Vintage competed at our third tournament of the 2014 season on June 28 and 29 in Montreal. The top eight seeded teams at the tournament were divided into two pools, so we had Stella from Ottawa, Lotus from Toronto and Nova in our pool.

We came out flat in our first game, going down a few breaks against Stella that we could just not get back before the end of the 1h30-minute round. With a final score of 11-14, we had put ourselves in the challenging position of not only having to win our two other games, but win by a large enough margin so we would not come out 3rd in a three-way tie and have to play a crossover game late on Saturday.

Our second game against Lotus was much better. Offense on both lines began clicking and defensively we played better as a team, using switches and various zone looks to cause turnovers and convert for scores. The final tally was 15-5, and a bye before our match up against Nova.

Having a 1-1 record with Nova this year so far, in which both games went to universe point, we were well prepared for a gritty, challenging game. The spirit was high on both teams, as most of us have been teammates as well as opponents over the years. Vintage came out strong and took half up a few points. Nova came out strong after half with a few breaks to tie it up before we wrestled control of the game again and won with a final score of 12-9.

As predicted, we ended up in a 3-way tie with Nova, who had beaten Stella, and Stella, who had beaten us. In the end, point differential determined that Nova took first place in our pool, we took second and Stella third.

On Sunday, we played Team Canada U19 girls in our quarterfinal game. Despite the early, 8 am start, we were ready and came out strong, taking an 8-5 lead into halftime. In the end, experience dominated youth, despite the youngsters’ excellent throws, zone and speedy cuts. The final score was 15-8 and we were off to semis against QUB.

As the temperature climbed higher than 30 degrees C, we got on the line for our semi-final against the team that took second place at the Boston Invite just the week before. QUB is also going to Worlds in the women’s division and they have been practicing and training hard together since January. Both teams like to huck long, play gritty D and use handler breaks to gain yardage. The score was relatively even until about 5-4, when QUB got a few breaks. Their D on the handlers near the endzone made it very challenging to score, and although each point was a battle with multiple turns, QUB came out the winner more times that we did, with a final score of 12-7.

In our final game of the tourney, we played Stella again in a battle for 3rd place. This time we showed up for the game, and despite a less than focused first half, we executed perfectly in the second half. At halftime the score was 8-5, and the final score was 15-5.

Third place out of 24 teams and the only masters women’s team in the top eight.

Some photos of our game against Nova on Saturday can be found here.