Chicago Union Week 1 Match Recap

by Tessa Martyn

The Chicago Union returned-to-play on Saturday, June 5, after a 2-year hiatus due to COVID-19, facing off against the 2019 Central Division Champions, the Indianapolis AlleyCats. “I think the league and team have been anticipating this moment for a very long time, so it was nice to get out there and get the job done,” said 27-year-old Keegan North, former AlleyCats player, and now current Chicago Union player from Cincinnati, Ohio. The Chicago Union defeated the Indianapolis AlleyCats 20 to 12, with a strong performance from both the offense and defense. 

“We envisioned during the off-season utilizing a more team-based style of defense and that played a large factor on Saturday. Our defense worked together very well to make things difficult for Indy’s offense. Players were filling into key places when there was a weakness and did a great job for the most part of slowing their forward momentum and gumming up initiation plays. And then when they got the disc in their hands, our counter-attack from the defense line was calculated and largely well-executed across all of our players. The defense line really shined in our first matchup,” said Dave Woods, Chicago Union coach. 

Peter Graffy will be one of the Union players to watch in this week’s upcoming match against the Minnesota Windchill. In his last four games against the Windchill, Graffy averaged 3.8 assists, 2.8 goals, and 1.3 blocks. Other key players to keep an eye on this week are Ross Barker who scored 4 goals in the first match of the season, as well as Pawel Janas who led the team with 5 assists. 

Chicago Union’s next match up will be on Saturday, June 12, 2021, at six o’clock in the evening at Langhorst Field.