Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. - Malcolm S. Forbes

Courtesy of Kid:

Connecticut College Fall Classic - October 6^th and 7^th, 2007 - Pre-Tournament Ranking: 8^th out of 10

The Short Version...

On universe point, against Brown University's pseudo A-Team, Nick Amendolare launches a full-field backhand huck to Tim Glover for the 15-14 victory. WPI wins its first tournament in recent memory, against some of the stiffer competition in the region.

The Long Version...

Game 1: WPI vs. Rutgers

Rutgers came in as the 4^th seed in the tournament (second in our pool). We traded scores on the first few points before we really kicked it into gear and went on a run. The D-Line was able to string together multiple breaks on a few occasions while the O-Line (when needed) kept the pressure on with various hucks to Tim. Rutgers was on their heels the whole game, and was unable to make a run.

Final Score: WPI 13 - Rutgers 7

Game 2: WPI vs. Brown A

Brown, the tournament's #1 seed, came into Saturday with only a handful of veterans, a few B-teamers, and a small group of new recruits. We started out very flat in this game, and lacked intensity throughout. The game was close most of the way until Brown began to play their veterans more. Brown makes a run near the end.

Final Score: Brown 12 - WPI 10

Game 3: WPI vs. Yale

Yale shows up late for the third game of the day. The game was rife with turnovers, on both sides. Yale repeatedly burned us on up-line dump cuts. Our offense struggled to find flow throughout. The D-Line could not move the disc, and the O-Line gave up a few breaks. Eventually, Yale pulled ahead before the game was capped.

Final Score: Yale 7 - WPI 5

Game 4: WPI vs. Connecticut College B

We practiced our transition-zone this game, at Mace's suggestion, in an effort to learn something valuable, even in a throwaway game. Conn was able to score a few on us a result, mostly on unexpected hucks. Overall, though, our play was solid.

Final Score: WPI 13 - Conn College B 5

Game 5: WPI vs. Skidmore (Quarterfinals)

We arrived Sunday morning for a showdown with Skidmore, a very solid team from a small school in upstate New York. Our start was abysmal. After a dropped pull, several goal-line turnovers, and many, many mental mistakes, we found ourselves down 7-2. Fuhrmeister tells us on the line, "We need to score this point, Tech. We need to scrap for a point, or else the second-half deficit will be too much." And score we did. The O-Line finally works it in for a goal, and the D-Line follows up with three consecutive breaks (including a goal-line, layout block by Nick, during a Zone point) before Skidmore gets their act together and takes half 8-6. We come out of the half sluggish, and all of sudden we are down 10-6. But we fought back the rest of the second half; the O-Line did its job, and the D-Line picked up a few breaks until we found ourselves receiving, down 12-11. Hard cap had blown, it was game to 13. PC throws a backhand bomb to Nick sprinting deep, but it's too high. The throw hangs in the air until Nick gets up, over two defenders, for the sky in the endzone. WPI pulls on universe point. Tim gets a huge poach D, but Fuhrmeister throws it away at stall-9 on the goal line. Skidmore works it upfield until Vaccaro comes up huge with a block. Scheid gets the disc underneath, near the goal line, and throws a high release backhand to Tim. GOAL!

Final Score: WPI 13 - Skidmore 12

Game 6: WPI vs. Yale (Semifinals)

We arrived looking for redemption against a Yale team that had beaten us just a day earlier. We came out firing on all cylinders. Stifling defense forced Yale to repeatedly throw feeble high-stall hucks. Some great Zone-Defense also lead to some more D-Line breaks. We took the lead early and never looked back.

Final Score: WPI 11 - Yale 6

Game 7: WPI vs. Brown A (Championship Game)

