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 Back to Index of Newsletters June 8, 2005 Hi Everyone, So sorry about the delay - I went hiking and camping for a week on the Oregon Coast after Nationals and only recently returned home. The Short Story of the 2005 UPA College Championships: We won! National Champs! Zip got the Callahan (the College Ultimate MVP Award)! Woohoo! The Long Story: We arrived in Corvallis on Wednesday May 25th with one thing on our mind: ultimate. Finals were finished, a mini-graduation ceremony behind us. This was it - the last event of the year. After two good nights of sleep and a little throw-around and trip to the field site on Thursday we were as ready as ever. Coming into the tournament we were the 3 seed, and were in a pool with the 6 seed (Carleton), the 10 (Texas) and the 15 (Michigan State University). We started off Friday morning with Texas, the South Region Champion. Patient offense and our typical in-your-face D gave us an 8-3 halftime lead and led to a 15-8 victory. Josh Ziperstein ('Zip') paced the way for us, as he was his normal unguardable self and caught multiple pinpoint hucks from Paul Vandenberg and others. The D, as was the case all weekend, rode the tight handler D and superb offensive handling of Ben Galeota-Sprung, Ben 'Raff' Wiseman, Michael Buff, and Dan MacArthur (who also dominated downfield when needed). These boys broke the mark and got open on the dump at will, allowing our D team to patiently punch it in almost every time we got a turn for the score. It was sweltering outside, with the heat climbing into the 90s and so such a quick and efficient victory was very important. Good start B-Mo! Our next match was against Michigan State University. We weren't as sharp as we had been earlier (perhaps the heat was taking its toll, perhaps we were affected by that inevitable and horrible lull) and so had to work harder for a 15-10 win. This game was never really close; all the same, though, MSU made some big plays on offense and pulled down a few hucks to keep it somewhat tight throughout. To win later in the tournament we'd have to stop such deep goals with more consistency. Finally, we squared off against Carleton. The over 90-degree heat was
taking its toll, as a few players cramped up in this game and had to push
through the pain to play. At this point, it's important to note the wonderful
support of the alums, family, and friends who attended Nationals and consistently
provided us with Gatorade, seats and tents, and raucous (in a good way)
support. For example, there was Michael Franz '03 ("Franz!" to some), who
planted himself next to me when I got dehydrated early in the day and furiously
yelled at me to drink more whenever I put my seemingly unending bottles
of Cytomax and water down. Tough love. The truth is, though, I probably
wouldn't have been able to play in those last two games without his help
and support, so thanks Franz, even if I said mean things to you at the
time. Back to the game. This was our most intense and competitive game
of the first day. CUT (Carleton Ultimate Team) plays strong team D and
consistent O. However, that w! Saturday morning we awoke to the fervor of elimination day at College Nationals. It was intense. As I was happily munching on Cheerios in one of the hotel rooms prequarter games were going down to the wire. 'Wisconsin over Carleton,' murmured the Scoreomatic and 'Washington over the University of British Colombia on double game point.' So we played Washington in the quarterfinals. The weather was cooler and overcast - the heat was gone. This game has been aptly titled - by Mike Pozar, I believe, on the B-Mo website - the 'Alex Bowman show.' Bowman was on fire. He must have scored four or five goals in the first half and scored a few more, and threw a few assists for good measure, in the second. He was uncoverable. The best player on the field. Behind his great play and great team D (and a momentum changing hammer goal caught by Josh Champagne) we made quick work of UW and gained a 15-6 victory. Unfortunately, I severely sprained my ankle in the middle of the Washington game and finished watching Bowman's stupendous-ness from the sideline. It was probably the most painful injury I've ever had, and it seemed I was done for the day if not the tournament. However, with the incredible assistance of Dave 'the Doc' Morgenroth '04 (I couldn't have done it without you!) and many knowledgeable and loving parents and a piece of forceful encouragement from Coach Wicks I played in the semis that evening...against Stanford. Stanford was the tournament's #2 seed, and the Northwest Region Champion, so we were in for a tough test. With this as the backdrop, we then played one of the best games of our lives. We destroyed them. O-team pilot Paul Vandenberg shredded their defensive as he has done to so many teams; Zip burned the best their D team had to offer time and time again for sweet goals; huge layout blocks by Colin Mahoney and Dan Mac, among others, stopped Stanford from moving the disc. Once our D team got it, Neale Mahoney dominated, scoring countless goals to the cone and throwing many big upwind hucks (there was a very strong wind, which was difficult to throw in) mainly to his brother Colin. This wasn't, however, a five or six man show. All of our guys just out ran, out worked, and outplayed the opposition. It was a phenomenal team win. Mike Vandenberg also made a sweet sky late in the game - punctuating it with a loud roar. The final score was 15-7 B-Mo. We were headed to the finals. All year we'd been looking forward to this game. This isn't to say that we'd assumed we'd get there, or overlooked everyone else, but this was the goal. This was what we wanted. Sunday. We were playing against Colorado; they were the tournament's #1 seed and the defending National Champions. It was going to be a battle. Despite a couple big Ds early on Sunday morning we couldn't punch them in and fell quickly behind. Our O, for the first time this weekend, seemed a little out of sync and our D team just couldn't move the disc. We'd do great defensive things and then bumble around on offense. After a few early mistakes a bad rhythm of 'B-Mo score, Colorado score' emerged and we went into halftime down 8-5. We had so many chances but hadn't scored a single defensive break. Come on boys! The second half started out the same way... A quick offensive turnover and a Colorado goal led to a 9-5 deficit. We'd worked so hard, and to throw it all way? In this manner? Many of the thousand-plus spectators surely believed it was over. Colorado was too good. We were too far behind. We didn't have any momentum. Doubt was beginning to surface. That doubt got sent right back to the bottom of whatever ocean it was
surfacing on. Our D finally scored. These weren't pretty goals, but they
counted. We slowly gritted out breaks. A sweet inside out break mark throw
for a goal by Reid Hopkins. 9-7. A stall nine floater pulled down by Colin
Mahoney. 11-10. Tight defense on the tiring Colorado cutters led to another
turnover and Will Arnold tirelessly ran down a huck. 13-13. It had been
13-11 a few moments before, and our dominating O team had easily scored
to set this up. 13-13. This was the chance of a lifetime. Josh 'Richter'
Ackley, the 2004 Callahan Winner and one of Colorado's best players went
deep and was open. The huck went up, it was a great throw. Easy goal. Nope.
Neale Mahoney raced over on a poach from his man and got an incredible
D. He went up with Richter and then contorted himself horizontally, in
midair, to knock the disc away at the perfect moment. The crowd roared.
We had our chance. We worked it to midfi! For more on these games and tournament visit www.upa.org. All sorts of info is on the B-Mo website at www.brown.edu/Athletics/Mens_Ultimate/ including many sweet pictures. More pictures are available at, so far, www.pbase.com/elsinger <http://www.pbase.com/elsinger> http://photos.herosoftware.com <http://photos.herosoftware.com/> http://freeheelimages.com <http://freeheelimages.com> Thanks so much, again, for all the wonderful supporters who were out there cheering us on, feeding us, and taking care of us this weekend. You guys were truly awesome. Also, on a similar note, thanks to all who supported us financially throughout the season. You got us to Nationals, and got us beds to sleep on and food to eat. Thanks to coaches Nathan and Tom too. A team of 24 strong. Lastly, much love and respect to our tremendous departing seniors. Y'all
were great teammates and friends: Reid Hopkins and Colin Mahoney (me!) will be captains next year so this will probably be my last update as I'll become more of a delegate-er and less of a doer. It's been fun. Best wishes to all. |
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