New England Open

This past weekend the Emen competed in our final regular season tournament of 2013, the New England Open. The tournament hosted top competition from within our region as well as some solid teams from outside of the Northeast. Overall it was a very well run tournament and we were happy to compete. Saturday

We started the morning against Yale, a team we haven't faced in a while and came out strong with a break on their first offensive possession to go up 2-0. More defensive intensity brought us to half with a 7-2 lead. In the second half we focused on our zone, generating some more turns and eventually grabbing the 13-5 win on a goal from Momo to freshman Dylan "Ferny" Gully.

In the second round we took on UVM Team Chill and the first half belonged to scoring machine Dan Pavitt. Again we worked on developing our defensive looks and getting some reps for the younger Emen. Everyone stepped up and we improved in another victory.

Against Bentley, the 2 seed in our pool, we jumped out to an early lead thanks to offensive efficiency. Sophomore Jay "Tang" Shnipes continued to excel cutting on the D line and Nino and David Lyle rocked the hands. 13-6 final score.

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The last round of the day was against old foe Middlebury and we showed some growing pains as we struggled to punch in breaks. Freshman Matt "Pudge" Fasano lit it up on defense, getting 4 layout blocks in one marathon point and eventually scoring the goal. All-in-all a challenging game, but one we learned from. 13-9 Tufts.

Sunday

On Sunday morning we took on Cornell in the Quarterfinals after they bested Rutgers. The first half was a back and forth battle, with our offense trying to find a groove while our defense was tasked with slowing down their speedy handler movement. After going up a break at half we came out firing, taking a 10-6 lead thanks to some sweet athletic defense. Bodies were flying everywhere in the second half as both Tyler and Iago had big layout Ds. The offense kept cool and did their job while the defense kept chipping away en route to a 15-9 win.

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In the semis we faced Dartmouth, a regional rival that always gives us a spirited and challenging game. The wind rose a bit and we faced a lot more zone defense than we had earlier in the weekend. Although we got a couple of turns in the first half we had problems converting and our opponents made the most of their shots, logging two breaks. Down 8-6 at half we attempted to refocus our energy and prevent them from running their spread offense. The game continued to be a battle and we broke back to 12-12, but gave up another break just 1 point later. With the score 14-13, Nino got a huge layout D but we were unable to convert, eventually falling 15-13.

In the 3rd place game we took on Michigan, an unknown opponent from the Great Lakes region. We focused on maintaining a high level of energy regardless of the stakes of the game and tried to smooth out some of the kinks that we had identified in our earlier games. We successfully capitalized on their mistakes and used a variety of different defensive looks to create turns, taking an early lead and never relenting en route to a 15-9 victory.

Next up, USA Ultimate championship series. Sectionals on 4/11 and 4/12 in Portsmouth, RI and Regionals on 5/4 and 5/5 at Dartmouth.

All photos courtesy of our partner UltiPhotos.com