...and so are the DL! After a long season and strong showing at sectionals, the Dirty Ladies made it to Regionals! As Coach Rowan summed it up nicely, "We all knew our season would end, here in the parking lot of Biscuitville."

WHAT DID WE DO?
We made a lot of gains this season, at Cherry Blossom Classic, hosted by us; JMU Bonanza/snowpocalypse; Garden State (windiest tournament of our lives); Sectionals at UMD, and Regionals in middle-of-nowhere Virginia. Our rookies developed into strong players with a ton of potential, and our veterans also improved and many of them are getting ready to play club across the country (or continent, in Zoe's case). Though some tournaments left us with more losses than anticipated, we grew with each game we played and are excited to work together next year. Mackenzie and Natalie had the perfect intensity and understanding as captains, and, though we are sad to see Mack graduate, she will pass the torch to Jody who will continue in the DL tradition of captains who love and support the team to their greatest efforts.

HONORARY BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS
Our coaches, Rowan, Rachel, and Rachel's baby, could not have been more amazing. Their areas of expertise in both offense and defense were integral into helping individuals grow. They are the most approachable and supportive coaching duo we could have asked for.

IT'S YA GIRLS
​Our seniors pictured below (Mack, KP, Lisa, Zoe, and Maggie), were beautiful, sunny rays of light and they will be missed on and off the field. Fake laughing 5ever. (PS Lisa cried with joy at sectionals.)

TAKE ME TO OUR LEADERS
And here we present the executive board of 2016-2017:

Captains: Natalie Forman and Jody Lanza-Gregory
President: Melissa Kelley
Treasurer: Sasha Harrison
Director of Marketing (brand-new!): Devika Menon
Tournament Directors: Penny Spica (fall) and Raizl Campbell (spring)

Heck yeah!

What have the Dirty Ladies been up to, besides the usual quad tossing and swipe begging?

PLAYING HARD
The Dirty Ladies indeed had an incredibly successful fall season! We went to tournaments at Towson University, Haverford College, and George Mason University, getting to play a diverse and spirited group of athletes. At Towson, we battled through a quasi-hurricane to perform well against tough competition from the D.C. area, making a lot of progress with our rookies. At Haverford, we probably had the best costumes of the weekend as we were cute little cards from Cards Against Humanity and we were able to secure 9th place out of 15 teams. At George Mason, the weather was misery-inducing but we fought through to win 5th place and end our fall season on a high note. Congrats to Sasha, Diana, and Dev, our sparkling human trophies of the fall! You ladies, as well as our many other rookies, make us so proud.

WORKING HARD
We also hosted our third annual hat tournament, Federal Fallout, joining together both our team and players from around the D.C. Ultimate area. We look to host a sanctioned tournament in the spring, so stay tuned with our social media to get the precious details.

COACHES!
But our biggest news: not only did we gain a lot of new talent with our rookies, but we also gained TWO new coaches: Rachel and Rowan. Many thanks to them for their help at practice during our recruiting season! Speaking of which, we got to talking, and Rachel and Rowan would like to pass on their infinite wisdom to their young seedlings.

Meet Rachel Borchardt
She is also known by Smoxy, Rainbow, Chucklesnort, and Circus in the Ultimate world, a community she has loved for the last 17 years. Rachel spent this past summer as a player on the D.C. mixed team, Sparkleponies, which ranks in the top three teams she's played in, alongside Ozone and Muppets ("the best Fool's Fest team ever!"). Aside from being a baller on the Frisbee field, Rachel can be spotted on AU's campus as a science librarian. She says her favorite Dirty Ladies tradition is when we cheer every practice, which just shows how her positive energy fuels us to play better!

SHE SPARKLES
Best frisbee moment ever: "Throwing an upwind score to go up a break and take half 8-7 on Brute Squad at Nationals in 2008 - it was my birthday, and felt freaking awesome! (we won that game and went on to semis that year, so it was a pretty memorable tournament all around)."
Reason why you coach: "Helping other people grow their love of ultimate is pretty awesome, and the Dirty Ladies are such a sweet and special group of ladies."

Meet Rowan
Matthew Rowan McDonnell is known by Matthew in games casually streamed on television, but Rowan to the Dirty Ladies and probably other people too. He has been playing Ultimate for just four years and has risen through the ranks to now play for the elite D.C. club team, Truckstop. With a strong start in New England, Rowan has migrated to D.C. to continue playing Ultimate and develop his coaching skills in the region. Rowan brings to us conditioning workouts and good spirit, as he says his favorite part about the DL is our traditional highlight reel after tournaments ("love it"). 

CAN'T STOP-WON'T STOP
Best Frisbee moment ever: "My first goaltimate game."
Reason why you coach: "Hanging out with Dirty Ladies.  And to watch these girls really embrace the sport and improve like crazy."

FINAL THOUGHTS
If you're somehow still reading this now, DL superfan, another congrats to Stall 11 for having a great fall season with XY squads ("X-Men" and "Tag Dump"). You boys make us proud!

NEXT STOP
Indoor workouts because of snow, broken fingernails due to cold weather catches, Justin Bieber tunes, and
SPRING SEASON.

Oh man! Our website has just launched. In addition to a digital makeover, we recently elected our newest officers for the 2015-2016 season:

Captains: Mackenzie Smith and Natalie Forman
President: Danielle Montecalvo
Treasurer: Suzanna Steele
Tournament Director: Maggie Maloney

Congratulations to our new executive board. We're looking forward to a successful year ahead!