CCC LIII: Our Final Impressions

So, CCC is finally over. This will, most likely, be our last post on the topic. That being said, we think that we saw a lot about the future of college Ultimate this weekend. We wouldn’t be surprised to see four or even five teams from this tournament make an appearance in Madison this summer.

CCC LIII: Finals Recap

Wisconsin and Virginia had survived the wind, snow and freezing temperatures to outlast 24 other teams and meet in one of the most prestigious fall tournaments of the year.

Both of these teams finished last season at Nationals and both have serious goals about making it to Madison for Nationals this year. However, only one of the two would emerge as the champion of the fifty-third installment of the Classic City Classic.

CCC LIII: Semifinals Recap

With the bracket narrowed to four, this topsy turvy tournament appeared that it had finally returned to normalcy (with the exception of Georgia Tech). Georgia and Wisconsin were squaring off late in the Championship bracket, like they had so many times before in the history of CCC.

On the other side, last year’s AC  Regional Champion, Virginia, was taking on upstart Georgia Tech.

With the way that these teams had all been playing, and now that they weather was mostly clear, we knew that we were in for quite a semifinal round.

CCC LIII: Quarterfinals Recap

We don’t think that we’d be going out on too much of a limb to say that few expected to see Georgia Tech and Delaware matching up come quarterfinals of this tournament. Tech, as we mentioned yesterday, hasn’t been to Nationals in quite some time and failed to make much, if any, noise at AC Regionals last season.

Delaware, on the other hand, is a team that has had some good finishes to start off this season and to see them make it thus far in the bracket wasn’t much of a surprise. GT survived one of the easier, and more confusing, pools in the tournament to make it here while Delaware won second on a three-way tie in order to advance to the A-Bracket.

However, this unforeseen matchup left little to be desired as the two teams squared off in a rough and tumble battle of a game.

Meanwhile, one field over, Wisconsin and Notre Dame prepared to fight for their lives. Notre Dame trying to salvage a day that ended quite poorly and Wisconsin trying to continue its dominance of CCC.

CCC LIII Saturday: Our Impressions

By the end of the third round at CCC we determined that we could no longer depend on anything. The entire world was upside down and we were very cold. These are a couple of categories that we thought up that really sorted out the mirey muck that was the Saturday of CCC 2009.

CCC LIII Fifth Round: Wisconsin Hodags vs. Tennessee Agent Orange

To be frank, we expected this game to mean a little bit more than it did at this point. So far this fall, Tennessee has finished no lower than third at any of the three fairly competitive tournaments that it has entered.

However, that was not to be as Tennessee hung with Wisconsin for the first four points of the game before the Hodags began rolling off breaks that led to a 13-3 victory that didn’t see a single Tennessee score in the second half.

CCC LIII Fourth Round: Virginia vs. Sarasota Cheetahs

By the fourth round on Saturday, CCC had seen its fair share of expected and unexpected finishes. Among those finishes that were expected would be Virginia Night Train. Although Night Train’s performance thus far in the fall has not been up to par with the way it finished off last season, one had to know that it would only be a matter of time before the boys from Charlottesville got back on track.

They proved that they were right where they wanted to be throughout the day on Saturday and we had the opportunity to see that first hand when they faced off against the Sarasota Cheetahs, a club team from Kennesaw, Ga.

CCC LIII Third Round: Texas vs. Clemson

By the third round, the sun had dried the ground out to a reasonable extent. The playing conditions turned into something that one could expect but that didn’t change the strange morning that Texas TUFF had. The historic powerhouse had lost two games to unheard of teams, South Florida (has never made it to Regionals) and Georgia Tech (hasn’t made Nationals since 1992).

Next up on the slate for TUFF was Clemson. The Joint Chiefs had already beat a team seeded high about them in UNC. However, many would expect that coming off a universe point victory against a heavily favored team, Clemson would have a hangover or that TUFF would have picked itself up by its bootstraps and fixed the things that were wrong with it.

CCC LIII Second Round: Georgia vs. Delaware

As inclement as the weather was in the first round of CCC, it got worse in the second. Although the snow started to melt and the sun started to emerge from the gray clouds that had shrouded it all morning, the conditions began to worsen. The wind began to pick up and the ground began to turn into a slippery muck of mud and mire.

In our eyes, this became the great equalizer for the day. It was grossly apparent that during the Georgia/Delaware game, the conditions negated almost any athletic advantage that individuals may have had.

CCC LIII First Round: Notre Dame vs. Michigan State

The first round of a tournament can be difficult, you don’t have to get your kinks worked out. You might not be warmed up. The first round at this year’s Classic City Classic was no exception to that rule.

As teams warmed up snow covered the ground and the temperature was low. However, two teams had to get in gear in a hurry as regional rivals Michigan State and Notre Dame squared off against each other.