Spring Break 2005!

First weekend - Ultimax in Greenville, NC

4 cars leaving at different times all make it down on Friday night,
meeting at the motel in Greenville.  We bring almost our full squad - 20
guys, missing senior Ryan Davies and grad Lee Albacker.

The weather was nice for basically the whole tournament, despite a
forecast for rain.  We come into the tournament seeded 8th, second in our
pool of Florida, Dartmouth, Clemson, and Vermont.  Our first game was
Clemson, who was short-handed and inexperienced.  We came out strong and
our defense rolled to a 15-3 victory.

Next was Dartmouth, a team we've had very close games with the past couple
of years, particularly at regionals.  They've had a strong season so far
this year, so we knew that this game would be big.  Dartmouth was pumped
for the game, but we came out swinging, as our defense built a 4-0 (5-0?)
lead.  We gave up a break or two before handler Chuck "the Professor" Lei
skied in the endzone to take half.  The beginning of the second half saw
very few turnovers, and we kept trading points.  Eventually, our offense
turned a couple and we saw ourselves in a 13-13 game.  Dartmouth pulled to
us and we marched it up the field, scoring on a stall 9 Lei-to-Marsh goal.
Our defense came onto the field, worked for the turn and put them away
15-13.

Our third game was against Vermont.  After the tough Dartmouth game we
came out sloppy.  Vermont is a better team than the one we beat first game
of regionals last year, but they still gave us more trouble than they
should have.  We pull out a 15-8 win.

After a bye, we face the 1 seed in the tournament, Florida.  They have a
small rotation but have some athletic receivers and can take care of the
disc well.  We give up a break or two to start before our offense starts
working and we trade with them.  We pull to like 8-10 or so and they go on
a run to close us out 15-9.  They must have had 6 or so turns the whole
game.

Finishing second in the pool, our first matchup is against Penn State in
the pre-quarters on Sunday morning.  Tragically Penn State alum Lee isn't
there with us to play them, but we call him at 8 in the morning to tell
him we're playing them.  Tempers flared a bit during the game.  We traded
points with them for much of the first half, exchanging a defensive break
or two.  We take the half by a couple, and then pull away in the second
half for a 13-8 win.

We face UNC Darkside in the Quarterfinals, the number 3 seed in the
tourney.  We receive to start the game and turn it immediately, they
convert the break.  Our offense wins the next point and we trade another
couple before our defense takes over, attacking the disc all over the
field.  we pull out in front and cruise to a 15-8 win.

We face Brown in the semis.  We come out a bit flat and they take
advantage, going up a couple of breaks.  We trade for a while but never
really put a run together and lose 15-9.  Brown beats Florida 17-13 in the
finals, which we watch before packing up and heading out.

11 of us head down to Edisto Island, SC, where we've rented 3 houses - A
team, B team, and women's team.  We meet them there late at night and
merriment ensues.

Highlights include drinking lots of Bud Energy (B to tha E, beer w/
caffeine and other stuff), partying with local high schoolers on a Wednesday
night, playing lots of poker, lots of double disc court on the beach,
getting sunburnt, a 4-team coed hat tournament, the jade king, man
shots, and freshman Dave Lipson winning the most eligible bachelor contest
by reusing the guacamole he had made earlier that evening.

Friday morning we drove up to Wilmington, NC for Easterns, our second
tournament.  There we meet Kolthammer and Ben, making our roster 12 for
the tournament.  Despite the low numbers we look forward to a long weekend
of ultimate.  Friday night we watch Sin City which is awesome.  Way way
better than Constantine

Our strong Ultimax showing gives us the 3 seed in the tournament (behind
NC State and Georgia).  Our pool is East Carolina, James Madison, and the
host team, UNC-Wilmington.  We go to the fields and it is absolutely
pouring.  They claim at the captains meeting that we'll be playing anyway,
so we start to warm up and it is the wettest I've ever been in my whole
life.  Finally they tell us to stop and wait for a bit.  We find cover,
and senior captain Dennis Chira serves this guy from Oberlin in a
dance-off.  They tell us the day will start at 11 so we go back to our
hotel to get warm.  The day soon clears up, though there are enormous
puddles on the field and it is very windy.

James Madison is our first game.  They have some solid players but never
really put together a run on us and we take the game 15-5.  Sophomore
Willy Evarts gets hit in the knee pretty bad on a (completed) deep look
and is out for the tournament.  With only a partially healthy physics grad
Steve Kolthammer, we are in a 10.5 person rotation.

ECU, the two seed in the pool, is our next game.  They didn't have the
best showing at their home tournament the previous weekend, but were in a
tough pool.  Most of the goals are scored in the downwind endzone and a
lot of zone is played by both teams.  We trade for a while but take the
half and pull away afterward.  They live up to their name, the Irates, by
being generally angry.  They hacked Will Chen a bunch then got pissed when
he called fouls.  Oh well.

Next is UNCW.  They have a lot of trouble with the wind, and we score a
few upwinders to pull away early.  We cruise to the win and the 1st place
finish in our pool.

The lights come on for our crossover game against NC State, which has no
effect on our placement in the Sunday bracket.  We go on a 3 or 4 point
run to start the game, converting a couple of upwinders, but then our
offense stagnates.  They go on a run to take the half 8-6 and then never
looks back.  They brought a full roster of 20+ guys to our 10, and we had
trouble executing in the fourth game of a long day.

Lipson's dad, in town to watch, generously takes the team out to the
Outback Steakhouse, right next door to our motel.  Grant D'Arcy watches
gleefully as Illinois advances to the championship game.

Sunday morning is even colder and windier than the previous day.  Our
pre-quarters matchup is Clemson, the same team we took 15-3 at Ultimax.
The game is sloppy, but we manage some upwind scores and win it 15-6.

In the quarters we face Virginia, who finished second in their pull after
getting upset by Georgia Tech.  We trade a couple of upwind breaks before
our zone stifles their huck-and-play-D offense.  Dennis Chira gets a big
block in the cup on one of their downwind hucks and we punch it in to
start a big run for us.  Before we know it we're up 8-3 at the half, then
10-3, then 13-4.  At that point our offense dies and we start to play
tentative.  They start to make a run on us and soon it is 13-6, 13-7.  The
cap blows, so the game is hard to 14.  They get a couple more before we
finally work it up in a zone 70 yards upwind to take the game 14-10.

Our semis matchup is Florida State, a team that upset Georgia on Saturday
to take their pool in a 3-way tie.  I (embarassingly) lose the handstand
contest and they start going downwind.  They take a couple of upwind
breaks early and it is never really close.  We were somewhat out of gas
and don't really put anything together until the end, where we make a
small run to make it a respectable 15-9.

Overall the tournament was a good experience (except for Willie's injury)
since the small group of guys we brought got a lot of playing time and the
younger guys got a lot of experience.  Also the windy conditions were
good to see before the big northeast tournaments coming up.

Up next is Yale Cup this weekend, then sectionals in Boston the following
weekend (still no word on the site of sectionals).

Jack