CCC LIX – Random Thoughts and Previews

Obviously we didn’t have time to preview every team in the field. Our pools and seeds post discussed a little news on each team but we wanted to go ahead and give the briefest of thoughts in a more news-like manner on some of the more notable players, occurrences and oddities of the teams attending. In alphabetical order.

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.

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.

CCC LIII Previews: Virginia Night Train

It’s no secret how Virginia ran into such success last season. Night Train was led by a ten-person senior class and that senior class was led by Robert Runner, now a National Champion with Chain Lightning.

Runner, in addition to being Night Train’s Callahan candidate, led the team on the field with a smart mind and an incredible presence in the huddle. We witnessed it first hand at AC Regionals as Virginia ran through the competition and there was no question that Runner was the head of the team. He was given great deference in between games, points and halves throughout the tournament.

So, while that gives us a lot of background and knowledge about where Virginia is coming from, it doesn’t answer a lot questions regarding how Night Train plans on getting back to where it left off last year.

How do you replace a Callahan candidate? How do you replace ten seniors?

Well, you start with Tyler Conger.