New England Regionals 2005
4/30-5/1; Portsmouth, RI.

We met in front of Kirkland house at 6:15, aiming to be at the fields a
bit before 8 for our 9 oclock first round game.  Seemed sensible,
considering Portsmouth is about an hour an a quarter away.  But it wasn't
going to be so easy.

My car ended up roaming Rhode Island after having (we think) accidentally
gotten on and stayed on 195 instead of getting back onto 24 south.  I'll
spare you the gory details of this, but basically after stopping at a gas
station we were told that Portsmouth was 30 or 40 minutes from where we
were (East Providence) and ended up following a garbage truck going 20
mph for 15 of those minutes.  I did much yelling at the state of Rhode
Island, and my car finally rolled into the fields at about 9:10, 10
minutes after the start of our first-round game.

Luckily the rest of the cars had way fewer problems finding the fields,
and made it there to fully warm up and get our regionals tournament
rolling.

Anyway, to the tournament itself.  The format was a double-elimination
bracket.  We came in as the 3 seed in the 16-team tournament, behind Brown
and Dartmouth.  It would be 3 or 4 games on Saturday (3 for the semis
teams).  The day was gloomy and pretty cold, with light rain turning on
and off throughout the day before heavy rain fell during our last game.
But first..

First up was the number 14 seed, Yale.  We had beaten them at Yale cup
13-4 and knew that they aren't what they have been in past years.  Still,
they have some strong players and some good athletes, so we knew that we
were not going to get a first-round cakewalk.  I'm not entirely sure what
happened in the first part of the game since my car got there late and
warmed up frantically to get in the game.  I think our small squad got a
break or two early, but it was still pretty close at the half (7-5,
maybe?).  In the second half, having finally had our first full huddle of
the weekend, we came out swinging.  We out-ran Yale, and they started to
get frustrated.  We got a couple more breaks that half and cruised to a
13-9 (or so) victory.  A first game that was a bit sloppier and a bit more
difficult than we would have hoped, but not a bad start to the weekend.

Immediately after that was the quarters against Williams, the 6 seed.
They had just come off a strong win over a good team, their sectional
rival Amherst (13-9).  We knew this was going to be a tough game coming
in, as many thought Williams should probably have been the 4 or 5 seed if
it wasn't for MIT upsetting Tufts at sectionals to mess things up a bit.
Also, we knew Williams would be gunning for us and lookig to win that
nationals berth.  They went so far as to post on rec.sport.disc about the
parallels between this weekend and regionals '03, when they handily beat
us on Saturday and took us again on Sunday.  We knew we were going to have
to play strong to counter their intensity.  We traded the first two
points, before our offense had a few mistakes which Williams capitalized
on to go up a couple of breaks.  Our offense found its rhythm a bit, but
they kept hurting us with hucks and took half up 2 breaks.  Our defense
stepped up a bit and got us a couple, but Williams kept putting the disc
up in the air and kept on scoring.  Our D got a break to make it 12-11
Williams, but on game point they sent one of their stronger receivers deep
and a long IO backhand sent us to the backdoor bracket.

This loss gave us a tough road.  We were going to have to win 5 straight
do-or-die games against the strongest competition that the region has to
offer.  We had a bye to lick our wounds from the Williams game and
re-focus for our next two Saturday games.  We got some food at a nearby
sandwich shop and came back to the fields ready to go.

That's when the tournament started.

First up was Roger Williams, who had lost to Tufts in the first round and
beat Brandeis in their first backdoor game.  They had one very strong
thrower who we keyed up on, but were otherwise not too impressive, aside
from impressively loud cheering every time they completed an upfield pass.
We did have a bit of trouble getting too psyched for this game and some of
these jitters showed, but in the end we took care of business and stayed
in control the whole game, winning like 13-8 or so.

In order to stay alive in the tournament for Sunday, our final matchup of
Saturday was UMass.  We beat them 12-7 at UMass, but saw that they are an
athletic team with some good throwers, so we knew we had to be big for
this game.  By this time the rain was really starting to come down, and
everyone was cold and wet.  The conditions weren't pleasant, but we were
up to them more than UMass was.  They played their 1-3-3 on us and we tore
it up.  Our D got onto the field and started to roll.  Before we knew it
the score was 7-2 and it was halftime and we were pumped.  We came out of
the half and traded two points with them when the TD came over and told us
that we were done for the day.  It was raining too hard, and we were
starting to rip up the fields too much.  Game postponed until Sunday
morning, starting 9 am, Harvard up 9-4 and receiving going downwind.

