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 3rd 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.
