The Stories We'll tell...

At the end of this year- if we all survive- will be epic. Oregon Fall's Ultimate KickOff gave us all a run for our money, and we came out victorious. We won the tournament, going undefeated against every college team. The finals of the college division was an epic rematch against Oregon. We went up 2:0 immediately, and they answered back to tie the game at 2:0s, then it was off to the races. Oregon steamed ahead the entire (short, capped) game and took half 7-5. Somehow UW battled it out and tied it at 8's, when we were alerted from Miranda that it was suddenly universe point! All our hard fighting D had payed off.

Although we started off on D, there were three turnovers in that final point, resulting in Makayla on the goal line with no stall count and every element girl screaming 'chuck it!' She remained cool in the midst of chaos and put up a nice forehand to the corner of the endzone, over the heads of all the fugue girls on the field, into the hands of Lina, who held the disc up for a few seconds before throwing it up in the sky to celebrate the culmination of an undefeated preseason.

Element went strong at the party. Particular props to Nora and Christina for staying till the bitter end, Christina for the plungers, Marisa for pushing her boundaries and being labeled 'epic'...Heather Ann for wearing not one stich of clothes, and to Lina and Lisa because they were proud to have finally found the VIP room, after four years.

4th Element of the Week!

Niki Lesniak, a 2nd year Element, blew up on the fields at OFUK and played an essential role in helping the team claim their 2nd consecutive OFUK championship, as well as seal off a fall series with no losses. We can't wait to see what this girl, and her brand new shot gun of a long forehand, will do in the college series
Niki played Ultimate after cross country practice in high school. At UW, when she saw a sign at the IMA, she figured it would just be a bunch of old cross country kids. Like many, she didn't realize it was played competitively let alone at collegiate or world levels.
The five adjectives she uses to describe element:
Cuddly, Strong, Potential, Amusing
He favorite on field memory is catching her first layout grab at the Stanford Invite in the game against Berkeley. With honesty she writes, "that tournament was so bad for me, it was nice to walk away with something good."
He Favorite Off Field Memory is The Centex tournie party in the hotel, and four Elements sharing the bed the night before and staying up late talking. (There were 5 for half the night, the author would like to point out.)
NIki wants to go to nationals, she knows that this team has so much potential. She thinks the only thing that would hold us back is ourselves. "We have to want it and not let ourselves self destruct, I've seen it happen and it sucks." Personally, she wants to be a play-maker on the field. She wants to never let my defender score and to make the other team nervous when she's on the line.

I asked Niki what she wants Element to be, years down the line, when she is a fifth year senior: "I want us to be multiple team national champions, I want people to want to hate us, but they cant because we are just to damn fun, I want people to feel
like they don't have a chance against us."

Niki ran cross country for 4 years! In her senior year she was most improved,
captain and mvp. She ran track for 6 years. She ran hurdles, 400m relay and the
400m. She's broken 3 school records, 2 of which still stand, she went to state
track twice, she captained the team her senior year. In other arenas of athletic talent, she rode horses for 5 years, snowboards, and played soccer for 4 years before high school. I've even ran a half marathon, a feat that is only 1 upped by running 10 miles for ice cream, a tradition her high school team still does.

Her non-ultimate world consists of drawing all the time, since she's a design major. "They have to be in perfect perspective so it is much harder than you'd
think."

And some final Niki Trivia: She's scared of the dark. She has double jointed wrists. And, she's a wuss for puppies or kittens, its a sure fire way to make me melt.

This season, Element will work hard to keep their sideline free of puppies and kittens, to make sure Niki remains strong. We'll send the puppies and kittens to the other sideline, so that the opposing team can console themselves with them after they are (skied/broken/D'd/score on) by our own and only Niki.

Featured Element 3: Shannon O'Malley

The start of the 2006-2007 College Season (preseason, whatever) marks a new era in college women's ultimate: Shannon O'Malley is finally eligible. This woman/immortal morph is taking the field with Washington Element (duh) alongside longtime highschool teammate and fellow baby riot girl Claire Suver. Below is an exclusive interview:

"Alright, I started playing in 6th grade, which i think means I started my
9th year of playing ultimate this september. I started with Eckstein
Middle School (seattle ravenna area) and then played with Nathan Hale
(coed city league champs, state champs 04 and 05, kinda nationalish
champs 04, westerns 05....uh maybe you can tell im proud of my hs team
heh heh) ***interviewer would like to interupt to announce that HALE RULE!*** I found element by practicing with the ladies in the fall of my
junior year. They invited the suvers out and I kinda tagged along because
I was addicted by that point.

