UOA Nationals Recap

Our last fall tournament, UOA Nationals was a good opportunity for us to get some quality ultimate in before our confinement to Leverone. We did exactly that, winning 7 of our 8 games, with our only loss coming to eventual champion Pitt, on our fourth game of the first day.

We narrowly missed the championship game, as VT had a better point differential. The Pain Train is now 15-1 in UOA games, tying Pitt for the best record in UOA play this fall.

After a long drive on Friday, a relaxed night at the hotel, and a Denny’s breakfast, we headed out for day 1.

Day 1

Dartmouth 15 – Brandeis 11

This was our third consecutive UOA game against Brandeis, we came out fired up and took half 8-5. This was a bit of a windy day, but not that much of a factor in this game. In the second half, Brandeis crept back a little bit, as we had some trouble converting our turns into breaks. But a huge Matt Murphy ’12 layout d got us our mojo back and we took the game 15-11.

Dartmouth 15 – JMU 9

We didn’t know much about JMU, except that co-captain Chase Raines ’11 had some friends on the team. The wind picked up a bit and we saw and threw some zone looks. Our focus this entire day was working on our transition looks, throwing zone for the first few throws to disrupt the other team’s pull plays and then moving into man d. We were guided on trannies by Assistant Coach #1/Official Pain Train Tweeter Writer/Former Pain Train captain, Misha Sidorsky ’10. We improved as the day progressed. Coach Brook went Belichick during and following this game, concentrating on high strategy, supreme command, and the preparation of PB&J’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOaGkPXn9LQ. While the first half was a bit closer than we hoped (8-6 good guys), we broke away in the second half, taking the game 15-9.

Dartmouth 15 – Tennessee 11

This game was sloppy. From the beginning we felt in control, partly inspired by an early Callahan, which led to some careless play afterwards. Though it was a win, it was definitely one of our least inspiring performances of the weekend. After breaking to take half 8-6, we worked to increase our lead in the second half, eventually taking the game 15-11.

Dartmouth 8 – Pittsburgh 15

This was our first game against a non-New England (USAU) nationals-caliber team this season. We went up early, 2-0 with an o-point and a break. We were pumped. But Pitt broke us to get it back on point, and broke once again to take half 8-6. Still, the game was wide open at this point. But for some reason, we weren’t in it. The sidelines were quiet, we weren’t focused on the field, and soon enough the game got out of hand for the Train. Pitt took the lead convincingly in the second half and our rotation became a lot looser. We ended up losing 15-8. Only later did we realize that a few more points would have made a huge difference.

Day 2

Dartmouth 15 – UCONN 13

After our disappointing first (and only) UOA loss against Pitt, we came in to Sunday hungry. First of all, we got woken up very early by the leadership. Secondly, we didn’t go to Denny’s for breakfast, just breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin’ Donuts. We got to the fields so early that the parking lot’s gate was opened as we rolled up. It was a good start. We had UCONN up. We haven’t seen them yet this year, but they are always tall, athletic, and huck-happy. The wind completely died down for the entire day, which created a very different dynamic from Saturday’s zones and up-wind down-wind games. We were trading points until half, with a Cecil Qiu ’13 layout d that led to the o-line recovering and taking half 8-7. It was similar to the Tennessee game in that we felt in control, so we played a bit sloppily. But eventually we came out on top 15-13.

Dartmouth 15 – Virginia 12

We knew we had to step it up here. Although they were missing some guys, UVA is another good team, and last year on spring break we had a miserable loss against them in Charlottesville, VA. We were very excited for this one. This was a good game all around for the train, with our offense looking particularly sharp. After some halftime adjustments to flatten out our marks, our defense stepped it up as well. Ended up winning the game 15-12, and felt good heading into the VT game.

Dartmouth 15 – Virginia Tech 12

This was our best game of the tournament by far. VT beat Pitt, and Pitt beat us, so in order to have a chance to play for the championship we would have to beat this team, though we weren’t exactly sure by how many points. The first half was on point, with a few opportunities to break that went unfulfilled. But the Train came out strong in the second half, breaking VT 3 times in a row to take over the game. Spencer “Chuck” Diamond ’14 and Robin “Beanio” Meyers ’10 are developing impressive chemistry on offense, scoring and assisting many of our points. Also notable was “Good” Dan Rosengard ’13, who was sick all weekend – at one point leaving a huddle to boot – and played like a warrior. We traded points until the end. Equally important were our sidelines. All of our guys were involved in the game, talking to the marks, cheering loudly, supporting each other, bringing water to timeouts. This was huge, and one of the biggest differences between this game and the Pitt game. And it clearly showed.

