This past weekend, the 26th & 27th of September, found 19 intrepid Dartmouth upperclassmen braving Ithaca and a 6 hour drive to play at the Cornell X/Y tourney. Since it was an X/Y tourney, there were no full A-team rosters at the tournament--instead, teams were generally a mix of veterans and rookies, and those in between. These tournaments give teams a chance to see their underclassmen in action on the field, while giving those underclassmen experience playing higher-level ultimate. Win-win!
As for us, the Pain Train brought a team of mostly sophomores (2012s) and juniors ('11s), and they did not let us down! Despite having only a few handlers with us, we were able to put together a bunch of solid performances that speak well for the future.
SATURDAY: (Sunny, some wind)
We started off our tournament Saturday morning with a game against Cornell X (Cornell fielded an X and Y team, as well as their B team). A good game with several flashes of brilliance from our young guys, but the Buds solid play and a couple extra errors on our part meant that we were always a little behind on the scoreboard.
Dartmouth-X 10, Cornell-X 13.
The wind picked up a bit for our second game, this one against UConn X (UConn brought an X and Y team), so we decided to try out our zone defense, which we have yet to practice this year (due to just starting classes last week). Despite that, our young 'uns stepped up and we were able to cause lots of turnovers, many of which we eventually converted into scores of our own. This game was also good experience for us in dealing with wind on offense, and despite the fact that we won 13-4, this game took almost the full 2 hours.
Dartmouth-X 13, UConn-X 4.
The third game of the day faced us off against Williams X (the only team Williams sent to the tournament). Nothing seemed to go right for us in this game, as WUFO jumped out to an early 5-1 lead and we were never really able to recover. Many of our problems in this game came from simple execution errors, dropping passes or throwing it away, and Williams didn't give us enough second chances to recover our confidence. They were ready for our zone as well, and their extra practice time so far this fall (we had practiced twice, total, before this tourney) showed as they ran away with the win.
Dartmouth-X 3, Williams-X 13.
Game 4, and the last game of Saturday, matched us up against UConn Y, who gave us many more problems than UConn X did. The wind was again strong in this game, but UConn Y's handlers were ready for our zone and they were able to score on it consistently. On offense, we had a mixed bag--some points were like works of art, where we were able to move the disc beautifully and score quickly; others were sloppy and featured several drops and off-target throws, usually leading to a UConn score. In the end, we didn't have enough of the good points and UConn pulled away.
Dartmouth-X 8, UConn-Y 13.
SATURDAY NIGHT: (Dark, rainy)
Everyone was tired and not interested in getting rained on, so we stayed cozy in a house the Cornell women's team was kind enough to let us use (they were at a tournament in Buffalo). Thanks Cornell women's ultimate!
SUNDAY: (Overcast, rainy)
Sunday got off to a delicious start with breakfast bagels at a place which is nearly identical to Hanover's own Bagel Basement, except this place (College Street Bagels, perhaps?) was not in a basement. Our first game was against Brown X (the only team Brown brought) and we came out playing very solid ultimate across the board. In addition to some big plays by the upperclassmen, including several bids by co-captain Alex Kell '10, a slew of '11s and '12s stepped up for us in this game. Among them, Garrett Simpson '11 played well all-around and had a tremendous layout D in the endzone, and Scott Sottosanti '12 was a rock-solid handler for us in a close game where each possession mattered.
Dartmouth-X 13, Brown-X 9.
After the Brown game the rain started to fall, and we found ourselves playing against Cornell's B-team. Our zone D had holes that need patching (practice!) but our man-to-man D was stifling and despite some miscues and wet-disc-related mistakes, we were able to punch it into the endzone on most points. We displayed definite improvement through the course of the game--it was a great game for showing what we can do, what we need to work on, and for getting our players a bit more comfortable with a wet disc.
Dartmouth-X 13, Cornell-B 3.
The rain continued through the last game game of the day, this one against Cornell Y. The fields at this point were a torn up mess of mud and wet grass, which made sharp cutting more difficult. Our lack of handlers became a more serious handicap in the rain also, as we had trouble connecting on deep shots. This allowed Cornell to really pressure our in-cuts and we struggled to drive down the field on offense.
Dartmouth-X 4, Cornell-Y 11.
With our last game of the weekend over, we changed into dry clothes, piled back into cars and headed towards Hanover. A big thanks to Cornell for hosting and running the tournament--it went smoothly and was a lot of fun and good experience for the team.
