Sports

Ultimate teams compete at Northeast Classic

By Sterling Xie ’16

The Ultimate Frisbee teams are among the most competitive club teams on the Hill.  On Nov. 1 and 2, both the Hot Saucers again reaffirmed their standing as one of the campus’ best squads, as the women and men took first and second, respectively, in the Northeast Classic in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Played on the first weekend of November, the Northeast Classic (NEC) is a three-year-old tournament featuring both Division I and III ultimate teams.  Although spring is the more competitive season, the NEC represents the most important benchmark of the fall campaign, as it serves as an opportunity to measure the progress of both the team’s most experienced and newest members.

  Paul Westin ’15 notes that the tournament was a good barometer of how far the team’s new members have come.  “Although ultimate’s more important season is in the spring for colleges, this is the culmination of our fall season, and we wanted to field a very competitive team,” he said.  “The fall season is a lot of learning, as the vast majority of people haven’t played competitive ultimate before college. I was very impressed with how quickly information was absorbed this year, and we were able to cover all the concepts and skills we wanted to easily.”

In the preliminary rounds, the Saucers won all three of their pool games against Skidmore, Central Connecticut State and UMass-Lowell, before winning a final cross-pool game against Amherst, 13-8.  With each game played to 13 total points, the Continentals won their first four games with a cumulative point total of plus-30, an extremely impressive feat considering the limited points ceiling and the stiff level of competition.

The second and final day on Sunday was much tougher.  “We had sustained a number of injuries over the course of the tournament,” explained Westin, “and by the finals, we only had 12 active players.”  The Saucers needed a tiebreaking “universe point” to pull out a 10-9 win over Binghamton, then rallied from a 9-6 deficit to pull out an 11-9 victory over Amherst again.   Unfortunately, the men subsequently lost in the finals by a 12-5 tally to Division I SUNY Albany.  Still, the Saucers took second out of 18 teams at the NEC, an excellent cap to the fall season for a squad that brought its top squad of just 16 players.

Whereas the men struggled at the end of the weekend due to attrition, the women were able to roll over similarly talented competition.  The women’s tournament had just five teams participating, but the Sauce’hers trounced the field, winning each game easily.

Echoing Westin’s earlier sentiments, Kateri Boucher ’17 believes the tournament victory was an invaluable learning experience for the team’s less experienced players.  “We have been practicing every weekday since late August, and have also gone away to two other tournaments (in Rochester and Buffalo) and held our own round robin here at Hamilton, where we combined with the men’s team.  We had an incredible showing of new players this season, with almost 15 new girls who had never played the sport before. It’s been amazing watching them grow as players.”

In the finals, the Sauce’hers prevailed over Amherst in cold and windy conditions, routing the opposition 13-1.  Boucher tossed the winning throw, finding Sam Mengual ’16 in the end zone for the tournament-winning point. 

The strong NEC showings continue a recent streak of excellence for both teams.  Last spring, the women reached nationals with a victory at the Division III Metro East regional championships, which came on the heels of a second-place showing at the Western New York Division III Sectional Championship in Buffalo.  Similarly, the men finished second at a tournament in Georgia over spring break. 

This year, the more experienced women’s team looks poised to return to nationals, while the men have impressively maintained their form despite losing all three senior captains to graduation last spring.  With the invaluable experience they earned at the end of the fall season, look for both ultimate teams to make plenty of noise once again next semester.

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