There been a lot of highlights....I'd say the best was winning
the last ever high school nationals with a combined team. 5 of us from my
highschool (Molly and Claire Suver, Hana Kawai, Alyssa Weatherford and I)
joined up with a canadian team, Yale, and we went in as last seed, no one
expected anything from us. But come semis on sunday we beat the 6 year
undefeated Amherst Varsity 11-10. It was epic. Then we went on to take
the title against a Eugene team. Both teams, Amherst and the Eugene team
bageld us or came close the day before.

Playing for RIOT is pretty intense. 4 practices a week for a good chunk of time is reallya commitment. I didnt realize how crazy it was until I finally started
college and had more than Ultimate in my life. Theres up and downs as
well. I think it was a huge shock for everyone to go from an undefeated
season to a not so undefeated one the next year, people just gotta know
to watch out for next year. But, yeah, its still the most amazing
experience, plus everyone on Riot is just awesome at the game and in
general.

Q: how does club differ from college? what are you looking forward to
about this college season?

Oh man! So I hate to say it but I was dying to play college all through
the club season, shhh dont tell anyone ;). Ever since being the water
girl at last years regionals Id been edging to play the game. Itd say the
biggest and most obvious difference is definately a different skill set.
College is where most people start their careers and thats sweet. Its
actually what Im most excited about because seeing everyone improve is
awesome and I love passing knowledge about the sport on. I love it so
much I just want to keep spreading its seeds!

Q: what have you enjoyed about element so far?

Well, considering what ive experienced isnt too much so far but Sundodger
was awesome. I hadnt really met anyone yet and I was actually kinda
nervous to just come out and start playing without any real practice with
the team. But everyone was awesome and nice and I was really impressed
with everyone, especially when I would say "That was an amazing play!"
and someone else would go "yeah, shes never played before!" It was so
cool. It psyched me up like nothing else.

Q: what are some of the crazy things you have done for a team (shaved
head, ect) that has made you famous??

Well, I dont really know how crazy it is anymore but I usually dye my
hair different colors for every tournament. Whether its the teams colors
or just random its usually dyed and put into a fauxhawk if its a big
tourney. But last year for club natties I went as far as to shave the
words RIOT into the back of my head.

Q: tell us a few more cool things about yourself!!!

Coaching Ultimate is a huge part of my life too, my middle school kids
teams took 3rd in each of their divisions! Pretty cool for pretty new
(and small!) players. I really like indie music, or really, just music in general so if you have some cool sweet music, i probably want to hear it and you should
pass it on. I totally rock at beer pong. But only if im completely wasted. Re: UW
Kegger 06. Techno music = also the shit. Not to brag but I have 5 gold medals...oh and two silvers...those are okay too ;P

Im so Awkward. Like right now. Like through this whole answering process.
Oh and im going to be in "go girl go" magazine, or something weird like
that.

....The end.

Check out shannon on ultivillage clip of the day archive! See you on the field, bebe...it's about time we was teammates!

Element Victory

damn right, fools, aint' NObody out there could beat the E-L-E-M-E-N-T. two slightly insane days of driving and running and we DID it. It feels good to have sundodger in our pocket. What's next? OFUK? Vegas? StanfordsectionalsregionalsNATIONALStheworld??

i think Perhaps.

Go ahead y'all and post your favorites from the tournament. Hey, I'll begin!

1) Heather Underwood's sick bids, putting those missed bids in the bank so at OFUK she can check out some BIG ones
2) Maddy's D increasing exponentially with every game.
3) CLAIRES FUCKING HANDBLOCK CALLAHAN you bitch I can't beleive you did that before me!
4) I got handblocked...and then caught it...that was sweet....
5) beating Oregon on double game point....*hand snap thing!*

bring it.
Good job ladies.