At this point there was a lot of conferring by the UOA guys, our leadership, Pitt, and VT. Since us, VT, and Pitt all had a 6-1 record, with us beating VT, VT beating Pitt, and Pitt beating us, point differential was the way to work this out. We lost the finals spot to VT by 2 points. Sad, but such is life.

Dartmouth 13 – Virginia 11

In the 3^rd place game we opened up our rotation, more or less wholesaling every single line. The game was to 13, but we still wanted to win. Pretty solid play from the Pain Train. It was also clear that we had more legs than the ‘other’ train. One of the nicest moments came when Scott “scottoscotty” Sottosanti ‘12 threw a floaty huck to BFF Lee “Skinny” Farnsworth ’12, who made a great catch in the end zone to score. That’s kind of their thing. So when Lee came down with the disc, Scott ran the fastest he’s ran all weekend, with a shit-eating grin (and a noticeable halfie) in order to execute their meticulously planned high-five. Gotta love the big guys! Anyway, the Pain Train came out on top, finishing the weekend 7-1, and total 15-1 in UOA competition, tying Pitt for the best record.

We're in North Carolina!

We left the falling snow of Hanover on Friday morning to drive down 15 hours to sunny Greenville, NC to compete in UOA Natties!

Check out the scoreboard: http://ultimateobserversassociation.com/Nationals.html

Quick summary before we go do our homework/watch Harry Potter 7:

-We went 3-1 today, beating Brandeis, JMU, Tennessee. Losing our final game to Pitt. 'Twas a windy day.
- Then we had Five Guys/Olive Garden/Panera.
-We have a big day tomorrow. UCONN, Virginia Tech, and UVA with a fourth game against a-team-to-be-determined-later. We're still in the thick of it.

Follow us on twitter for some live updates: http://twitter.com/DMouthPainTrain

Huck a Hunk O' Burning Pumpkin Day 2

After going 2-1 on the first day, the Train was ready for some bracket play. As usual, it was windy; the top of Mt. Washington.

Game 1 - Dartmouth 15 BC 11
We played through some heavy wind this morning to come out with a strong win to advance to quarters.

Game 2 - Dartmouth 11 Cornell 12
Playing on a field that exacerbated the upwind/downwind dynamic because it was one long slope, the Train looked for its second win over Cornell this Fall. After letting the Buds get up 4 breaks in the first half, the Train staged a second-half comeback to reach universe point. Despite forcing 4 turns during the point with our hard man defense, going upwind and uphill on the last point proved to be too much; Wall Street Executives bonuses.


Though two losses on universe sting, the Train learned a lot this weekend, and is going into the final stretch of the Fall with a good idea of what it needs to work on and accomplish before the spring.

Our last fall tourney, UOA Nationals (Nov. 20-21), should be an excellent test of how much we learned this weekend, as well as a great opportunity for some outdoor ultimate before the cold New Hampshire winter forces us indoors.

Greenville NC here we come! Woo Woo!

Huck a Hunk O Burning Pumpkin Day 1

Here are the results from the Train's first day at Brown's fall tourney.

Game 1: Dartmouth 15 Wesleyan 12

Game 2: Dartmouth 15 Brown Y 3

Game 3: Dartmouth 16 UMASS 17

We were up 14-9 and just couldn't close it out. A lesson in humility.

UOA Ivy League Video

Check out some video from this weekend, filmed by Caleb Ladue's 14' brother, Arlin.

http://vimeo.com/16418725

UOA Ivy League Recap

Things we learned this weekend:

1. The MBTA costs money

2. Taking the car pool lane on I-93 southbound makes you late to your first game

3. Callahans are awesome

4. Our 14's (freshmen) rock.

Our second tournament of the year was incredible. Despite the absence of Coach Brook, we went undefeated (8-0) and won a bid to UOA nationals. This was the first non-sectionals tournament that the Pain Train has won since 08' Regionals.

This was a UOA tourney, so the rules were a little different and there were observers counting stalls for us. This was supposed to be an Ivy League tournament, but Cambridge is far, so good non-Ivy (Umass, Brandeis, Tufts) teams were used to round out the pack. Check out the website if you're interested to learn more about the UOA: http://ultimateobserversassociation.com/index.html.

