CCC 2010 Recaps – The Semifinalists

Sadly, as you may have already seen, we did some damage to ourselves this weekend. Up until today, our right hand looked (and felt) broken at least to a certain extent. While the swelling has gone down, the signs of some kind of deep bruising have gone up. Pain is at a minimum so we’re going to pound this write-up out. Apologies to anyone who wanted more in-depth coverage and specifically to Jojah, who was kind enough to invite our services, not expecting us to be debilitated by the end of Saturday.

We’re going to do things a little bit differently than usual since, by now, you surely know how the tournament turned out.

CCC LIX Previews – UNCW Seamen

UNCW poses together after qualifying for Nationals at 2010 AC Regionals. Photo courtesy of Greg Vassar

You’re going to begin to notice a theme among our previews for former AC Regional teams, that theme is a reloading of talent. Most of the top teams at CCC are going to be missing faces that have become staples around the college scene. UNCW is definitely one of those teams. The Seamen lost Rusty Ingold-Smith and Todd Doroski to graduation. While Doroski might not be as familiar of a name to some readers, no one can deny the Seamen are going to miss this.

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.

Easterns 2010 – Friday Night Showcase Games

Easterns 2010 started in a different way than most tournaments of its ilk. Six teams met at UNCW’s fields on Friday night for three total games. The games featured three out of Region matchups, UNCW vs. San Diego State, Ohio State vs. Cal State – Long Beach and Duke University vs. Williams College.

The weather, which is always a factor in Wilmington, was toying with the players on the field. The wind swirled in the first half of the games, never developing a consistent direction or speed and in the second half of the games, a strong wind turned the games quickly into upwind and downwind games.

AC Regionals Preview – UNC Wilmington Seamen

        

The Seamen pose after winning 2008 College Easterns. Courtesy of Brian Casey

College Ultimate is not like other sports. There are certainly dynasties and perennial powerhouses but they do not come from your typical places. In Division I sports you can always expect Florida, Sourthern California, Ohio State and the like to excel at any sport. However, when it comes to Ultimate there are several dynasties that come from some of the most unlikely of places.

 

The University of North Carolina at Wilmington is one of those places. The Seamen began as a team in 1988 and since then have made a name for themselves as one of the best and most physical teams in the nation. UNC-W has been to Nationals several times and this year’s team looks to repeat the performances of their predecessors. However, when this year’s senior class arrived as freshmen, not all was well in the world of Seamen Ultimate.