinced? If you would like to try out ultimate frisbee before the official season starts, we are having a scrimmage with the men's team on Saturday, September 8th at 3pm at the UofM Law School Fields (on West Bank, across the Washington Avenue Bridge, and to the right, north of the Law School building). Players of all experience levels are welcome!
If you would like more information about the team, check out our website, http://ninjawomensultimate.weebly.com, and contact us if you have any questions.
Hope to see you out on the field!
Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00-6:00pm at the Law School Fields
Sundays from 6:00-8:00pm at TCF Bank Stadium
About halfway through the semester (when we start fearing snowfall), practices will move indoors to Tuesday and Thursday evenings, times TBD.
Not yet convinced? If you would like to try out ultimate frisbee before the official season starts, we are having a scrimmage with the men's team on Saturday, September 8th at 3pm at the UofM Law School Fields (on West Bank, across the Washington Avenue Bridge, and to the right, north of the Law School building). Players of all experience levels are welcome!
If you would like more information about the team, check out our website, http://ninjawomensultimate.weebly.com, and contact us if you have any questions.
Hope to see you out on the field!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
If you don't believe us about that wind.....
This is actually what it was like:
 |
| courtesy of Mary Bisquick |
Welcome to the Windy City: Sectionals 2012
No, not that Windy City... as it turns out, Chicago ain't got nothin' on Cedar Falls, Iowa. This past weekend, the Ninjas headed across the border for the Western North Central D-1 Women's College Conference Championships, where seven teams from Minnesota and Iowa competed for just four bids to Regionals. We were ranked fourth in our conference, behind Iowa State, Iowa, and Carleton, so we really needed to hold (or break) seed. We managed to hold seed, but in the end it came down to the wire... and who won the disc flip for possession in our very last game.
The weather definitely played a huge factor this weekend and, frankly, was super annoying. On Saturday we had some wind, but it was wind we could play in. We lost our first two games vs. Carleton and Iowa State, but won the more important games vs. Winona State and Northern Iowa.
Sunday morning the wind picked up, but we managed to score some upwinds against Iowa's B-team and won the game. Our last game of pool play was against Iowa's Saucy Nancy, and we lost to them in a very windy game. Due to rankings after pool play, we had to play Iowa again right away for bids... and lost again.
So we moved on to our final game of the weekend, against Winona State, playing for the fourth and final bid. By this time the wind was horrendously strong (it had to be 30-40mph), and it was nearly impossible to move the disc upfield, much less score upfield. Essentially, the outcome of this game was determined by who was on offense first, and thank goodness we won the flip... or we may not have gotten the bid to Regionals! We ended up winning 5-4 in a very short, and painful one-hour game.
(A shout-out to Brenna, Regan, Sloth and Gootch, who were actually able to string together 11, then 13 short passes in that last game, working it approximately 1/4 of the way up the field!!! It was truly beautiful.)
Here's a little taste of the difference between the "wind" on Saturday, vs the tempest of Sunday...
Now we shift our gazes towards North Central Regionals (practically in our backyard in Northfield, MN) in two weeks, and we pray for decent weather... because we want to play some real ultimate, we're ready to show our region what we're made of, and we're hungry for one of those three bids to Nationals!
-The Bird Nerd
Friday, April 13, 2012
It's a great year to be a Ninja!
This might be more of a nostalgic post now that I've gotten my paws on it, but I think that's alright. For me, the title says a lot, but it doesn't say it all.
Last weekend the Ninjas took a road trip down to Chi City for the Peder Hedberg Memorial Tournament: The Chicago Invite 2012. As returning champions we were excited to be heading back to defend our title, and also to show the ultimate world what our team is really made of this year.
I couldn't be more pleased with what we accomplished. Not only did we have our full roster including our amazing coaches Christie Dosch and Abby Hagel, but we had a huge support system of family and fans cheering us on from the sidelines. We went 7-0 and did it the Ninja way: playing hard, leaving it on the field, and doing it with love for each other.
We head into the final stretch of our 2012 season with our section tournament this weekend in Iowa. I for one am pumped. It's a weekend filled with great competition, great teammates and great friends, how could I not be? One other thing's got me psyched up though, and that's our team ranking. Currently we're ranked 20th/17th respectively by the USAU and Skyd Ultimate (call me biased, but I agree with the latter).
I'm psyched that this program is beginning to be recognized for all of the hard work, determination and love for the game that each of my teammates and I pour into it every year. -- Not to mention our playing has been extra stellar in the past few seasons, and guess what? It's only going to get better.-- As I look at those rankings, it's hard for me not to burst from how proud I am to be a Ninja. It's at this moment that I become nostalgic. Thinking of all the Ninjas past: coaches, my co-captains and teammates, their families and friends who supported our program and helped us build up to where we are today. I find it only fitting that we go out and continue to strive for excellence, because I know if they were still eligible, they'd be standing on the line next to me this weekend, striving for the same thing.
I've never been great at wrapping up a piece of writing, so I'll leave you with this promise: We are a force to be reckoned with, we deserve the recognition we've received thus far and if you don't believe me yet, I promise you will after this weekend. After all, teams that touch more win more, and the U of M Ninjas are real cuddle monsters.
LOVE, DePalma
Last weekend the Ninjas took a road trip down to Chi City for the Peder Hedberg Memorial Tournament: The Chicago Invite 2012. As returning champions we were excited to be heading back to defend our title, and also to show the ultimate world what our team is really made of this year.
I couldn't be more pleased with what we accomplished. Not only did we have our full roster including our amazing coaches Christie Dosch and Abby Hagel, but we had a huge support system of family and fans cheering us on from the sidelines. We went 7-0 and did it the Ninja way: playing hard, leaving it on the field, and doing it with love for each other.
 |
| 2012 Chicago Invite Champions |
We head into the final stretch of our 2012 season with our section tournament this weekend in Iowa. I for one am pumped. It's a weekend filled with great competition, great teammates and great friends, how could I not be? One other thing's got me psyched up though, and that's our team ranking. Currently we're ranked 20th/17th respectively by the USAU and Skyd Ultimate (call me biased, but I agree with the latter).
I'm psyched that this program is beginning to be recognized for all of the hard work, determination and love for the game that each of my teammates and I pour into it every year. -- Not to mention our playing has been extra stellar in the past few seasons, and guess what? It's only going to get better.-- As I look at those rankings, it's hard for me not to burst from how proud I am to be a Ninja. It's at this moment that I become nostalgic. Thinking of all the Ninjas past: coaches, my co-captains and teammates, their families and friends who supported our program and helped us build up to where we are today. I find it only fitting that we go out and continue to strive for excellence, because I know if they were still eligible, they'd be standing on the line next to me this weekend, striving for the same thing.
I've never been great at wrapping up a piece of writing, so I'll leave you with this promise: We are a force to be reckoned with, we deserve the recognition we've received thus far and if you don't believe me yet, I promise you will after this weekend. After all, teams that touch more win more, and the U of M Ninjas are real cuddle monsters.
LOVE, DePalma
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
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.
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).
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)!
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 |
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!!!
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