last weekend harvard entered regionals as the #1 ranked team in new
england, excellent position to compete for the region's single nationals
bid.

saturday's weather was sunny and a bit windy as we opened the day against
#13 seed brandeis.  the game went smoothly, maybe too smoothly.  the
defense was strong, the offense pretty consistent.  final score 15-1.

meanwhile, the other game in our pool was a battle, with #12 amherst
eventually defeating #8 mit 13-12 at the cap.  our next game was against
amherst, whose guys were running hard and laying out from the previous
game's intensity.  unfortunately we chose this one to start out flat, and
it really hurt us.  with the score tied 3-3, amherst went on a 4 point run
and took an 8-4 advantage into halftime.  knowing the importance of the
game, we stepped up the collective energy in the second half, coming back
to within 11-10 and 12-11.  but with the game capped at 13, an amherst
guy laid out to catch a swilly hammer for the winning goal, to end the
game and seriously limit our chances the rest of the tournament.

after easily taking out mit, the red line had to play #5 seed umass in the
pre-quarterfinal game.  this one was tight throughout.  after falling
behind 2-1, harvard's zone forced some turnovers as part of a run to take
a 5-2 lead.  and despite several spectacular plays by umass's star
receiver, we maintained the advantage for the entire game.  with the score
14-13, will threw to fleming for the winning goal and a berth in sunday's
quarterfinals.

our quarterfinal game was against #2 wesleyan, and it was another battle.
a back and forth first half ended with us ahead 8-7, but we found
ourselves down 13-12 late in the game.  some tight defense and several
fine plays by shankar turned things around though, and we scored 4 of the
last 5 points to win 16-14.

next up was #3 brown in the semis, and whatever we needed to compete in
this game just wasn't there.  brown was fresh from a much easier schedule,
and it showed.  they ran harder, threw better, laid out more, everything,
taking a 6-0 lead and running away with the game.  the final score was
15-3.  in the finals, tufts defeated brown 15-11 to earn the last
remaining nationals bid.

the way it turned out, our chances of winning were basically done after
losing to amherst on saturday.  brown and tufts had little trouble in
their road to the semifinals, while we had two physical, tiring games as a
result of losing to amherst.  it was really unfortunate, since we just
didn't get to showcase all we had worked for this season.  but it's not
like we didn't have our chances.

still, the weekend was beautiful throughout and the team managed to have a
fun time despite the disappointing finish.  for the red line's 12 seniors
and grad students, this was it.  for the other guys, there's lots of great
ultimate to be played.

thanks to everyone for making this a memorable season.  special thanks
to all alumni who helped us out with donations.  and thanks also to the
crimson for giving us some well-deserved publicity.

best of luck with reading period and exams.  i look forward to seeing you
all soon,

skippy