Nationals Recap

The Illini’s trip to Columbus turned out to be fairly disappointing. Since I don’t want my last tournament post to be filled with bad memories, I’m only going to focus on the good things. The team headed down a few days early to get away from distractions. I had a few things to take care of at home after graduation, so I missed the free tuscani pasta from Pizza Hut that Zubair bought for the team. Apparently, I didn’t miss much as most of the team found the dish to be less than tasty.

We played Carleton for our first game on the showcase field. The score claims a pretty dismal performance on our part, but the Illini had their moments. Well, maybe it was only one moment, but Noah caught a Callahan. That’s a pretty big moment.

After a two hour bye, we faced Georgia. Alas, throughout my entire college career, I have never won a game against Georgia. I think this picture depicts our best moment against them. Way to go FOTY. “What is Kennedy standing on?” “The crushed hopes and dream of number 17.”

We had an early morning start against UCSB on day two. Jeff Silverman is good.

Tufts and us was probably one of the best pool play games to happen all weekend. We were fortunate enough to play on field 1 again and draw a large crowd. We were unfortunate in the fact that we lost 15-14. Still, we started to look like the team that won the Great Lakes.

Even though we lost all our pool play games, we still had a shot at winning 9^th place. Minnesota quickly ended that dream. The best part of this game was the fact that Mike Gerics was one of the observers. He likes to keep the game moving, which I appreciate, but he also likes to draw attention to himself, which I do not appreciate. Still, he is a rather animated and entertaining fellow.

After losing 5 straight games, the Illini had to get in their cars and head to the far fields in order to battle Ugmo for 17^th place. The Illini “did not go quietly into that good night”. Dan, adorning a yellow “verb” headband, played out of his mind. Wildcard had three layout D’s this game. He also defended against the huck by knocking the disc out of the receiver’s reach at least twice. Sick. We won the game 15-11.

There are no trophies given out for 17^th place, but there is a trophy for the spirit award. After each game, opponents rate each other on a scale of 1 to 5 on how well the opposing team knew and followed the rules. The Illini had the highest score all weekend. “We got spirit yes we do! And that’s it.”

I have a few more posts coming before I finally sign off and turn the blog over to Sid, Kennedy, and Austin, so stay tuned…

Nationals Preview

The Illini come into the Big Dance as an 8^th seed. This places us in pool A for the first two days of competition. With Florida’s hubris and Oregon’s immaturity baring them from this year’s championship, the field is wide open. No team is guaranteed the title, let alone the top seed from their pool. Carleton holds the one seed overall, but even they don’t have an easy road.

This year’s national event is the biggest in UPA history with 20 teams and four days of competition. The games are fairly spread out over the weekend with 2 or 3 games a day for each team. This serves to eliminate the “advantage” of a well placed bye round or an exceedingly large roster.

The Illini are in the same pool as Carleton, Tufts, Georgia, and UCSB. As mentioned before, we’re the second seed in this pool, and I believe we’ll hold that position. But our loss won’t necessarily be to Carleton. In fact, I don’t think anyone in our pool will go undefeated. Carleton is good, but they aren’t invincible. Tufts is having a great year, and Georgia is always tough (by my recollection, I’ve never beaten Georgia). I’m not sure what to expect from Santa-Barbara, but a top twenty team cannot be underestimated.

Our strength lies in our team-style of play. We rolled at regionals by being dominant with every person and position on the field. If one person started faltering, the rest of the team picked him up. If the opponent shut down one of our cutters, the other three got open and made plays. When we played at regionals, we showed a consistency that had been lacking in all of our previous tournaments, but regionals is over. Now we’re playing at nationals.

We’ve been here before, so there’s no pressure. No one expected us to be here, so there’s no pressure. We’re a good team that puts seven solid players on the line every point, so there’s no pressure. I’ve said this many times, and I’m going to say it again: Ultimate is about having fun, and winning is a lot more fun than losing. So let’s win.

