CCC LIX

Photo courtesy of UGA Ultimate

It’s that time again folks. The boys at Georgia have invited us back to cover their premier tournament, The Classic City Classic. This time we’re playing but hopefully that won’t hamper coverage too much.

We have plenty of previews on the way. We plan on bringing you round by round score updates on Saturday and, when/if LSU drops from competition on Sunday, point by point score updates. There will also be tournament recaps but those might fall to early next week if playing leaves us too tired to work them out on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Also, be sure to use Leaguevine as a way to keep track of what’s going on in Athens. The site worked beautifully during the club championships and, while it may not as thorough for CCC, we can only imagine it’ll do the same this weekend.

It looks like the tournament is going to be as great as it usually is and if the weathermen know anything (they usually don’t) we won’t have to deal with anything like we did last year.

Here’s the forecast for those of you too lazy to look it up yourselves.

Courtesy of http://weather.com

HERE WE GO!

UOA SEC Championship – A Recap

Apologies for the delay in the recap. We were hoping to find some photos of the observers and players in action. Alas, it was not to be. We did, however, find the above video. It’s a highlight reel from Auburn from the weekend. You can get a glimpse at the observers in action in various shots.

This weekend was, in our opinion, a good showing of some of what Ultimate could potentially become if all the powers-that-be get their heads and acts together and take the best of all worlds. It’s clear that Ultimate is moving towards a more observer based officiation system. Anyone who plays Ultimate at any kind of competitive level should be for this. It makes NO sense to avoid it.

Now, the current question is: How much of the UOA’s system should or should not be adopted into the future of Ultimate?

The UOA Experiment

Courtesy of ultimateobserversassociation.com

Well, we’re back from a long hiatus but we want everyone to be certain that this (by this we mean us… writing) is by no means a long term or certain thing. We’re back in college, much to the dismay of the wife whom we are currently bumming off of, and with that enrollment comes the opportunity to use the rest of our college eligibility.

Graduate school is no joke and to be student teaching 100 11th graders on top of graduate level course work creates a “double-whammy” as they say. So, it’s doubtful that much of this season will be documented on Monup. However, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to write down the happenings of this weekend as we travel with our new team, LSU, to our first college tournament of the season, the UOA SEC Championship Tournament.

Easterns 2010 – Finals

Wisconsin senior Evan Klane pumps a flick huck against Pitt in the Easterns finals. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange. http://www.unitesports.biz

It was finally showtime at Easterns. Both Pitt and Wisconsin had waltzed through the tournament without much of a challenge one way or the other. Now the two best teams, both by seedings and by results, were meeting in the finals. With the wind at an all-time high, we had no idea what to expect.

Turns out, we should have expected a Hodag blowout because that is exactly what we got. The Hodags jumped out early and jumped out hard on En Sabah Nur and that eventually led to an easy victory. However, this game had more riding on it than a simple Easterns victory. The two teams had put up the VC Showcase Easterns jerseys and it was winner take all in the finals.

The Hodags walked away with the jerseys and a 14-11 victory.

Easterns 2010 – Semifinals

Pitt's Eddie Peters sends a low backhand through Virginia's cup. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange. http://www.unitesports.biz

With only four teams left in the hunt for the Easterns title there was yet to be anything that anyone would consider a big upset. Of the four teams that were still alive, Virginia was the only one that was not a No. 1 seed in its pool and that pool was the only pool that had three teams advance to quarterfinals.

Both semifinal games seemed like they were going to be the first example of the big upset but in the end, both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds for the tournament pulled out victories and moved on to finals. Wisconsin came out on top of Middlebury 13-9 and Pitt beat out Virginia by the same score. However, that wasn’t before the Pranksters and Night Train gave the Hodags and En Sabah Nur a good scare.

Easterns 2010 – Quarterfinals

Pitt's Colin Conner snags a disc in front of a Georgia's Matt Bailey during Eaterns quarterfinals. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange.

Quarterfinals had a bit of a different feel than prequarters. All four of the teams that had advanced through prequarters had advanced through dogfight games. Mostly fighting tooth and nail to advance, only to face an even tougher opponent than the round before.

Unfortunately for spectators, this resulted in some lopsided scores. The round of eight consisted of Pitt vs. Georgia, Virginia vs. Cornell, Middlebury vs. Virginia Tech and Wisconsin vs. Brown.

Just like prequarters, we were only able to watch three of these games. Wisconsin toppled Brown by a count of 15-6. We have no further information as to the manner of method by which this happening occurred. Meanwhile, Pitt whooped Georgia, 15-5, Middlebury and Virginia both avenged Saturday losses, Middlebury over Virginia Tech 15-9 and Virginia over Cornell 14-11.

Easterns 2010 – Prequarters

Georgia junior Matt Bailey lays out for and catches a 'mac'ed disc to save a possession for UGA. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange. http://www.unitesports.biz

Although most things had gone more or less to seed on Saturday, the only exception being Jojah not winning its pool, prequarters presented an opportunity for many quality teams to go home.

The matchups included: UGA vs. UNCW, San Diego State vs. Cornell, East Carolina vs. Virginia Tech and Ohio State vs. Brown. We only could watch three of these at a time so we can only report that Brown defeated Ohio State 15-11, we do not know the manner or method in which this transpired.

Easterns 2010 – Saturday Night Showcases

UNCW captain Rusty Ingold-Smith narrowly misses a bid for a disc against Wisconsin in the Easterns showcase game. Photo courtesy of Jesse von Fange. http://unitesports.biz

As we experienced at the Tally Classic, getting an opportunity to play under the lights is a good opportunity indeed. Four teams got that chance at Easterns but they each had something more on the line as well. Easterns was putting up two sets of 15 VC jerseys to add to the pot, one set to go to the winner of each of the games.

From pool A, Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur squared off with Ohio State Leadbelly and from pool B the Wisconsin Hodags met up with the UNCW Seamen. Pittsburgh won handily by a score of 15-8 and Wisconsin clung to an early lead to win 15-11.