Posts tagged Carleton
Video Footage
Mar 22nd
Quarterfinals
Quarterfinal Footage from each game! Enjoy!
Colorado Wisconsin Pool Play:
One of the more exciting pool play games, Colorado Wisconsin ended up going down to the wire. Enjoy some early plays and then the last two points towards the end.
Colorado Virginia Cross Over:
Another hotly contested game down to the wire, Colorado would pull away to survive Saturday.
Easterns Semifinal: Carleton v. Florida
Mar 21st
Full-field hucks, big skying grabs, and layout blocks are some of what you might expect in a rematch of last year’s College Championship Final. Team misconduct fouls, player misconduct fouls, and score controversies? Not so much.
From fundamentals to fireworks, this game had it all.
When Carleton plays Florida, everyone knows their match up. Poaches and zones might shake someone off balance for a point or two, but in general, these teams are ready to line up man-to-man across the line and attempt to outplay each other.
As such, the first few points went off without a hitch for either offense. A Cole Sullivan deep grab in traffic was followed Grant Linsdley ripping one down followed by Nathan Sage skying followed by Carleton scoring on another huck. You get the picture.
On serve and up, 4-3, the Gators started to see the benefits of their strong effort to push Linsdley deep rather than allow him to catch CUT’s first pass underneath. Though not uncomfortable with going to their second option, Carleton’s rhythm was thrown off enough for Florida to capitalize, taking the first break and making the score 5-3. Not long after, however, Carleton would break back after a Florida misfire and another Lindsley goal, bringing the score to 7-6, Florida. The teams would trade to half.
At half, something gave me the feeling that the game’s crucial break would come closer to the second half’s beginning than at the end. On that note, Florida’s Travis Catron made perhaps the play of the game when, with the score at 8-8, he saved a floating Florida dump pass twenty yards outside of his own endzone by jumping and extending over CUT’s Christian Foster. Florida would go on to score and on the next point, force a turn, call a time out, and earn the crucial break.
What happened next started a chain of events that made the finish to College Easterns the wildest that I have seen. Knowing that they could bust the game open with another score, Florida stacked its defensive line with experienced starters. The pulled downwind, and after Carleton worked the disc the length of the field, played stingy endzone defense that forced CUT to dump and swing continuously. Finally, Lindsley was unable to bring in a break attempt from Jonah Herscu, and Florida had the disc. After the turn, Cole Sullivan immediately picked the disc up and jacked a full-field flick that Florida brought in just outside of the endzone and the receiver called a time out. Given Florida’s endzone efficiency, things did not look good for Carleton.
Moments later, however, observers Troy Revell and Rob Sayre-McCord assessed Florida its third Team Misconduct Foul because the team’s coach (someone I did not recognize) had come out onto the field during play. Florida’s third TMF, the disc was walked back to the Gator endzone (the reverse brick) and the team was told that it had lost its time out.
Understandably, Florida was not happy, and they let the observers know it. Despite a warning that continuing to talk would result in another TMF, Sullivan voiced his opinion once again and received a Player Misconduct Foul.
On the subsequent play, the disc was dumped to Sullivan and a disputed foul call resulted in a Florida turnover. Two throws later, CUT’s Justin Norden got open with Sullivan in hot pursuit. Fired up by the prior sixty seconds, Sullivan laid out in an attempt to make the block, and after Justin had caught the disc, the two hit the ground. Hard.
While the players did not erupt and the crowd’s reaction was somewhat minimal, it was clear that Sullivan had bid somewhat late for a disc that he did not have much of a shot at touching. He was assessed another PMF, kicking him out of the game and off the premises for the remainder of the half and for the next half that his team would play.
With Sullivan out, Florida could have crumbled. Instead, Alex Hill, who had previously left the game with what is almost surely a broken nose, re-entered, and the Gators kept their cool. While Carleton scored the upwind point to make the score 10-9, the Gators held on for their next two offensive points. Despite fantastic play from captain Alex Evangelides that included multiple skys, a layout block, and a gorgeous downwind huck, CUT seemed frantic.
When the hard cap went on, the game’s final controversy played out: while Carleton players thought the score was 11-11 and Florida thought it to be 11-10 in their favor, the observers had 12-10, Florida. Florida would score the next point to win, but it is unclear whether or not they won 12-11, 13-11, or 13-10. From my own notes, I believe that they won 12-11, but it is possible that I missed something. Either way, it was nice that Florida scored to win so that the rightful team was named the victor either way. Also, it was a reminder that ultimate needs score boards.
