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 – 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 – 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 – 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.