Brown beefed up their roster for Sunday's competition, adding a few more veterans. The game was back and forth. We took the lead after a few early D-Line breaks, but Brown countered with a few breaks of their own, and the score was 8-7 in our favor at half. There were several hucks thrown in the direction of Nick and Tim, and on defense we matched them step for step. Highlights included a huge layout poach block by Fuhrmeister, a handblock by Jon, Moakley scoring several goals right near the sideline, Sippy breaking the Brown marks so much that they were forced to put Vandenberg on him instead of a cutter, and a double-D by Kevin and Tim also near the goal-line. Nick also had a 360, pirouette (between two defenders), finger-to-thumb catch, followed immediately by a hammer to Fuhrmeister for a goal. Brown matched with big plays of their own, though, and the game was tied a 13-13 before "the catch." PC puts up a blade of a forehand to a streaking Eric Scheid who gets airborne and horizontal for a righty, trailing-edge, layout grab. WPI takes the lead, and pulls to Brown, but they work it upfield efficiently for the game tying goal. The score was 14-14, game to 15, and the O-Line was receiving. The play-call on the line was for 'Shredder'. Scheid catches the pull and centers to PC. After several jukes, Nick loses his man and catches a short high-release break from PC. Without hesitation, Nick launches a full-field, backhand huck down the right sideline. Tim Glover is open deep, but the throw hangs a bit and his man gains ground. Both sidelines (and most of the players on the field) stand frozen as the throw floats past the arms of the leaping Brown defender. The rest is history.

Overall, we had great play for most of the weekend. Our freshmen (Ian, Owen, Moakley, Kevin, and Jon) played awesome, and the veterans stepped up to play some of their best ultimate since Nationals last year. Tim Glover proved that he can run, jump, and catch with just about anybody on the planet, and Eric Scheid proved that catching fundamentals are overrated. Most importantly, WPI Ultimate proved that it can play with any team in the region.

And now a short anecdote from the car-ride home:

Nick: Wow. Look over there. That guy is terrible at tennis.

Fermi: Yeah, but he's playing against that Asian girl, who looks like she's obviously good 'cause she's Asian. I wonder if she's giving him lessons... You know what, I bet that guy is just really awkward, and is trying really hard to get with that Asian girl, so he asked her for lessons. Except he's probably so awkward that he's still paying for the lessons or something

Club Sectionals '07 Recap

[this is mostly from a B-team perspective, hopefully some A-teamer will post a recap from their perspective]

the first tournament of the year is always an awesome experience. we always seem to luck out with great weather for club sectionals, and this year was no different. not only that, but they were on some absolutely beautiful (and annoyingly expensive) fields.

although i got up early with a few other crazy people and trekked out to lancaster set up fields, the majority of the WPI team got the rare luxury of sleeping in the day of a tournament. Our first game wasn't until 12:40 so we had plenty of time to throw around and warmup.

The first two teams the B-team played were seeded pretty high in the tournament and were both quite talented. however, they couldn't have been more different. MIT was rather similar to us; a group of college aged athletic kids bringing some freshmen to their first tournament. Rude Boys on the other hand were a group of old veterans (they actually won nationals in 1982) that brought their non-surprisingly good kids to the tournament with them. needless to say, we didn't perform too well against them, although we managed to put up a few against each. and we got to witness a nice kodak moment against rude boys, when a father threw the game-winning hammer to his 12ish year old son for the score. some highlights include pc hucking to moakley for several scores, rick making a beautiful 2nd effort grab for a score, and the emergence of ian/ryan/jeff as go-to guys on the field.

the last game of the day was aginst tufts-B, and was a much better matchup for our team. we were even tied at threes at one point before tufts started to pull away. around 4-14 we decided to throw a zone on them, and broke them 3 straight times to end the day on a respectable note.

the next morning we played andover high school, in a game that was very reminiscent of the tufts game. we were close in the beginning, and made a nice run at the end again thanks to the success of our zone, but the final score was something like 15-7. this actually ended up being the last game of the weekend due to some lame teams not showing up on sunday, but we entertained ourselves with some scrimmaging, go-to drills, and cheering on the A-team. The A-team seemed to have a roller coaster of a weekend, playing very well at times and absolutely abysmal at others. I will say though that i was pretty inspired by the end of their game against red tide B, where they scored like 5 out of 6 points during one stretch. goes to show what stifling defense can do for you. props to kevin for getting like 5 skying D's in a single point, and to vaccaro for playing the best defense i've ever seen out of him. it was nice to see that even when they were down 11-3, they never gave up, and i think red tide was starting to get nervous before the end.

all in all it was a good time, and hopefully a good learning experience for those new to the game. there should be more tournaments come B term, so keep coming to practices so we can improve on this performance next time.

things that went well: attitude/spirit, zone D
things to work on: vertical cuts/cutting with confidence, communication on D, pivoting, conditioning

over and out