We went and checked into our hotel, laid out our clothes to get dry,
grabbed some showers, and hung out.  Dinnertime rolled around and we went
to a local pub for some food.  Since we were a party of 40+, including our
team, coaches, alumni, as well as the Tufts women, getting us all seated
wasn't the easiest but everything worked out ok and it was a pretty solid
meal.  It was pouring when we left the restaurant, so we knew we'd be in
for some slippery fields on Sunday.  We headed back to our hotel and
passed out almost immediately.

Sunday morning, there was electricity.  We woke up to find our hotel
hallway decorated with pro-Red Line signs made by the Tufts women, the
spoils of our victory over them in candlepin bowling the previous weekend.
We got to the fields (without getting lost this time!) with plenty of time
to warm up and get ready for the rest of our back-door pre-quarters game
against UMass.  And warm we were.  Our O punched in the first goal without
a turn, and our defense got blocks and took care of the disc, winning 3
breakpoints in a row.  Final score: 4-0, Harvard (13-4, Harvard).

Having finished so quickly, we hung out for a bit before our next game,
watching the other games that were still finishing from Saturday
afternoon.  We watched Dartmouth pull away from Williams in one semi,
while Brown cruised over Tufts in the other.  We started to get warm
again, and we started to get pumped up.  We would face Tufts next in the
backdoor quarters.

We all know what happens when Tufts plays Harvard.  Calls are made,
arguments ensure, tempers sometimes flare.  Especially when the season is
on the line, you know this type of thing is going to happen but in general
things didn't get too bad on the field.  The field was muddy and
completely torn up by the end of the game.  Since it was such a mudpit,
there were times when play was sloppy on both sides.  Unlike our game at
sectionals when Tufts jumped to an early lead, we struck first in this
game, going on a run to start the game up 4-1.  That run was all the
defense we would need in the first half, and we traded until taking half
8-6.  In the second half, the EMen came out strong, and tied the game at
9s, just like at sectionals.  Just like at sectionals, the cap went on,
meaning game to 11.  And just like at sectionals, our offense took care of
it to go up 10-9 and put our D on the field.  Tufts worked it up the field
slowly on our defense in the sloppy conditions, but were halted by the
goal-line and couldn't find an opening.  Soon, they tried a post cut by
one of their handlers, and Kolthammer got a huge poach layout D to give us
the disc back for the game.  We worked it up quickly, and soon BJ found a
streaking Manoah for a big break-mark forehand and the victory.

After the Tufts win, there was some question as to whether or not we would
be playing anymore on Sunday.  We tore up the field we had just been on,
and the others were not looking too good.  We were told there's about a
25% chance that we'd continue to play, that most likely it would be
rescheduled for next weekend.  Hearing this, we were a bit relieved since
we knew the loser of the finals would have played fewer games and so
playing next week would make us comparably rested.  But we were still
ready to play if given the go-ahead.  As we were out getting some food in
us, we got the call that we would keep playing, 3 oclock gametime,
backdoor semis against Williams.

Remembering that a slow start ended up costing us on Saturday, we came up
big at the beginning of this game.  Our offense was firing, and matching
every goal that they scored.  Our defense got a break early, and we held
it until half.  The second half we continued to play strong, and got
another two defensive breaks to go up 12-9.  at 13-10, a couple of
offensive miscues put williams back in the game, 13-12.  Our offense put
one in at that point, which williams answered.  Receiving downwind, our
confident offense marched it down the field, dumping and swinging and
hitting in-cuts, until I saw Willie streaking to the force-side back cone.
The Marsh to Evarts connection had been strong all game, so I put out a
40 yard backhand for him to chase down, which he grabbed toeing the
back-line to stay in bounds.  Time for the game to go to nationals.

In retrospect, the weather delay helped us out a great deal, since while
we were battling a close one against Tufts, Williams took care of Amherst
without much trouble and would have been better rested had the game
started immediately.  Instead, we were two equally-rested teams, and we
were the better one.

The game-to-go was to start 25 minutes after the Williams game ended.
Dartmouth had lost in the finals to Brown during our Williams game, ending
10 or 15 minutes before us.  Their only games of the day were a half-game
against Williams, and then the finals.  Meanwhile, we were in some tight
battles with Tufts and Williams.  Our legs were tired but our minds were
focused.  We knew what had to happen.

We started out on defense.  Dartmouth worked it up against us and put in
an easy goal.  Our offense came onto the field and answered on a put to
Willie in the endzone.  Dartmouth's O answered back on an uncontested huck
for a goal.  At this point, our offense stalled a bit.  What had worked
against Williams was not going to work against Dartmouth.  Dartmouth
forced a few turns and went on a run, taking an upwind defensive break and
then a downwind defensive break, going up 4-1.  Finally our offense put
one in, but our defense couldn't get a break.  Our O team surrendered one
more point in the half, and our defense looked like it didn't have the
legs for this game.  Dartmouth took half, 8-4.

