2003 South New England College Sectionals

Date - April 19-20, 2003
Where - Middletown, CT
Official Site - http://www.upa.org/college/results.php?event=72
Pictures - N/A
Team Members - Evan, Jay, Mark, Klos, Steve, Paul, Dan, Aman, Case, Double D, E.O., Rick, Breen, Matt, Blaine, V-Rock, Nate

The Rundown
Once again it was time for sectionals, and it was once again WPI's chance to make it to regionals.  This year would be no easier than in the past, with teams like Brown, Yale, Wesleyan, and Conn. College standing in our way.  This would also be our first official tournament of the year, although many of the team members had traveled to Georgia for High Tide in early March.  And while the weather this spring had been terrible up until this time, we could not have asked for better weather for a tournament than what we got in Middletown for sectionals.

This year's field saw many familiar faces to the South New England ultimate scene, with Yale, Brown, and Wesleyan perennially being the top contenders.  There were also newcomers Trinity College and Roger Williams, and Holy Cross returned after two years not competing in sectionals.  The sectional coordinator seeded the eleven team tournament without any surprises, yielding one pool of five teams and another of six.

Pool A
1. Brown
4. Conn College
5. WPI
8. Holy Cross
9. Wesleyan B

Pool B
2. Yale
3. Wesleyan A
6. RWU
7. Brown B
10. Trinity
11. Brown C

First, we faced the ninth seeded Wesleyan B.  We came out strong against a skilled but young Wesleyan B, and quickly closed out the half 7-0.  We knew that we would have to keep building our intensity, so we set a goal to not allow them to score again.  While their players were athletic and had good throws, their inexperience showed and we were able to capitalize on their mistakes and close out the game 13-0.  This game featured a callahan goal by Evan, and a near callahan by Mike Breen (catch it next time!!).

The second game of pool play pitted us against Conn. College, who had beaten us in last year's game to go to regionals 13-11.  All of the vets were hungry for revenge.  They were coming off of a first round bye, so this would be their first game of the weekend.  We received going downwind to start the game, but after a quick turnover Conn. College capitalized and got the break point to make it 1-0.  We responded by working it upfield to get the upwind goal to even the score.  We traded a few upwind scores until we got a downwind break point to take the lead.  After a couple more scores we took half 7-4.  Even with the promise of free McDonalds from Jay if we could hold them scoreless in the second half, they received the disc and worked it downwind for the easy score.  The teams traded a few more points to make the score 9-7 WPI.  Then we really turned it on.  We took the next three points to make it 12-7, game point.  We pulled it downwind, and with hard defense got them to turn it over.  Evan breaks his mark to get it to Steve.  There's nothing upfield, so Evan gives him a cut, and Steve breaks his man.  Evan then breaks his mark with a low-release backhand to Dan, who sends a forehand to Matt, who has his man beat in the endzone.  Final score 13-7 WPI.  We completed the biggest upset of the tournament and took the second seed in the A pool.  We thanked Conn. College for another great, spirited game, and wished them luck in the rest of the tournament.

Our third round game was with the top seeded Brown A, who was ranked 11th in the nation coming into the tournament.  We knew there was little chance of an upset in this game, but we played hard.  We could not keep up with them, however, as they were able to patiently work through our defense, and exploit our mistakes on offense.  We have always had fun playing with Brown, and learn some things about what it takes to be a top-level program.  They were able to close out the game with a score of 13-1.

After a fourth round bye, our final game of the day was against cross-town rival Holy Cross.  Holy Cross had just come off a tough loss to Wesleyan B, but were looking to play hard.  This game was a lot of fun, but the score was never very close.  We took the half 7-1, and finished the game 13-4.  Overall, we were very pleased with the day's results, having earned second place in the A pool.  The only upset in the B pool was Brown B defeating Roger Williams.  This left Brown, WPI, Conn College, Wesleyan B, Yale, Wesleyan A, Brown B, and Roger Williams left to compete in a modified elimination bracket on Sunday.  We all slept well that night, dreaming of regionals...

Sunday morning began with a harrowing bus ride to the fields, but we arrived with plenty of time to warm up for our 10 AM game with Brown B.  We opened up the game very strong, and took the first half 7-2.  But Brown B did not give up, and came back strong.  With the help of their massive A team screaming on the sideline, they were able to claw back to a score of 11-9.  At this point, soft cap was called and the game was now to 13, rather than 15.  We stepped up the intensity and scored two more to finish off the game 13-9.  This win put us into the semifinals, and guaranteed us a top four finish in the tournament, which also meant a guaranteed trip to regionals.

While our goal of reaching regionals had been reached, we still had one more goal to accomplish before the year was over: make some noise at regionals by upsetting a high seed.  The semifinals of sectionals would be a great place to start, with a game against the B pool winner, Yale.  The game opened up with Yale putting a full field huck up to one of their deeps to take a quick 1-0 lead.  This set a tone for the game, as we played them hard, but they made few mistakes on offense and were able to convert scores on defense.  They were able to put us away and advance to the finals with a score of 15-6.

The final game of the weekend saw us play Wesleyan A for 3rd place in the section. This was yet another intense game, as we left everything we had on the field.  Wesleyan had some good athletes and liked to huck it, and were able to take the first half 8-4.  We came back in the second half, or at least matched them score for score (not sure due to a score discrepancy), but we just ran out of gas at the end of the game as they put us away 15-9.  While we were a little upset to have lost, we had gained valuable experience against teams similar to those we'd be playing against in two weeks at regionals.  And we couldn't be too upset, because WE WERE GOING TO REGIONALS!!!  Yeah Bullets!!!

Results (4-3)
Saturday Pool Play
Game 1 - Win over Wesleyan B, score 13-0
Game 2 - Win over Connecticut College, score 13-7
Game 3 - Loss to Brown A, score 1-13
Game 4 - Win over Holy Cross, score 13-4
Sunday Elimination Bracket
Game 5 (Quarterfinal) - Win over Brown B, score 13-9
Game 6 (Semifinal) - Loss to Yale, score 6-15
Game 7 (3/4 Game) - Loss to Wesleyan A, score 9-15

Final Standings (Top 5 advance to regionals)
1 - Brown A
2 - Yale
3 - Wesleyan A
4 - WPI
5 - Conn College
6 - Brown B
7/8 - Roger Williams
7/8 - Wesleyan B
9/10/11 - Holy Cross
9/10/11 - Trinity
9/10/11 - Brown C