Easterns 2010 – Round One – UGA Jojah vs. UVA Night Train

UVA's Andrew Wilkes grabs a disc in front of a bidding Peter Dempsey on the way to a Virginia victory. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange. http://www.unitesports.biz

Easterns 2010 wasted no time in getting competitive and interesting. In the first round two of the heavyweights from the Atlantic Coast region squared off in an excellent game.

Georgia was coming in off a disappointing finish at College Terminus and Virginia was coming into Easterns with a similarly bitter taste in its collective mouth after finishing poorly at the Wilmington 8s. Both teams were ready to start off on a new foot and it showed in the play as the game, which ended in a capped, double game point style in Virginia’s favor, 10-9.

Easterns 2010 – Previews – UVA Night Train

UVA captain Tyler Conger scans the field at UPA College Nationals 2009. Photo courtesy of Ian Toner.

Every Ultimate program loses leaders. Such is the plight of college Ultimate, you have four (or five) years to be the best you can be and every year you lose the people on your team who have worked the last four (or five) years to be the best they can be.

However, a program rarely loses a leader like Robert Runner. Runner’s final year at Virginia was last season, when he lead Night Train to a Nationals berth for the first time in UVA’s history. He was last seen playing a large role in Chain Lightning’s championship run in the UPA Club Series.

“Robert was one of the most composed people I’ve ever been around,” UVA’s current captain, Tyler Conger, wrote to us in an e-mail. “That being said, when he was serious, you knew it was time to buckle down.  I think everyone who played with Robert picked up on how calm he stayed in almost any situation. Also, his commitment to this team was something that I think we all try and replicate on an everyday basis.”

Tally Classic 2010 – Finals – Notre Dame Papal Rage vs. UVA Night Train

(ed. note: We completely forgot that we hadn’t finished the coverage of Tally until we received an e-mail from UVA’s captain, Tyler Conger, essentially said, “Hey, what happened to finals?” Here’s the recap, complete and unedited.)

At the end of a long and arduous weekend of play at the 2010 Tally Classic, only two competitors remained standing. Both had followed similar paths to get to the finals, losing their crossover games Saturday night and therefore facing a much tougher road to the finals.

However, the teams would battle hard through the elimination bracket, Virginia facing Michigan State, the team in the field that had had the best season up to this point and Notre Dame facing Clemson, the cinderella story of the tournament. When the dust settled, each team knew that only one opponent stood between it and a $1000 check.

Notre Dame ended up being the team to take the check home as it prevailed over Virginia by a final score of 15-10.

Tally Classic 2010 – Semifinals – Virginia Night Train vs. Michigan State Burning Couch

While Notre Dame and Clemson battled one field over, Virginia and Michigan State were embroiled in a dogfight of their own for the right to compete for $1000. Suffice to say that no one was looking past semis to the finals at the Tally Classic because each of the semifinal games were epic contests in and of themselves.

Michigan State had little trouble with any team over the course of the tournament, Burning Couch’s closest game, a 13-11 victory over Notre Dame, wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Meanwhile, Virginia had struggled mightily in the ACC bracket, going to double game point with Clemson once, before getting trounced by the Joint Chiefs in their second meeting and struggling out of the gate against Georgia-B, even going down two breaks to start.

However, the past was the past when the two highest seeds in the tournament met a round before they were expected to and Virginia gathered its wits together and prevailed, 13-11.

Tally Classic Previews: Notre Dame Papal Rage

Notre Dame Papal Rage parties during the finals of CCC. Photo courtesy of Chad Borer. http://www.frameatatime.com

There are plenty of Ultimate programs that would be quick to tell you that they like to have fun or feel like a family together. That’s part of being a team. Especially during the spring, many teams spend the majority of their weekends in the spring traveling, playing and partying together. There is no doubt that such an amount of time together forges bonds that are on another level from your average college friendship.

However, there are some programs that take this idea even one more step further. These are teams that truly enjoy every second they are together. You can tell from their play, their interaction and the opinions their opponents have of them that there is something special about the team. There are a few programs like this, but very few that have managed to elevate themselves on the field to a level that rivals their interpersonal relationships.

Notre Dame Papal Rage is one of those few programs.

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.