Element of the Week 2: Kristan "ninja" Emi

i (really) like anything matcha green tea.




this is what i do when i am at work


Congradulations to Kristin Emi Okinaka for being our second Featured Element of the week. After a year of this ever surprising beauty, people have started to ask questions. How is she a ninja? How can she disapear and repear like that? Where does she get her powers of invisibility? What are those colorful jello things her mom made for us at sectionals? We know that she can catch what others have given up on. We know she loves disney on ice and that she can dance (if you didn't see her at the mixer, sorry, because that was, in the words of L.Niemann, 'pretty much the most amazing thing ever.') We love you ninja girl!

Krstin was led to element by the big ugly tape poster on kane, and the small flyer in the HUB. She kept seeing signs everywhere so she had to check it out! She was firstintroduced to the sport a little back in high school from her cross country coach. Her favorite memory from the 05/06 college season, when Kristin was a freshman, is 'Jack hack hiding under her jacket when we flew to stanford!' (Jack hates flying...more on Jack in a few weeks.) Other favorites include getting a hand block at regionals, meeting fabulously fun people! "I cannot pick one favorite memory." Writes Kristin. "I don't like favorites."

Krstin ran cross country for four years in high school an distance track for two. She played on a rec basketball (that's right, basketball) team for several years too. She love bowling. She writes, "I had one awful experience with mini golf and never went back to it."

Oh Kristin, please elaborate on that some day.


This college season, The Ninja is looking forward to watching everyone make sick layouts; also her plan with Niki to conver the team to HP-ism. (Ask her.) Her personal goals are to become a better thrower and learning to lay out. Also, she'd like to manage her time better so she can get more sleep.

Interesting and strange facts about Kristin, as told by the Ninja herslef:
i like french onion soup. i want a shiba inu. i am really good at playing legitimate "Christmas" songs in November so the Christmas Nazis do not hunt me down.

(silly, christmas nazis ENCOURAGE christmas music, at all times, during all occasions. It's the antii-christmas nonfestive jerkpants who hate.)

these songs can include "there's no place like home for the holidays" or "baby it's cold outside." (they do not say the word Christmas in these songs.) there
are way more that i can inform you of at a later time.

Our final query to Kristin was where she gets her power of invisibility. To this she replies, "i have connections with harry potter so he lets me use his invisibility cloak from time to time."

Lagaan

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Tomorrow Night!
Check your emails for more information!

-Marisa

ps This is ultimate related in a convulated twisted way. It was my high school ultimate's team official movie that I think we've watched 2-3 times together. And it relates to the forming of a team overcoming adversities and learning a game(cricket) just as our team is just coming together and learning a game(ultimate). Inspirational sports movie!

FYI: I'm not obsessed. Really.

Sundodgers is only 3 days away! Get Psyched!

Help Me too!

So I had quite the potty mouth today and that's just not cool. Sorry girls! So, I'm following Niki's example and whenever I swear, you should call me on it because I need buffer arms anyway. This will A)Help me not distract myself and B)get me strong! Whoot! Sweet practice today girls. I will be posting pictures from Indian night soon!

Lay out D baby clinic

baby meaning short. meet at 5:15 at the IMA turf fields where we have practice. Today, friday the 3rd. Wear something to cover arms and legs. Plenty of time afterwards to pretty-fie yourself (thanks paige!) before the social! Rides to social available.

Be there!

Help me out

So in my attempt to widen my throwing range, I am going to try and throw no high release forehands autumn quarter. Weird I know, what other forehand do I have? None, which is why it will be difficult. So, if during practice you see me throwing a high release forehand, let me know and I will do ten pushups... Its a habit to throw them... so I will either A) get really buff doing this or B) learn to throw other throws... yay win win situations.

-Niki

Workout 11/1

So, I have to say that you girls better watch out because today myself, Niki, Katie and the wonderful Heather Brown got our hops on and did a great arm and ab workout. Who's gonna get skied this weekend? It's sure not going to be any of us...

There's another chance to do it tomorrow at 8pm with Amy and Sarah. It's an easy workout, so there are no excuses.

Be ready for Western, oh and I can't forget Simon Frasier who let me know they were stopping by...

Michelle

Be Proud

Element ladies rockin' it out at Nationals. These images totally fire me up!!


A sick grab by Miranda!




Jen about to sky some Cali chick!




Claire rocks my world!




Sweet catch Shannon! (and amazing hair)




Former coach and teammate Carla, layin' it out!