Moving forward, I think this may lock up a 1 seed for Florida at Nationals. On Carleton’s side, they seem like the most poised, down-to-business team in the country every time they’re not lined up against the Gators. There is a lot of ultimate to be played until then, but a Florida-Carleton rematch in Boulder would certainly be entertaining.
Quarterfinals: Carleton v. Harvard and Florida v. Wisconsin
Mar 21st
I honestly only had one eye on this game because I was watching Pittsburgh-Colorado more intently. Here’s what I’ve got:
The game went to half on serve, 8-7. During half, George Stubbs told me that he had been playing offense and guarding handlers while playing defense in order to save energy. Harvard’s Devon Williams, the team’s defensive specialist, had been guarding CUT standout Grant Linsdley.
The half started with a CUT hold and a break to make the score 9-8, Carleton, and from there it would trade to 13-11. While normally an offensive player, Linsdley moved over to pull double duty on CUT’s D line in order to mark Stubbs.
Former high school, Chain Lightning, and Junior Worlds teammates, Linsdley and Stubbs are two of the nation’s premier all-around players, and many were excited to see them face off. While there were no real fireworks, the two did not disappoint; Linsdley continued to find himself open on under cuts, while Stubbs was not stopped from getting the disc and making most of Harvard’s big throws. One particularly fun play to watch was the result of very tight defense by Lindsley when Harvard had the disc on the goal line. Needing multiple moves to get open, Stubbs finally broke (somewhat) free, going upline and laying out for the score in traffic.
Another great play was CUT freshman Jonah Herscu’s layout block while guarding the Harvard player at the front of the stack who was coming back for the dump.
As I said, I did not catch all of this game. It finished 15-12, Carleton. From what I could tell, both teams played great offense, and it was CUT’s ability to break before their defensive legs gave out that won the game for them.
In Florida v. Wisconsin, I only watched two points intently. Wisconsin broke first after blocking a Nathan Sage huck to Cole Sullivan, and in the middle part of the second half, Ben Feldman had a gigantic layout block on a Florida huck that managed to catch the wind and float down into the hands of a trailing Gator receiver. 15-12, Florida.
Showcase Games Wrap-up
Mar 19th
Couple late night thoughts…
- Check out @no_look_scoober for a good deal of video from today.
- Colorado is rocking new blue jerseys that I dig. Check out Holly’s pictures to get a glimpse.
Mamabird's new jerseys
- Christian Foster is huge for Carleton.
- Grant Lindsley is hucking the disc for Carleton a whole lot.
- Jack McShane was Colorado’s best player today. He’s big for them because he has steady hands, makes good decisions, and generally just keeps the offense running smoothly. That really showed in the wind.
- Iowa didn’t do a great job of adjusting to the fact that two players (George Stubbs and Adam Fagin) were doing 80% of the damage against them.
- Those two faces are very recognizable for Harvard, but they’ve got a bunch of guys that are either good at finding the endzone and catching their throws or good at being open as their re-sets.
- Harvard looks noticeably better than the team I saw at Warm Up (which I’m sure everyone who was at Stanford already knows), and they don’t even have Andrew Vogt back yet. That’s pretty big…
Stay tuned to Easterns.org, @87til, and @collegeeasterns for more tomorrow!
CUT v Colorado first point
Mar 19th
Check out the first point of Carleton v. Colorado. Colorado received and turned it over, but after CUT did the same, Timmy Beatty found the endzone.
Carleton 15, Colorado 9
Mar 19th
In their third meeting of the 2011 season, Carleton defeated Colorado, 15-9. Put simply, Carleton was much more successful at maintaining its offensive efficiency while Colorado struggled to hang on to the disc at critical times.
Colorado's Austin Killien layout Ds Carleton's Jonah Herscu
Starting the game on defense, Carleton started on a high note when recent returner Ben Sullender laid out to block Colorado’s second throw. While Mamabird would get the disc back and score to go up 1-0, it would be their only lead of the game.
On the next point, the teams would trade turnovers until Carleton got on the board, 1-1. From there, they would go on a three-break defensive run. Colorado continued to run the same side stack pull play that put the disc on the downwind side almost immediately, and while both teams had trouble getting the disc off of the sideline, it was Carleton that made the first visible effort to keep the disc on the upwind part of the field. Also, while Colorado’s defense made Carleton’s offense work very hard for scores, CUT was content to whether the storm with dumps and swings rather than pressing too hard in the wind.
