EASTERNS

this was a stacked tournament, with 14 of the 16 teams from 2001
nationals, plus strong west coast entries like san diego, berkeley, and
stanford.  a great challenging beginning to the week.

day 1 began with a first round bye, then a matchup vs. wisconsin, who beat
us in nationals pre-quarters last year and were supposed to be pretty good
again.  but they came out cold and committed a bunch of turnovers against
our zone, which we did a pretty good job converting.  we built a lead and
hung on, helped by some big grabs by chris kanak (attack).  final score
15-7.  Next up was our friends from tufts, who came out fired up, got some
easy scores early, and built an 8-3 halftime lead.  comebacks are tough
against good teams, and though we did better in the second half, it wasn't
good enough.  final score 9-15.

third game vs. stanford, # 1 seed in the tournament.  we seemed to come
out a little intimidated in this one and went down early.  after a few
points though, it was clear we matched up pretty well with these guys, and
a little run had us within 11-8 in the second half.  again though,
comebacks against good teams are not easy, and we couldn't get any closer.
final score 8-15.  last was penn, who came out looking tired, and were
just not able to keep up.  we got a good rotation going and blew them out.
final score 15-6.

and in the last competition of the day, the 100 yard dash, our own arthur
rudolph showed he is the 2nd fastest man in college ultimate.  no shame
losing to that guy in track workouts!

day 2, single elimination.  our first game vs. san diego, a rematch of the
thriller at president's day.  we were down early and trailed 8-7 at the
half.  then after some good advice from toby berkman, we put on a 1-3-3
transition defense and went on a quick 3-0 run.  some pressure scores down
the stretch allowed us to hold the lead.  a real good win, 15-13.  the
quarterfinals had us matched against colorado.  it was an upwind-downwind
game, and we unfortunately missed an opportunity for an early upwinder
after will made a great layout d.  trading points for most of the first
half, with colorado repeatedly hucking to tall mickey downwind, they
eventually got an upwinid score and took half 8-6.  at some point, dave
got kicked in the hand and had to sit, which definitely hurt our comeback
chances.  final score 7-15.  stanford over oregon in one semifinal,
colorado over tufts in the other, then stanford pretty much dominated
colorado for the championship.

a late-night ride to savannah, then a day at the beach for some, and a day
playing co-ed for others.  tuesday morning we were back in grey, ready to
play some more games.  the big game this day was vs. oregon, probably one
of this year's top 5 teams.  playing without kallin, we still came out
strong, took an early lead, and led 7-6 at half.  the second half was all
about guts.  playing on tired legs and suffering some injuries, lots of
guys really stepped up.  will led the charge, john barkett showed some
nice chilly handling, john seitz had at least 2 layout d's, and jeff had a
great layout d down the stretch to prevent a score.  oregon caught some
breaks in the end, but this one was as much a win as a loss.  final score
13-15.

that was about it for people's legs.  each point was like running uphill
as we lost close games to steven's point and northwestern.  the situation
called for some time at the beach, so we took two days off in order to
reload for the next tournament.