California State of Mind

How the Wild West Brought Home the Gold (and Silver) for D2

By: Alex Peterson

Endings can be new beginnings. In order to discuss how this season for Cal Quadball began, we need to discuss how last season ended on a sour note. In Philadelphia, Cal was eliminated in the first round of D1 bracket play by UVA. For this author, that game landed me in the hospital where I was lucky to avoid a major collarbone or rib injury. For Cal as a whole, it was the end of an era as a massive senior class graduated and disputes over uneven playing time cast serious doubt on the future of the program. Stepping into this season, the new leadership - Gabi Spirandelli, Zach Roknipour, and myself were focused on two things: recruitment and spreading the minutes. Practices were heavily focused on drilling fundamentals and understanding the defensive rotations to help a rookie-filled squad get up to speed. Unfortunately, injuries and illness plagued the season for the team as we seemed to bring a new roster to every tournament, whether it was 16 players to Chandra Classic, 13 players to Heroes vs Villains Invitational, 17 players to West Qualifiers, or even just the 15 players we managed to get to Texas. With different rosters also came varying successes. Cal managed to clinch the win at Chandra through point differential, but struggled to field a team at HVI, and 2 close losses to ASU haunted by the lack of key player Lucca Menezes and sealed away by Austin Cruz flag catches knocked Cal out of the D1 race and into D2.

The Squad

The group Cal brought to nationals consisted of 15 players: 6 beaters and 9 chaser/keepers, but only 4 non-male players. The beater squad was anchored by the aggressiveness of Billy Ou and Jed Obra partnered with more conservative beaters Andrew Ramos and Ashlyn Oh to help with defense and dodgeball cleanup. Sean Nam and Austin Oh rounded out the group and with guidance from USNTDA and national champion Chanun Ong, the beaters were prepped each game for specifics on opposing beater tendencies and particular plays to prepare for. The keepers/chasers consisted of facilitators Lucca Menezes and Alex Peterson, strong driving threat Nolan Kim and Gio Ajo, hoop finishers Gabi Spirandelli, Crystal Swan, and Cesar Gamez, long range shooter Vinny Cono and secondary seeker/facilitator Chloe Foo. The danger heavily lay in the low numbers of non-males who would be heavily relied upon in both the chasing and beating game. All 4 of these players played heavy minutes, weathered hits, made defensive stands and key shots, and provided the foundation for Cal’s eventual victory. 

The Strategy

Cal’s run in D2 would be built upon 3 ideas for the rebuilt team: dominant beater play, multi-option offense, and tough defense. Going back to my first year in 2022, Cal had always had outstanding beaters—e.g. Chanun Ong, Harry Dill, Ivan Avalos, Eric Shen—and this year was no exception with a nationals beater corps centered around Billy Ou and Andrew Ramos, supplemented by Jed Obra, Sean Nam, Ashlyn Oh, and Austin Oh that rapidly improved as they gathered more in-game experience.  The new Cal offense was built around facilitating ball carriers Lucca Menezes and Alex Peterson with the capability to run the classic drive-and-dish offense targeting side hoops, a secondary driving option in Nolan Kim and Gio Ajo, as well as a final bailout passing option available to slow down and reset the plays. Defensively, it was decided that a hoop zone defense made the most sense to preserve the stamina of our small roster and rely on our beaters to prevent too much heavy contact near the hoops. That defense also helped cover for the lower physicality and tackling Cal and the Western region in general often have issues with. Extensive film review, line design, and strategy discussions led up to the Saturday opening of the tournament.

The Underdogs?

Entering the tournament weekend, Cal players noticed an article on this very website discussing the D2 teams and their rankings with Cal modestly ranked 5th and UCLA, a lowly 11th with little actual substance beyond noting a lack of diverse opponents. This is a common and recurring issue with discussions in articles and podcasts about teams in the West. The region is so geographically isolated that unless it is a player from the West directly discussing it, there is little knowledge of Western Quadball across the rest of the country and USQ rankings are unable to accurately reflect the strength of the teams in the region (shoutout Arjun from UCLA who wrote an in-depth statistical paper discussing this in the American Quadball Discussion Facebook group). The FastBreak News article did, however, give the team specifics on our upcoming opponents in the division and lit a fire under both Cal and UCLA to prove the rankings wrong.