Things looked bad.  It looked like all the work we had put into this
season, to this team, to this tournament, to this day was going to be
drowned in one wet, muddy field as we felt nationals slipping away from
us.  Then something happened.  We looked at each other in our halftime
huddle and decided that we were going to win this game and go to
nationals.  We may still have doubted it at the time, but we all took it
upon ourselves to ignore our tired legs and play a fun half of ultimate.

We came out of halftime on offense.  Our offense worked it up, punched one
in. 8-5.  Our defense came out onto the field.  Dartmouth worked up the
field before an error put the disc in our hands with 70 yards to work. A
long upwind put from Kolthammer to Manoah, and soon a goal.  8-6.  A huge
pull into the back of the endzone left DMouth little room to work with
against our clam.  They get one pass into the middle, look upfield and
release, only to see Lee poaching off his man and laying out for a pancake
Callahan goal.  8-7!  All of a sudden we're back in the game and have all
the momentum!  The next point was a long one.  Both teams turned it a
couple of times (one was a huge layout block by Mike George) until we
worked it upwind.  Dennis looked to hit Manoah with an IO forehand into
the endzone, but it sailed....right to Grant D'arcy who was all alone in
the endzone for a dainty clap goal.  8-8, timeout Dartmouth.

Dartmouth collected themselves and put the next goal in on an upwind huck
(I should have D'ed it, damn) and then adds another goal with a break on
our offense.  Our offense collected ourselves and punched the next goal in
on a downwind zone point to put our D back on the field.  With heart, our
defense came on the field and forced the turn.  The disc was soon up in
the air with Manoah cutting deep.  It hung a bit, long enough for 4
Dartmouth defenders to get in the area.  Koletty managed to box out all of
them and get up high for the catch, the goal, the break. Tied again,
10-10.  Dartmouth marched up the field for the next point, which we
answered to tie it at 11s.  They responded, taking a 12-11 lead.  On the
next point they came down in a zone.  Mike MacKenzie made an absolutely
ridiculous catch on a throw that was sailing out of bounds, toeing the
line to save our season.  Chuck followed that up immediately with a nasty
layout grab to save the dump, and things started to click.  We worked it
down the rest of the way and put in the goal to tie it at 12s as the cap
went on, game to 14.

At 12-12, Dartmouth worked up to about midfield before hitting one of
their stronger cutters on a huck into the endzone.  13-12, game point
Dartmouth, Harvard going upwind.  They come down in their 1-3-3 on us and
pull it deep in the endzone.  We work it up about 3/4 of the field before
a dump goes awry and suddenly Dartmouth has the disc to go to nationals in
their hands.  They put up a long throw that Kolthammer makes a bid on, but
it is just over the target's head and we have it back.  They set their
zone again, and again we work it up.  At about midfield, they switch into
their man and Kolt is streaking deep.  I put up an IO backhand, and as
Kolt runs he gets tripped and falls, calling the foul.  Dartmouth thinks
it was uncatchable and they're about to send it back when someone goes to
the observer.  Foul is ruled, and Kolt has it on the goalline.  Eric cuts
breakside, and Kolt steps around with a backhand, gets fouled and lets it
off, and Eric makes a play on it, nabbing the back edge to tie it up.

13-13, game to 14.  We pull it to them, they start off in the middle their
endzone.  They get off a few passes, their cutters work downfield to try
and get open.  We're forcing backhand.  Everyone's legs are sore, this
point will be all about heart.  They work it up 15 or 20 yards with some
handler work.  Their handlers, though, didn't see what was coming next.
One of their handlers, Dan Yi, took Brian Jin a couple of steps to the
breakside before going for a 5 yard open-side cut.  Suddenly Brian Jin is
horizontal 4 feet in the air.  Suddenly the disc is on the ground with 20
yards to work downwind to go to nationals.  Will Chen picks up the disc,
hits me with a forehand on an in-cut from the back of the stack.  Steve is
cutting for the continue, but can't find the open spot.  I turn back dump
and look at Will Chen, we make eye contact.  Will and I fake the dump and
his defender bites.  Chen is open by 5 yards cutting up the line.  I swore
we were too far out of the endzone to get a goal, i was just trying to put
us on the goal-line with the disc in our best thrower's hands.  Suddenly
Will was past the endzone line, in bounds, with the disc right in front of
him.  He put a hand on it, and the disc fluttered in the air.  Will wasn't
going to let it die though, he cradled the disc like a baby and stayed in
bounds to take the Red Line to Nationals.  We shook Dartmouth's hands
after a great game, huddled up, and drove back to Cambridge victorious.

It was an awesome weekend and I am so proud to be a member of this team.

Many thanks to our alumni for coming out this weekend, supporting us,
believing in us.

See you in Corvallis

Jack