At 4-2 Carleton, Colorado would mount its own run to bring the score to 5-4, but that was as close as they would get. CUT took half 8-6 on a huck from Grant Lindsley to Alex Evangelides, putting an exclamation point on a great start that saw Lindsley using his ability to get open underneath to set up numerous deep shots and Christian Foster scoring multiple goals and applying strong pressure on the Colorado offense.
Out of half, Carleton left little doubt as to how the game would play out. After holding on offense, CUT went on yet another 3-0 run to take the score to 11-6, and at that point it was game over. Foster continued to up his play, contributing to CUT scores as the lead continued to build and Colorado continued to struggle.
Most of Mamabird’s roster looked a bit unstable in the wind, with overthrows and drops coming in bunches. Specifically, Jimmy Mickle’s around break throws were not as reliable as usual and Martin Freeman had trouble hanging onto discs that he usually brings in. Two positive points for Colorado were the play of Jack McShane, he remained steady as both a thrower and receiver, and the fact that the team was able to rotate it a number of its subs once the score looked out of reach. In what is sure to be a long and intense weekend, resting their top players’ legs certainly won’t hurt down the line. Finally, expect Colorado to play a much sharper game tomorrow morning, as most Mamabird players stayed for a while after the game to throw in the wind.
Tournament within a tournament: The North Central at Easterns
Mar 18th
For the past 5 years, either Carleton or Wisconsin has won the Central Region, and each time, that winner has gone on to advance to the last game of the college season. Additionally, both Minnesota and Iowa have spent the last two seasons climbing to national prominence.
While Easterns has teams attending from all around the country, you can bet that each North Central will be sizing each other up in preparation for Regionals before they’re thinking about what may lay ahead in Boulder, Colorado.
Carleton's Patrick Roberts (left) against Wisconsin
Carleton:
With some of the best high school recruitment around as well as a very strong intramural program, Carleton is a national powerhouse. One unique aspect of CUT’s season makeup is its school’s quarter system. Rather than two semesters that correlate well with the USA Ultimate season, Carleton players have a Fall, Winter, and Spring term. Some players have commitments to varsity sports teams during the winter term, requiring them to miss early tournaments, while other students choose to study abroad, not making it back until later in the season.Forced to deal with roster movement up until mid-March, CUT leadership has often stated that it trades early season success for late season depth.
Returning from abroad for CUT is Ben Sullender. Captain Alex Evangelides comments that “Sully will be huge. He brings amazing energy and positivity, as well as being a dynamite player. He was on the field for almost every D point last year”. Also, freshman Jonah Herscu was just able to join the team at the Stanford Invite. The rookie standout also is a member of Carleton’s basketball team during the winter months, and his experience at the handler position (Herscu attended Amherst Regional High School and was a member of 2010′s Junior Worlds team) helped CUT at Stanford.
Wisconsin:
Former Hodag standout Will Lokke, who graduated after Wisconsin’s second consecutive championship in 2008, gave his take on what Easterns meant for his team:
“I know in the years before I was at Wisconsin, Easterns attracted teams from the west as well as having more talent situated on the East Coast. What I took away from our years at Easterns was that it was never as competitive as other big events such as Stanford, Vegas or Centex.
“Pittsburgh seemed to be the largest threat to our success (and possibly Harvard or Dartmouth), but we saw it mostly as a bonding tournament in preparation for the Series. During pool play we would run younger players, try out new plays if there was an opportunity, and work on varying defenses. On Sunday we’d be more down to business, as our main lines would be pretty set at that time during the season.
“There was a memorably close game against James Madison one year, who had a handler/cutter combo* that threw anything they could think of, and somehow seemed to come up with almost everything. I think finals against Pitt that year was more scrappy than our usual games, with a guy on the Pitt sideline angering a few of our players…”
*Editor’s note: While the handler hasn’t been confirmed, it’s safe to assume that the cutter was Jeff Larz or Chris “Scuttle” Barker. Ballers.
Minnesota:
A talented but still unproven squad, Grey Duck is looking forward to Easterns as a Nationals preview. “We are looking forward to Easterns this weekend as it will be highly representative of teams we’ll be seeing at Nationals. We are confident in our ability to beat every team in the nation, but we also recognize that we are somewhat lacking in experience. All teams we’ll be playing are very talented and we will have to play our best game each game in order to win,” says the team’s Matt Marinello.
