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 2010 – Quarterfinals

The Sunday Morning Bracket started without much of a hitch as all of the first round games went to seed and went there easily. As soon as the team’s that had been able to sleep in rolled up to the fields. Things started to get dicey and fast.

Michigan State was matched up with Wheaton College, Virginia faced off against Florida State meanwhile Notre Dame had a rematch with Georgia Southern and Clemson had a replay of Saturday’s contest with Georgia Tech.

Aside from Burning Couch’s big win over Wheaton, this round was as closely contested as any at the Tally Classic. Clemson topped Georgia Tech on a capped universe point, Notre Dame staved off Georgia Southern after being down a break in the first half and Virginia and Florida State got a late start but Night Train barely prevailed 9-7.

Tally Classic 2010 – ACC South Championship – Virginia Night Train vs. Clemson Joint Chiefs

If there was one team at the Tally Classic that was surprising people, it was the Clemson Joint Chiefs. The boys from Upstate South Carolina had spent their morning forcing Virginia to double game point, trouncing Miami and beating Georgia Tech in the first round of the ACC Bracket. Across pool play and in the crossovers, things were going pretty much to seed but Clemson was threatening that balance.

Meanwhile, Virginia had more or less pranced through all of their games except against Clemson and, as night was settling, most of the spectators were not expecting the Joint Chiefs to be able to compete on the level that they had the first time they squared off against Night Train.

Those spectators were in for a huge surprise though, as Clemson beat Virginia handily, 13-8.

Tally Classic 2010 – Round Four – Georgia Tech Tribe vs. Clemson Joint Chiefs

At this point in the day, we moved from the regular pools on the fields to the bracket play of the ACC South Championship. Due to the cancellation of the ACCs in late January, the organizers of the Tally Classic decided to fill what they consider to be a void by taking over as best they can, the role of the ACC championship.

In the first round of ACC Championship bracket play Virginia Night Train faced off against Wake Forest Womb in what turned into a blowout. On the other side of the bracket, Georgia Tech Tribe and the Clemson Joint Chiefs engaged in what turned out to be anything but a blowout on either side. Clemson eventually triumphed by a score of 12-11.

Tally Classic 2010 – Round Three – Notre Dame Papal Rage vs. Georgia Southern Eagles

Unfortunately for us, we hadn’t seen a truly competitive game until at the beginning of our third round at Tally Classic. That’s not to say that there weren’t any, just none that we were witness to.

That was all to change as we watched the Notre Dame Papal Rage face off against the Georgia Southern Eagles. Notre Dame won the Tally Classic last year and were certainly one of the favorites to win the tournament again this year but Georgia Southern’s results so far this season indicate that they are a team that is capable of playing on just about any level.

In the end though, Notre Dame’s experience would come out on top as Papal Rage won by a count of 13-8.

Tally Classic 2010 – Round Two – Michigan State Burning Couch vs. Valdosta State

After the first round was over all teams were arriving at the fields. The sparkling new FSU Rec Sportsplex was nearly filled to the brim with Ultimate teams as far as the eye could see. The top seeds in the morning pools were rubbing the sleep from their eyes after first round byes and getting ready to take on the third seeds in their pools. Considering the props that we gave them, we were ready to see Michigan State in action.

They were taking on Valdosta State and Burning couch didn’t waste much time proving that they were in Tallahassee with one thing in mind, the first place prize money. VSU was handed a 13-7 defeat in quick and impressive fashion.

Tally Classic 2010 – Round One – UCF Dogs of War vs. Auburn

When we walked out the front door of the house in the morning to sunny skies and warmer weather we knew that things were going to be alright. We heard many Ultimate teams echoing our sentiments throughout the day as Tallahassee provided some of the best weather that one could ask for, whether you were playing or watching.

We began our day with a matchup against recent T-Town Throwdown champs, Auburn, and perhaps one of the only two teams that didn’t truly appreciate the weather in Tallahassee today, UCF Dogs of War (the other being Miami Vice). We expected a good game considering Auburn’s recent victory over in-state rivals Alabama and UCF’s penchant for alway producing a quality Ultimate team.

We were in for a surprise. UCF toppled Auburn by a final count of 13-7.