Day 1: Saturday

Game 1: Dartmouth 15 Umass 10

Funny thing about first games that start at 8:30 AM – sometimes not all of your team is there on time. The beloved sprinter van, carrying all of our captains, the disc bag, and all but 8 players arrived at the fields at about 8:27. In addition, one of our players (who shall remain nameless), was late because he got kicked off the bus. Unlike Advanced Transit, apparently you have to pay to ride the buses in Boston. Oddly enough, this worked to our advantage, we kept it loose and made fun of our own navigational incompetence. We went up a couple of breaks and never let go. Nice first win.

Game 2: Dartmouth 15 Columbia 0

Score speaks for itself.

Game 3: Dartmouth 15 Brown 12

As it turns out, this was our closest game of the weekend. It was windy so we threw a lot of zone at them, but as usual Brown's handlers were solid and made us run a lot. We toughed it out to earn the win.

Game 4: Dartmouth 15 Tufts 8

We were all looking forward to this one after last weekend, where Tufts beat us twice. So far, they're the only team to beat us. We were hungry. Tufts just had a tough universe loss against Harvard, and looked tired. Even though it was windy, we decided to go man on them and make them run. After a close first half, we broke away and took our revenge. Team president Alex Taylor 11' took it home for us with a layout catch in the end zone.

Dinner

Anna's Burritos!!! There is no better way to celebrate an undefeated day than with some delicious burritos. Thanks to former captain Alex Kell 10' who let us stay in his house in Needham afterwards.

Day 2: Sunday

Game 5: Dartmouth 14 Yale 11

This was a sloppy game to open Sunday. On a windy day, we had a lot of drops in the end zone, we left at least 4-5 points on the field. Cap went on and the game ended with another Dartmouth victory.

Game 6: Dartmouth 15 Harvard 9

After the sloppy game against Yale, we went up against regional rivals Harvard. Boy, were we pumped for this one. Coming out on D, Robin Meyers 10' Th 11' caught a Callahan off a tipped disc. We got a break the next point as well, and ended up taking half 8-4 on a Lee Farnsworth 12' catch of a well-placed Scott Sottosanti 12' huck. Sophomore Sensations indeed. We didn't let up and took care of business.

Game 7: Dartmouth 15 Brandeis 0

Due to the seeding and design of the tournament we were slated to play Brandeis twice in a row, once to finish off pool play and once again in the championship game. Brandeis has a 10-player squad and they had a number of tight games. The UOA is very strict about playing all games, but since our championship spots were locked up, Brandeis practiced dropping pulls. That was ridiculous.

Naptime:

We had about an hour to burn before warming up, so there was a lot of sideline spooning. We definitely won the cuteness championship.

Game 8 (Finals): Dartmouth 15 Brandeis 11

We rarely play Brandeis, but they looked good on a very windy day, breaking our marks around a little too often. Our offense was looking smooth in the wind, despite a few miscues against the zone. Especially dominant were Spencer “Chuck” Diamond and Dan “Fat Albert” Harris, both 14's. On defense we got a lot of turns, but sometimes had trouble converting them into goals. “Good” Dan Rosengard 13' understood this. On game point, after a spectacular Caleb “Burrito” Ladue 14' pull, Rosengard decided to end the shenanigans and caught a layout Callahan to win the championship game and end the tourney. Boomslam. Ivy league champs baby (check out the pictures below and above to see what we look like)!

UMassacre Update: Day 2

Everyone wants to update the blog regularly, nobody wants fail their midterms.
So it took a week to post this meager summary of the second day. Such is life. Here are the results.
After a delicious breakfast, courtesy of the Diamonds, we headed out to the fields.

1. Dartmouth 13 UMASS B 0

Caleb Ladue 14' got a point block and earned a burrito from Coach Brook. Too bad he only point blocks for burritos.

2. Dartmouth 15 Amherst 10

Solid game from us, we ran our zone a lot. Check out Robin Meyers' 10' Th 11' acrobatics below.

3. Dartmouth 15 UMASS 12 (Semis)

Close, tough game against the hosts. We ran a lot of man d to disrupt their handler motion, with co-captain Chase Raines 11' submitting a notable performance.

4. Dartmouth 12 Tufts 15 (Finals)

Heartbreaking loss to Tufts in the finals. Revenge will come soon.

We were 6-2 on the weekend, with our only losses coming against Tufts, on our first and last games. Great first tournament for the Train, we have a whole lot to be excited about this season.