Grey Duck
While the team has a solid group of upperclassmen, it also boasts a number of strong juniors players. The list includes three freshman that won the Minnesota State tournament, and Josh Klane who represented USA at the World Junior competition. The inexperienced crowd is balanced out by a heavy club presence, as Marinello, Chris Demet, Dan Miesen, Stephan Mance, Dan Hoff, and Greg Arenson all played with Sub Zero during the 2010 season.
Marinello knows that the road to nationals is going to be a tough one, “The Central region is strong. Ourselves, Wisconsin, Carleton, and Iowa can all hang against the best teams, so bids to Nationals will be hard-fought and at least one team that deserves to go won’t. We will be working hard up to Regionals and plan on winning the region. Last year we lost in the Regional final 11-15 in a close game against CUT that we easily could have won. We beat Wisconsin twice that weekend, but they have improved this year and will put up a better fight.”
Iowa:
Finally breaking through to Nationals last year, IHUC was the Central’s fourth team. Known for their huck-happy offense that utilized talented deep receivers like Tyler Glenn and Sean “Shark” Parker, Iowa was able to pull out a 9th place finish at Madison by besting Illinois, Oregon and hometown rival Wisconsin.
Coming into the 2010-11 season, Iowa won the Free State Classic, despite early exits in No Wisconsequences and Missouri Loves Company. Add a finals loss in Mardi Gras to regional rival Minnesota, and at this point IHUC looks like they aren’t going to miss a beat. Iowa, like their regional rivals, will use Easterns to prepare for the impending gauntlet, and they know that a few decisive wins could make life down the road easier because it could mean a fourth bid to Nationals. Be sure to check out Neeley’s post on Gleason’s Army for more information on Iowa. Thanks to Zack Smith for the information on Iowa
Injury Report Update
Mar 18th
The Injury Report will continue to be updated throughout the weekend.
As of Friday afternoon, here’s the injury report.
Out:
- Nick Stuart (Carleton), hamstring
- Hidde Snieder (Colorado), groin
- Miguel Palaviccini (Florida), PhD defense
- Sam Kanner (Cal), achilles
- Robert Goode (Wilmington), shoulder
- Matt Bailey (Georgia), out for Saturday, unsure for Sunday
Questionable:
- Julian Childs-Walker (Carleton), back
- Justin Norden (Carleton), groin
- Josh Wardle (Oregon), hamstring
- Andrew Vogt (Harvard), wrist
- Russ Causley (Wilmington), knee
Banged up, but probable:
- Tyler DeGirolamo (Pittsburgh), shoulder
- Cody Bjorklund (Oregon), ankle
- Dylan Freechild (Oregon), not sure
- Brian Kiernan (Virginia), knee
- Andrew Hagen (Cal), not sure
UltiVillage Easterns MVP Award
Mar 17th
I just got word from Easterns tournament director Greg Vassar that UltiVillage is going to sponsor an Easterns Most Valuable Player Award.
The winner will receive an UltiVillage Elite Team Partnership Ring of Fire jersey (which, if it’s like the team jerseys that they had at Worlds, will be sick) 9 Elite Team partnership discs, and a copy of the Club Championships DVD from 2008, 2009, and 2010.
At the moment, the criteria are up for discussion, but the decision will ultimately be up to me. My plan at the moment is to take as many informal votes from players, coaches, and spectators as possible, combine the aggregate, and name the winner.
As fans, what factors do you think are most important in naming a tournament MVP?
Just for fun, here are a number of players that have been impressive thus far: More >
Did You Know? Pittsburgh at Easterns…
Mar 14th
In 2004, Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur finished fifth at West Plains Sectionals, failing to qualify for Regionals. At that point, Pitt had only one Regionals appearance to its name, a 2003 showing where it failed to win a game.
Fast forward to 2010, and Pittsburgh finishes in the National Semifinals. The time in between has been filled with steady improvement that includes six straight Nationals appearances with increasingly higher placements nearly every year.
But beyond its Nationals qualifications, Pitt’s rise has been marked with signature wins and tournament victories at pre-Series events, none bigger than 2006′s 17-14 victory over perennial Nationals qualifier Harvard in the finals of College Easterns.
Pittsburgh: College Easterns champions in 2006