Day 1

After Marquette dropped suddenly, there were 2 opponents Cal faced on Day 1 of the tournament: Boston University and Vermont. The game against Boston started out fast with an effective high press strategy rapidly netting us a crucial 4-0 lead. A timeout and subsequent adjustments by Boston stemmed the bleeding but the lead was largely maintained and grew on the backs of strong beater play and stiff defense all the way into Flag Runner on Pitch. A quick catch by Cal pushed the lead to 165-60 and despite a valiant comeback attempt post-catch by the Boston team, the game finished 195-130. The victory over Boston provided a huge sense of relief to the team as it helped ensure a spot in Day 2 so long as a blowout loss to Vermont was avoided. It was around this point that we noticed UCLA was winning their pool and the stars began to align for an all West D2 finals. The game against Vermont started similarly to Boston with a quick lead established following an effective, aggressive defense. There was no flag catch that game, but a comfortable lead was maintained all the way to the finish line of a 170-90 win that sealed the 1 seed for our pool and, with a UCLA victory over Minnesota, guaranteed there wouldn’t be a Cal-UCLA matchup until the D2 finals. 

Day 2

Cal had avoided any major injuries Day 1, but still staggered onto the field nervous, tired, and a bit bruised for the 8:30 matchup against Minnesota to begin the bracket play. I started the day off nauseous and throwing up while Cal’s other key facilitator Lucca Menezes limped over to get his ankle (a season-long recurring injury) wrapped before brooms up. The Minnesota game did not begin as fortuitously as the Day 1 matchups with only a slim 2-goal lead. The physicality and fast breaks of Minnesota’s chasers gave the defense fits and made scoring on offense a struggle. We slowly opened a wider lead coming into FROP and hoped it would be enough to seal the game. An insane Minnesota catch on a difficult Flag Runner suddenly blew that lead into pieces. The game remained close but a strong defensive showing and a slight scoring advantage carried us through to a 170-155 victory. The morning jitters out, we looked ahead to the semifinals and a strong Baylor team that we had refereed twice the previous day. The semis began with a massive step-up in the beater play and a series of tough defensive stops into fast break opportunities that blew open a lead. Despite a catch by Baylor, it wasn’t enough to close the gap and Cal rode the lead into a 170-125 win securing a berth in the finals. On the other side of the bracket, UCLA put up a strong showing against Boston to secure the other finals spot and the West vs West matchup for D2 gold fell into place. 

The Finals

UCLA-Cal matchups all season had been extremely close with Cal having squeezed out victories throughout the season. The relationship between the two rivals has rapidly improved and the intimate familiarity with the opposing team’s playstyle and players meant this was going to be a difficult matchup. Cal managed to open up a small lead early, but a series of quick goals from UCLA turned it around and put UCLA up 1 goal. Beater and chaser substitutions led to another change in the lead and by FROP, Cal was holding onto a small lead again. FROP play decided the game as both Cal and UCLA heavily committed to catching Flag Runner Porter Birchum and, despite some close attempts, beaters from both teams were able to stifle the seeker play. During this time, Cal slightly outscored UCLA leading to a match point of 130-110 for Cal that finished with a final goal from Menezes to seal the D2 championship for Cal. 

The Future of Cal Quadball

While this year ended on a much sweeter note than last year for Cal, the future of the program remains uncertain. Another large graduating class will leave Cal with few returners for next season and the perennially daunting task of recruiting and training for the next leadership team to handle. The goal for the program is the same every year: to get better. While Cal will be going through a rebuilding period over the next few years, the program will hopefully emerge stronger than ever.

Acknowledgments

No team is successful without help and I want to acknowledge on behalf of Cal Quadball some people who helped our team succeed. Chanun Ong with his coaching, film review, and beater work was essential to the team’s success. Harry Dill and Maeve Lawson were on the sidelines keeping the team organized and sub rotations fluid throughout the tournament. A special thank you to the Bay Area Breakers for allowing team members to participate in their practices and learn; UCLA and the Lost Boys for organizing tournaments and keeping the West's Quadball programs functional; Shirley Lu for their photography work and support; Christian Barnes and Thomas Chang-Davidson for checking in and ensuring the paperwork and logistics were in place for the team to participate; and finally, to every other Cal alumni and parent who helped support the team and make this season successful.

Editors: Owen Weekley & David Banas