Lion Eye Awards

Most Memorable Play - Sid's blade to Pavan (originally given to Sid, but then Sid handed it to Pavan)

Most Embarrassing Play - Hidaka's huck against Michigan at Huck Finn

Best Captain - Phelan

Most Valuable Player - Walden

Freshmen of the Year - Kennedy

Dirtiest Jersey - Dan

Best Person for long car ride - Simeone

Worst Person for Long Car Ride - Kennedy

Most Fun to Drink With - Mclain

Best Video Posted - AKA...Browntown and Chimpanzee Ridin' on a Segway

Team member you would let date your sister - Wego

Best Botticelli Character - Miles Prower

Most Prone to Injuries - Hidaka

Best Cheerleader - Mclain

Most likely to play coed - Sid

Worst Driver - Zubair

Most Improved - Hidaka

Most Fouls - Simeone

User of Most Sunscreen - Phelan

Most Likely to marry Adriana - Simeone

Cozza Award - Lamp

Best Nickname - Statutory Rapeone

Hair-ahan - Phelan

Spirit Award - Walden

Regionals Recap

I love it when my predictions come true.

The Illini started off the day looking rather shaky against Kenyon. The Illini went up two breaks to start the game, but then traded points and breaks the rest of the way. We didn’t look bad, we just didn’t look great. We won 15-13. It would be the closest game all day, score-wise.

We faced North Park in the quarterfinals. We had discussed our defensive strategy which included putting pressure on Luke’s hucks and forcing dump throws into the wind. Turns out there was no wind and no Luke. Apparently, he was out of state for a wedding and his flight got delayed, or at least that’s the rumor. Without anyone to huck to Lars, North Park had to find some alternative offense. They did. Give and gos followed by hucks to everyone and anyone that was or wasn’t going deep. They ran it well and put up a good fight. We won 15-12. Good game North Park. I’ve had a lot of fun playing against you guys this year.

The Semi-finals of this tournament played out exactly as I thought. Michigan expected us to be the same team that they beat 13-2 at Huck Finn about a month ago. Surprise!!! The Illini came out on fire. Hidaka ran down hucks. Phenom ran down hucks. Denis threw hucks. Lamp threw hucks. Pavan got D’s. Kennedy got D’s. Sid caught skies. Pavan Caught Skies. Everyone did something awesome. The sideline stayed in it all the way. It was sick. Michigan probably still doesn’t know what hit them. Perhaps they think we played out of our minds. Let them think that. The Illini know that we’ve had that type of play in us all season. We’re peaking at the right time and it shows. We beat Michigan 12-9.

Looks like RSD is wondering, “Who is making plays for Illinois?” Everyone is making plays: Faceless Army.

Championship Sunday

The weather could only be described as perfect for ultimate. The Illini arrived to the fields about an hour and a half early and did somewhat of an extended warm-up just to get the nerves out of our heads before our match-up against Ohio State. It must have paid off. The Illini came out on offense and went the length of the field in a matter of minutes. Lead Belly scored on the next possession almost as quickly. Our O-line did work again, and this time our defense generated two breaks in a row. That started a fire of energy that Ohio State could not put out, and the Illini kept on rolling. We took half and then a few more breaks after half. At 14-7, Ohio State put up a bit of a fight, but the Illini closed it out with and upline score to win the Region 15-10.

Some highlights to be noted:

Hidaka laying out over and between two defenders to catch an errant pass.

Sul running down a full field huck from Lamp

Sul catching a disc that Pavan missed in the endzone

Chuck skying Lamp and another defender

Kennedy with a sick layout D when Lead Belly was near the goal line

Dan catching an ugly 30 yard blade from Lamp in the End Zone

Max getting a handblock

Highlights from other games:

Sid skying two Michigan Defenders for a score. “Sid, your poptarts are ready!!”

Sid throwing a vertical blade to Pavan for the final point against Michigan