this past weekend harvard ultimate went out to umass with two small teams.
the red line a-team was no. 1 seed in the tournament, and had high hopes
for winning it all, having domintated yale cup two weeks earlier.

our first game against brandeis was very smooth, as harvard took a 7-1
halftime lead, and cruised to a 13-5 victory.  next up was a sleeper
against dartmouth b, whose biggest threat was a dude who got up in your
face and hollered the stall count.  he was a little scary, but there was
no fear, and the red line won 13-1.  highlights of the game included a
huge sky by kendrick and several tom wieand devil sightings.

next up was umass, harvard's toughest opponent of the day.  again, the red
line took an early lead, taking half-time 7-3, behind some good offensive
efficiency.  the second half wasn't so consistent, as umass went on a run
to tie things up at 9-9.  but harvard came together with good team defense
the rest of the game, and scored the last three points to win 12-9.  the
big highlight was shankar's over the shoulder layout d playing deep-deep
in the zone, shocking the umass guy who thought he had a goal, and
shocking most of the red line too.

the last game of the day was a cruiser against mit.

saturday night, well, we probably should have stayed at umass.  harvard
red line straggled to kirkland house sunday morning, in a variety of
states, both sober and not so sober.  and even after the drive, we still
weren't quite ready to play.

our first game, for elimination this time, was against tufts.  maybe it
was overconfidence after beating them two weeks ago, maybe it was our
small team, injuries, and hangovers, but whatever, we inexcusably came out
slow in body in mind.  we gave tufts an opportunity, and they took it,
running to an 8-6 halftime lead.  harvard battled back to take a 10-9 lead
in the second half, but that would be the last one.  tufts took a 14-12
lead behind lots of hucks, which we didn't defend or match.  final score
was 15-13 tufts ... a real tough loss which knocked harvard out of the
winner's bracket.

to the consolation bracket, our next game was against dartmouth, which
game out psyched to beat us.  besides some interesting pick and travel
calls, they consistently ran harder than us, and the game was tied 9-9 at
clutch time.  in the end harvard pulled it together for an 11-9 victory,
but it was probably closer than it should have been.

our last game, a rematch against umass, a tired harvard team played like
it was dead.  we might have had two or three d's all game, that's how
sorry it was.  and we lost 15-11.

not many highlights from day 2, but luckily, the red line has a chance to
get its respect back right away.  games this week against tufts and this
weekend against everyone else should show us what we're all about.

and i'm personally psyched for it!