Saturday's first game pitched Brown against William and Mary. This was a rematch of the hotly contested pool play match at Nationals where Brown came back from an 8-4 deficit to win 15-10. It was Brown's first game on grass this season and understandably, things didn't run as smoothly as liked. But what Brown lacked in grace and fluidity, they made up for in hard work. In a gritty and determined fashion, Brown pulled out a 12-10 win. In their other two games, Brown's mixture of intense defensive pressure and slightly frantic but effective offense carried the day. They earned a solid 13-10 victory against UCSD and managed to sub evenly after establishing at 6-2 lead against Humboldt, a game that they won 13-9.

On Sunday, a quarterfinal match up gave Brown a shot at revenging a 2003 nationals loss. They were matched up against the defending national champions, Wisconsin. The Hodags had relied on a potent deep game all tournament, and Brown would either shut it down or be sent packing to Providence. Brown's defense played phenomenally, sitting on cutters' hips and forcing them back to the disc all game. A host of great layout blocks led to a Brown run. With the offense scoring seemingly at will, and the defense grinding out stuffs (d-blocks) and scores, B-Mo tallied a satisfying 11-8 win.

In the semis, Brown drew the hosts Stanford. None of the members of the current Brown team have ever beaten Stanford but all were thirsting at the opportunity. The game was hard fought and exciting. Despite turnovers on offense, a solid defensive performance and big layout blocks kept Brown in the game. After a tie at 5's, Stanford went on a run to take a 8-6 halftime lead. It was announced that the time cap would go on 7 minutes after the second half started, so the pressure was on Brown to get points back fast. They did, breaking Stanford twice to trail by one, 9-8. With the cap on and game to eleven, a couple of breaks for Stanford spelled Brown's demise and an 11-9 loss.

Will Arnold summed up the team's attitude when he said, "Last year, after we lost in the semis to Berkeley, I was excited that we had gotten so far. This year I'm frustrated we didn't win." B-Mo is working toward perfection.

B-Mo has yet practice on grass and has 12 weeks 'til its next potential matchup with Stanford (at Nationals). Hopefully, Brown will get another chance to earn that win. We travel to Easterns in 3 weeks and hope to give Will no reason to be frustrated.

Neale